Icky Sticky

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Today the fifth grade class went to the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. For the last month they’ve been studying bones (go ahead and ask any fifth grader about the names of any of our major bones) and fossils.

Through the San Bernardino County Museum and the John Day fossil Beds in Oregon we were able to have nearly a hundred real-life bones and fossils for the students handle, measure, weigh, compare, and sketch.

All their studies culminated today with the field trip. If you’ve never been to the La Brea Tar Pits it’s an amazing place. It contains one of the richest fossils beds in the world with more than a million bones, including the identification of 231 species of vertebrates, 159 kinds of plants, and 234 kinds of invertebrates.

You can stand above one of the active digs and see their actual work. You can see a lake where oil still flows (it’s behind the picture of the students and Mr. Meers). The same flows (eight to twelve gallons a day) that have been entrapping animals for more than 10,00 years.

Inside the museum we saw, amongst other animals, a land sloth, a saber tooth tiger, an American tiger, a mastodon, a mammoth, a camel, a bison, a long wall full of skulls of Dire Wolves (over 400, but they have another 1,200 skulls behind the scenes).

Plus they have a working laboratory that is open for the kids to freely look through the windows and see up-close a half-dozen scientists cleaning the thick oil off of various fossils.

Next the fifth grade will be studying fresh water fish and marine biology.

P.S. If anyone took pictures today of the third grade field trip, we sure would like a copy of them!