Show year old oid tragedy Is re enacted with fossils at natural history museum A tragedy of years ago or more is re enacted in a group of fossil animals at field museum of natural history in chicago the scene is a reproduction of a part of the famous rancho la brea arca asphaltum beds ot or los angeles mounted skeletons of tour four prehistoric animals a tiger califor nicus a sloth para an early type of horse occident alis and an extinct species of bison bison an are seen as they met their death many centuries ago by becoming mired in a pool of asphaltum the tar like substance had come up through the rock like water in a spring and accumulated at the surface of the ground during the rainy seasons such pools were covered with water which masked the asphaltum mass and they became effective natural death traps that in snared untold numbers of animals which came to drink according to rimer elmer S riggs associate curator of paleontology who planned the group the animals did not become aware of the danger until their feet were mired mire d in the sticky asphaltum and they were unable to extricate them selves the more they struggled the more deeply in snared they became their outcries attracted predatory animals which gathered to feed on the helpless prey and these in turn were themselves caught in the death grip of the asphaltum thus the accumulation of carcasses went on and on the bones finally settling to the bottom of the pools where they were preserved by the asphaltum within historic times also ranch men of the district have found it necessary to be on the alert in order to rescue calves and colts which unwarily wandered into the asphaltum pools to drink says mr riggs bones of the domestic an animals are to be found in certain of the later pools while the older pools contain only those of creatures now extinct remains of about one hundred extinct animals have been found in the tar pools rancho la brea is of importance to science because it is the best bes t example known in which an entire system of land animals has been caught and preserved as fossils in a single deposit mr riggs states |