APRMI fossil discoveries at the LA County Museum of Art created a storm of interest from the public and scientific communities alike. ArchaeoPaleo Resource Management, Inc, was contracted to monitor excavations for LACMA's 2006 underground parking expansion. While some fossil discoveries were foreseen, crews instead uncovered a staggering amounts of fossil deposits with over one million estimated individual fossil bones, including the La Brea Tar Pits' first near-complete, semi-articulated Columbian mammoth at nicknamed Zed.

 

Proper excavation of these deposits in situ (in place) could have taken paleontologists more than 20 years. APRMI negotiated for the fossil deposits to be delineated, the edges and base exposed, and crated in professional tree-moving boxes. These boxes were then lifted by crane and eventually placed at the La Brea Tar Pits, where they became Project 23.  Ideally, these boxes would contain the exact stratigraphic and positional data available as if they were excavated in place.

 

Project 23 staff are still performing work in these boxes years after their original relocation, and are on track to more than double the fossil collection at the La Brea Tar Pits' Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries.

 

Follow Project 23's ongoing discoveries here, and visit the La Brea Tar Pits to see these and other excavations in action.

Robin's Interview With John Grayson on Overnight America (audio)