Fossils Including That of Monster Sloth Unearthed at LA Metro Construction Site
By Sarah Maugaotega ••
Fossils continue to be unearthed at the construction sites for the new Metro Purple Line stations.
The future Wilshire/ La Cienega station is the most fossil fertile, with bones being unearthed almost every day, LA Metro Media Relations said.
La Brea Tar Pits and Museum
The bone of an ancient bison, illustrated in this La Brea Tar Pits and Museum image posted by Metro, was found at a Metro construction site in Leimert Park, the transportation agency said on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
Joseph Lemon/Metro
A bone of an ancient bison that once roamed Southern California was found at a Metro construction site in Leimert Park, the transportation agency said on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
NBC Bay Area
The bone of an ancient bison that roamed Southern California some 10,000 years ago was found at a Metro construction site in Leimert Park, the transportation agency said on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
Some of the finds at the site include ancient bones from camels, mammoths, and ground sloths.
Thousands of years ago camels were native to the LA area, and the ancient ground sloths weighed 1,500 to 3,000 pounds.
The subway construction goes underneath Wilshire Boulevard from Koreatown to Beverly Hills. This area is something of a "fossil factory," known around the world for being a rich paleo-zone.
Cogstone workers place an ancient elephant bone in a plaster cast to safely remove it from the Wilshire/La Brea subway station excavation.
LA Metro
The Ice Age camel bone measures approximately 20 inches.
LA Metro
The Ice Age femur bone, most likely from a mastodon or mammoth, measures approximately 36 inches in length.
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The other two stations in Section 1 of the extension project, Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Brea, have also become sites of fossil finds. The skull of an ancient antelope and an arm bone from a sea otter were found at these locations.
When paleontologists discover a fossil during excavation, they can temporarily halt construction until they're able to preserve and remove the findings. The temporary diversion does not impact the ultimate delivery of the project, which is set to open in 2023.
When these bones are found, they are carefully preserved and given either to the La Brea Tar Pits Museum or the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park.
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LA Metro Media Relations Manager Dave Sotero said these finds are rare, so it's exciting when a fossil is discovered.
"Only about one percent of the living creatures that have inhabited the planet ever reach a fossilized state," Sotero said.
Sotero said the biggest surprise has been that "we haven't found more fossils at Wilshire/Fairfax, which is closer to the La Brea Tarpits."
LA Times via Getty Images
David Herskowitz shows the sabertooth tiger skull fossil from the La Brea Tar Pits that will be auctioned at the IM Chait Gallery in Beverly Hills. (Photo by Bryan Chan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Paleontologist /Geologist Kim Scott with Cogstone Resource Management holds some of the fossils unearthed while construction crews continue to dig a 70-foot exploratory shaft in preparation for the future METRO Purple Line subway extension March 7, 2014. The excavation located off Wilshire Blvd., near the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits, has already yielded some long-buried paleontological treasures in an ancient asphaltic sand deposit that was once a shoreline with marine life called the San Pedro formation (Photo by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images).
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A view of the atmosphere at the Titans of the Ice Age Premiere at La Brea Tar Pits and Museum on June 20, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County)
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Paleontologist Kim Scott with Cogstone Resource Management holds a fossilized mussel shell unearthed and recovered while construction crews dig a 70-foot exploratory shaft in preparation for the future METRO Westside subway extension March 7, 2014. The excavation located near the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits on Wilshire Blvd, has already yielded some long-buried paleontological treasures in an ancient asphaltic sand deposit that was once a shoreline with marine life called the San Pedro formation (Photo by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images).
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Water polluted by tar at the La Brea Tar Pits.
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A replica of a woolly mammoth at the La Brea Tar Pits is viewed on April 15, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Millions of tourists flock to the Los Angeles area to visit dozens of top attractions including, the beach, Hollywood, and Beverly Hills. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
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David Herskowitz shows the sabertooth tiger skull fossil from the La Brea Tar Pits that was to be auctioned at the IM Chait Gallery in Beverly Hills. (Photo by Bryan Chan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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A close up of a mammoth skull at the La Brea Tar Pits.
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A general view of the La Brea Tar Pits sign is seen on May 11, 2016 in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)
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Oil still bubbles to the surface in one of tar pits at the Page Museum, La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles August 13, 2013. John Harris, Chief Curator of the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits has reservations about the expansion plans being proposed by next door neighbor, LACMA and is concerned that LACMA's proposed $650-million plan for a new building, along with construction could interfere with the tar pit science (Photo by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Shelley M. Cox, Lab Supervisor, with "Zed's" lower jaw bone complete with teeth. 23 boxes of fossils were boxed from a construction site for a new parking, located next to the Tar Pits. The biggest discovery was a huge, well-preserved, Columbian Mammoth, 80% complete, with both 10 foot long tusks perfectly preserved. The fossils from Project 23 are from the Ice Age, approximately 40,000 to 10,000 years ago and the discovery could potentially double the collection of Ice Age specimens to 3 or 4 million at the La Brea Tar Pits Page Museum. (Photo by Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images)
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Some of the leaders at the the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits have reservations about the expansion plans being proposed by next door neighbor, LACMA August 13, 2013. Chief Curator John Harris Ph.D., is concerned that LACMA's proposed $650-million plan for a new building, along with construction could interfere with the tar pit science (Photo by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Lab Supervisor Shelley Cox uses microscope to examine microfossils found in matrix from Saber tooth cat skull "Giml" at Page Museum in La Brea Tar Pits. Museum that is famous for its mastodon and Saber tooth tiger exhibits, is broadening its focus to include microfossils: beetle wings, twigs, leaves. The tiny remnants are suddenly relevant because of what they can tell us about global climate shifts in prehistoric times and their impacts on entire ecosystems. (Photo by Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Lab Supervisor Shelley Cox categorizes parts of an adult bison, dated 42,000 years ago, while working inside the fossil lab in the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles on July 23, 2014. At left, foreground is a replica of the lower jaw of a full grown Columbian Mammoth. (Photo by Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Construction crews continue to dig an exploratory shaft 70-feet deep in preparation for the future METRO Purple Line subway extension March 7, 2014. The excavation located near the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles, has already yielded some long-buried paleontological treasures in an ancient asphaltic sand deposit that was once a shoreline with marine life called the San Pedro formation. (Photo by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Paleontologist Kim Scott with Cogstone Resource Management holds several ancient sand dollars unearthed and recovered while construction crews dig a 70-foot exploratory shaft in preparation for the future METRO Westside subway extension March 7, 2014. The excavation located near the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits on Wilshire Blvd, has already yielded some long-buried paleontological treasures in an ancient asphaltic sand deposit that was once a shoreline with marine life called the San Pedro formation (Photo by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Skeleton of a Columbian Mammoth in the Teeth Tusks and Tar Pits exhibit. The Charles Knight painting of the La Brea Tar Pools is visible in the background. (Photo by John Weinstein/Field Museum Library/Getty Images)
