Are the skeletons on display the real bones?
Nearly all of the skeletons on display are real fossils found at the tar pits. They have been mounted using an internal steel and wire armature. Missing bones or parts originally composed of cartilage have been reconstructed with resin or plaster. Only the Shasta ground sloth is 100% plaster, because the bones of this species are rare from Rancho La Brea. In addition, the Columbian mammoth and American mastodon tusks are fiberglass because the original tusks were not completely preserved.
