BE ADVISED: Due to nearby events on Friday, April 4, parking and traffic around the Natural History Museum will be impacted. Parking for First Fridays is available at the Blue Visitor Parking Structure, located at 39th St and Figueroa St in Exposition Park. Please plan your visit accordingly, and consider using rideshare or public transportation.

Raccoons of Early Los Angeles

A rare fossil raccoon at Project 23

Raccoon on stump

A Modern-Day Mammal in Prehistoric Los Angeles

Try to picture the Pleistocene world, and megafauna like saber-toothed cats, mammoths or giant ground sloths might come to mind, but mammals we see every day (or every night) lived among those extinct giants. Join fossil preparators from La Brea Tar Pits for a journey from discovery to reconstruction of a rare find from Project 23: a fossilized raccoon. They'll take you through the process of preparing this special find and some of the reasons raccoons are so rare at the Tar Pits.