Project Description

USA Palentology laboratory needed for testing to chemically distinguish the asphalt preserving fossil material at the Rancho La Brea (Los Angeles, California) versus McKittrick (Kern Co., California) tar seep fossil localities. In addition to testing samples of asphalt from each locality, the ultimate goal is to then test fossil samples whose locality is unknown to determine which locality they came from. Some fossils from both sites were mixed together decades ago and we are attempting to identify which sites they come from based on characteristics of the asphalt preserving them.