Los Angeles's La Brea Tar Pits and Hancock Park PDF Download

Author: Cathy McNassor
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738589152
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Author: Charles M. Martin
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1447492846
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 111

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MONSTERS OF OLD LOS ANGELES- The Prehistoric Animals of the La Brat Tar Pits BY CHARLES ML MARTIN. Illustrated by Herb Raybum. Contents include: Acknowledgments 7 Foreword 9 1. The Sage of the Ages 13 2. Eat to Live 20 3. Primordial Supremacy 29 4. The Stampede 38 5. A New Home 45 6. Life at La Brea 52 7. Ricky Arrives 58 8. Ricky and Racky 67 9. The Rains Come 74 10. The Miracle of Life 81 11. The Greatest Tragedy 88 12. Six-Ton Mother Love 95 13. Thanksgiving Day at La Brea 103 14. The Land of Plenty 110 15. Go West, Young Man 117 Addenda The La Brea Excavations 125

Author: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Publisher: Timber Press
ISBN: 1604698993
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Los Angeles may have a reputation as a concrete jungle, but in reality, it is incredibly biodiverse, teaming with an amazing array of animals and plants. You just need to know where to find them. Wild LA—published in conjunction with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County—is the guidebook residents and visitors have been waiting for. Equal parts natural history, field guide, and trip planner, this fun-filled book has something for everyone. First, you’ll learn how past events shaped the city. Next, profiles of 101 key species highlight the region’s hidden gems, from sea turtles to rare plants to Hollywood's famous mountain lion, P-22. Also included are day trips that detail where natural wonders can be experienced on hiking trails, in public parks, and in your own backyard.

Author: John M. Harris
Publisher: Unknown Publisher
ISBN: 9780295963051
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 87

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Author: Cathy McNassor
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 9780738576114
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Ever since the first popular article on the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits was published in Sunset magazine in 1908, this amazing Ice Age fossil site has captivated the imaginations of countless people from all over the world. This "death trap of the ages" and its population of saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, and other extinct animals, now displayed in the stunning George C. Page Museum, continues to be one of the most popular tourist attractions in Los Angeles. George Allan Hancock donated the 26-acre site to the County of Los Angeles in 1924 to preserve this scientific treasure trove for research and the enjoyment of future generations.

Author: Charles River Editors
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781675937914
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 46

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*Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading Even at a distance, the acrid stench of asphalt and sulfur singes the hairs of people's nostrils, and when the blustering winds subside, the potent miasma lingers in the air. To the untrained eye, the La Brea Tar Pits seem to be nothing more than simply pools of thick, viscous black sludge, its obsidian-like surface bestrewn with an assortment of autumn leaves and dirt. Gooey methane bubbles spurt up periodically, shattering the glassy veneer of the grease-black lakes, and the shiny bubbles swell to varying sizes and wiggle from side to side before popping, the sticky collapse almost reminiscent of cracking open a chocolate molten lava cake. This black sludge might seem rather unremarkable after a few moments, as it appears to just sit there in its idle state, but in fact, the seemingly innocuous bubbles are symptomatic of the treacly dark substance lurking on the bottom of the pit. The pit's contents have spelled the doom for a countless number of creatures both large and small, from legions of insects to mighty mastodons, mammoths, and snarling saber-toothed cats from the Pleistocene Era. Of course, this is what makes the area a natural landmark in the first place, and today the La Brea Tar Pits are considered by many scientists to be among the greatest finds in modern history. Technically, these lustrous lakes of ink-black, while branded "tar," are in actuality pools of asphalt seeps that have remained in place for several millennia, gushing forth from a natural subterranean petroleum spring underneath the city of Los Angeles known as the "Salt Lake Oil Field." Needless to say, the tar pits are a far cry from the glittering, crystalline ponds cooled by the shade of surrounding palm trees found throughout the City of Angels. Indeed, the pungent reek of asphalt, pulsing methane bubbles, and their hauntingly black surfaces, making it impossible to gauge the true depth of the asphalt abysses, should have seemingly served as clear deterrents to the animals that roamed the vicinity prior to their entrapment. Instead, judging by the treasure trove of bones and remnants that have been uncovered within the pits, the sludge seemed to have figuratively emitted a siren song that no animal, regardless of stature or physical power, could resist. The disturbing and fascinating implications of the silent death traps, situated in what is now 5801 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, only further heightens their mystery. Evidence shows that the slow, torturous deaths of many of the creatures who became permanently ensnared in the asphalt quicksand were worsened by passing predators who essentially stumbled upon supper served on a sticky platter. Unfortunate, or rather, clumsy predators sometimes slipped, struggled, and were ultimately swallowed up by the tar pit themselves, creating a macabre, yet natural cycle of death and despair. Unsurprisingly, the La Brea Tar Pits have also become a wellspring of supernatural legends. According to one such legend, the disembodied, bone-chilling shrieks of a desperate woman, supposedly the La Brea Woman, victim of Los Angeles' oldest cold murder case, can still be heard in the dead of the night. More curious yet, these liquid time capsules are swaddled in another layer of mystique, its fossils not only solving mysterious riddles of a bygone age, but also offering up even more questions that are begging to be answered. The La Brea Tar Pits: The History and Legacy of One of the World's Most Famous Fossil Sites looks at the geological origins of the area and analyzes the fossil finds from the tar. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the tar pits like never before.

Author: Gretchen Sibley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : La Brea (Calif.)
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Describes life as it was 40,000 years ago around the La Brea asphalt pits, where prehistoric animals met their deaths in the tar pits. Briefly visits life in the same area at several points in the modern era, from Indians at the time of Columbus to twentieth century excavation of the pits near Los Angeles.

Author: Walter Alvarez
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691169667
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Sixty-five million years ago, a comet or asteroid larger than Mount Everest slammed into the Earth, inducing an explosion equivalent to the detonation of a hundred million hydrogen bombs. Vaporized detritus blasted through the atmosphere upon impact, falling back to Earth around the globe. Disastrous environmental consequences ensued: a giant tsunami, continent-scale wildfires, darkness, and cold, followed by sweltering greenhouse heat. When conditions returned to normal, half the plant and animal genera on Earth had perished. This horrific chain of events is now widely accepted as the solution to a great scientific mystery: what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? Walter Alvarez, one of the Berkeley scientists who discovered evidence of the impact, tells the story behind the development of the initially controversial theory. It is a saga of high adventure in remote locations, of arduous data collection and intellectual struggle, of long periods of frustration ended by sudden breakthroughs, of friendships made and lost, and of the exhilaration of discovery that forever altered our understanding of Earth's geological history.

Author: Jane Gilman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578664279
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Author: Ryan Gierach
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 0738528501
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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West Hollywood, which began as Sherman, a rail yard town, played an integral role in creating the "Hollywood" film industry while it grew up alongside the fashionable Beverly Hills to house the service industries needed by these wealthy neighbors. During Prohibition, the still unincorporated area was the site of the entertainment industry's watering holes and gambling parlors, and nicknames such as the "Sinful Drag," "The Adult Playground," and "Hollywood's Soul" were bestowed upon West Hollywood's world-famous Sunset Strip, where today's visitors can still dance in the footsteps of legends like Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. As time marched on, the predominantly renter, Jewish, gay, and senior citizen residents of the progressive-minded area determined to step out of the shadows of nearby communities and create a city of their own, an effort that caused some controversy but resulted in the incorporation of West Hollywood in 1984. Since incorporation West Hollywood has been a beacon of hope, drawing refugees from Russia and around the world to its tolerant streets.