MEETING NOTES: PAGE MUSEUM TOUR

摘要

The July SCPS meeting at the Page Museum had as its featured speakers two of this year's Los Angeles County Science and Engineering Fair award winners. Following their presentations, we were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the Page Museum. Lab Supervisor Shelly Cox took us to Project 23, the ongoing work on the boxes of fossil-rich matrix found during the excavation for parking at the LA County Art Museum next door; Pit 91, now open again during the summers when the asphalt is soft; the hidden collection of more cleaned and catalogued Pleistocene bones than you can imagine; and the Fishbowl Lab, where fossils are cleaned of their asphalt-laden matrix. The lab volunteers, including our own Ruth Cohen, are currently concentrating on microfossils, tiny bones, teeth, insect parts, and other easy-tooverlook remains that can give us a better picture of the environment during the Pleistocene than just the megafaunal skeletons. The work is exacting and slow, but a look at the findings demonstrates that this is an important addition to the Page Museum's collection.