The famed La Brea Tar Pits that have held mammoth and saber-toothed cat fossils are being reactivated for excavation, while a closed exhibition hall will additionally be reopened to the public.
Visitors will be able to watch scientists uncover bones at the prehistoric site in Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported. Later this month, the George C. Page Museum will reopen the observation pit for free public tours where visitors can see horse and camel bones stuck in a pool of natural asphalt known as Pit 91.
Museum officials hope the expanded resources will make paleontology more accessible to the public and provide more information for current and future issues including the climate change debate.
"These fossils are a wonderful resource for telling us about the climate change in the past," said the museum's chief curator John Harris, as quoted by the AP.
The observation pit, which first opened to visitors in 1952, has been shuttered from the public for nearly 20 years, according to KABC Los Angeles. It will be reopened for tours on June 28.
"It closed about 20 years ago because we decided to focus on excavators, rather than the stuff in the ground," Harris told KABC.
Another reason is because of the fossil trove inside the pit; the museum didn't have the resources to keep the valuable specimens safe.
"On the open market now, the saber tooth cat skull fetches around $250,000. So we can only open this pit up when we have the resources to look after it and make sure the fossils are safe guarded," Harris told KABC.
Researchers have uncovered some five million fossils at the Tar Pits, according to the AP. Nearly a million of the excavated specimens came from Pit 91.
"We dig for buried treasure," full-time excavator Laura Tewksbury told the AP while using a dental pick to uncover a mouse's bone.
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