Currently Reading
On February 18, 2009, the George C. Page Museum announced the discovery of 16 new fossil deposits under a parking lot owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that is adjacent to the La Brae Tar Pits. The most exciting animal in these new deposits is Zed, a large male Columbian Mammoth.
Several Columbian Mammoths that died in the La Brae Tar pits have been found since the dig began. Zed is the latest Columbian Mammoth from La Brae. We will never know exactly what drew Zed into the tar pits and an agonizing death between 38,000 and 42,000 years ago. He appears to have been washed away by a flood very soon afterwards, then was quickly covered by sediments and sand which kept predators such as wolves and sabre tooth cats from eating the carcass, scattering the bones and making off with body parts.
Zedâ??s skeleton is 80% complete and is missing only a hind leg and vertebrae. His tusks, which are enlarged incisor teeth, are intact and 10â?² long. Zed was 47 to 49 years old when he died, had previously broken three ribs and suffered from arthritis.
