Rancho La Brea: status and future

Abstract

Rancho La Brea is unquestionably the most famous fossil deposit in North America, and its fauna occupies a key position in vertebrate paleontology as the basis for the Rancholabrean Land Mammal Age. The 23 acres now known as Hancock Park yielded the bulk of fossil specimens from this locality. A minimum of 518 taxa have been identified to date including 79 algae (all but one of which are diatoms), 72 vascular plants, 9 nonmarine mollusks (13 taxa of marine mollusks were carried to the site by early Indians), 135 arthropods, 27 lower vertebrates, 138 birds, and 58 mammals. A detailed list of the biota, too lengthy for inclusion here, is available from the authors on request.