With the recent opening of DInosaur Hall at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, L.A. as Subject's latest post to KCET's SoCal Focus blog explores the prehistory of Southern California and the influence of dinosaurs on the region's popular culture:
Last Saturday, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opened its new Dinosaur Hall, a permanent exhibition featuring hundreds of dinosaur fossils and 20 complete mounts of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic creatures. The new display marks an important milestone in a seven-year, $135 million transformation of the museum, and it also brings new attention to the prehistory of Southern California.
In 1901, Union Oil geologist William Orcutt was surveying an area then known as Hancock Ranch when he discovered fossilized bones in pools of asphalt. The pools--today known as the La Brea Tar Pits--have since proven to be one of the world's richest paleontological sites, yielding more than 1 million fossils since excavation began in 1906.
Keep reading the full post on the KCET website.