[HN Gopher] 'Entire ecosystem' of fossils 8.7M years old found u...
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       'Entire ecosystem' of fossils 8.7M years old found under Los
       Angeles high school
        
       Author : cpach
       Score  : 82 points
       Date   : 2024-10-10 12:46 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
        
       | HarHarVeryFunny wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | anonymousiam wrote:
         | (Link to the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.)
         | 
         | https://tarpits.org/experience-tar-pits/museum-exhibitions
        
         | helpfulContrib wrote:
         | 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.
        
         | hodgesrm wrote:
         | 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...
        
           | teachrdan wrote:
           | Fun fact: _la brea_ means  "the tar", so the La Brea Tar Pits
           | literally translates to "the the tar tar pits".
        
             | envp wrote:
             | Another joins the ranks of Chai Tea, Naan Bread, and Lake
             | Michigan :D
        
               | OJFord wrote:
               | To be fair, 'naan bread' is like 'toona fish' or 'feta
               | cheese' which AmE does in English anyway.
        
               | SllX wrote:
               | 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 misikami (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.
        
               | BobaFloutist wrote:
               | 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.
        
           | conradev wrote:
           | Yeah - they put cones around the park where the tar is still
           | peeking through the grass. Watch your step!
        
           | njarboe wrote:
           | 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.
        
         | jrh3 wrote:
         | Tusked salmon at best.
        
       | mtalantikite wrote:
       | So you're telling me Encino Man wasn't fiction
        
         | bloopernova wrote:
         | Fun fact: in the UK, _Encino Man_ was titled _California Man_
        
           | doodlebugging wrote:
           | 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?
        
             | bloopernova wrote:
             | Now _that_ would be a fun found-footage movie.
        
               | IncreasePosts wrote:
               | That's essentially the first trailer for GTA6
        
           | havblue wrote:
           | If I remember the movie, Paulie Shore presented him as
           | "Estonia Man".
        
           | vundercind wrote:
           | 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.
        
         | lenerdenator wrote:
         | That, and it's really not nice to refer to a basement bar
         | filled with old Sunset Strip glam metal musicians as "fossils".
        
           | brcmthrowaway wrote:
           | The Sunset Strip is really a shadow of its former self
           | 
           | LA is dead
        
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       (page generated 2024-10-10 23:01 UTC)