Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
'Entire ecosystem' of fossils 8.7M years old found under Los Angeles high school (theguardian.com)
90 points by cpach 29 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 23 comments



Apparently "sabre-toothed" salmon is really a misnomer - more like tusked salmon.

https://news.uoregon.edu/saber-no-more-giant-prehistoric-sal...

Another very cool fossil site in LA is the La Brea Tar Pits museum, which still has tar pits on the museum grounds, and has real sabre-tooths (lions) and other critters like mammoths that got trapped in the tar pits.


The coolest and most surprising part is that the tar pits are still there! Apparently the seeps have been there for tens of thousands of years. [0] (Fun LA tourist activity: jump in yourself and contribute to the fossil record.)

I was similarly surprised to find that something similar occurs on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. This came to many people's attention after the Macondo well blowout. [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Brea_Tar_Pits

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09670...


Fun fact: la brea means "the tar", so the La Brea Tar Pits literally translates to "the the tar tar pits".


Another joins the ranks of Chai Tea, Naan Bread, and Lake Michigan :D


The others I knew but Lake Michigan I did not, which prompted me to look it up:

> The name derives from a gallicized variant of the original Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ (mishigami),[c] meaning "large water" or "large lake".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan

TIL. To be fair, there is a whole landmass right next to that mishigami sharing a name we do need to distinguish it from.


It's kind of funny how much the sounds of mishigami feel like they could equally have come from Hebrew or Japanese. Interesting overlap of mouth-feel.


To be fair, 'naan bread' is like 'toona fish' or 'feta cheese' which AmE does in English anyway.


Related fun fact: The actual tar pits, and the art museum adjacent to it, are basically at the intersection of La Brea Blvd. and La Cienega Blvd., which translates to:

A main tourist attraction of LA is at the intersection of Tar Pits Blvd. and Swamp Blvd.


I quite enjoy visiting the La Brea Tar Pits and often do when I'm in LA. The geologist in me really enjoys seeing the natural oil seeps. The area around the museum has large open grassy areas. Often new seeps develop in the grass and you'll see an orange cone placed next to a new spot of oil with bubbles slowly growing and busting with the strong smell of tar/asphalt.


Yeah – they put cones around the park where the tar is still peeking through the grass. Watch your step!


(Link to the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.)

https://tarpits.org/experience-tar-pits/museum-exhibitions


Tusked salmon at best.


Misnomer? I don't agree.

Its definitely "a big pointy tooth dominating the mouth" kind of feature.

Could also have been called a snaggle-tooth salmon, I guess ..

In any case, definitely an interesting fish.


So you're telling me Encino Man wasn't fiction


That, and it's really not nice to refer to a basement bar filled with old Sunset Strip glam metal musicians as "fossils".


The Sunset Strip is really a shadow of its former self

LA is dead


Fun fact: in the UK, Encino Man was titled California Man


What’s extra-goofy is I’m pretty sure Encino barely had more recognition in the rest of the US than it does in the UK, before that movie came out. Like, if not for the film, I expect I’d still not be aware of it. So changing it for the UK for (presumably) reasons of familiarity doesn’t make a ton of sense.

It sounds a lot better, too. Should have kept the name.


So if I have this right then a movie made about kids who find a skunk ape and take him to high school to party with them could be titled Orlando Man here in the states but would end up being titled Florida Man in the UK?


Now that would be a fun found-footage movie.


That's essentially the first trailer for GTA6


If I remember the movie, Paulie Shore presented him as "Estonia Man".


That’d be a hell of a magnet program.




Consider applying for YC's W25 batch! Applications are open till Nov 12.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: