Camels in LA

NOTE: This post is for Friday, September 24

This article can be found at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/22/BAO21FH47O.DTL&type=science

    An interesting story here on a fruitful fossil find in Southern California is grabbing for two reasons: 1) they were found in an “arid canyon southeast of Los Angeles,” a place that was apparently “lush” a little over a million years ago and conducive to flourishing populations of life; and 2) the fossils found belong to such rare and interesting prehistoric animals as “the ancestor of the saber-tooth tiger, ground sloths the size of a modern-day grizzly bear, [and] two types of camels,” as well as possibly “new species of deer, horse, and llama.”     
     All the above information is found in the story’s lead, very much encouraging the reader to continue (if he/she is into the nature of prehistoric times). One thing the author does is split the rest of the story following the lead into different sections that highlight each of the main reasons why this is a special story. The first section is titled “Older than La Brea,” comparing this find to another famous fossil find in La Brea Tar Pits in LA—the newfound fossils are about one million years older than La Brea ones and help clear up our view of prehistoric Southern California life. The next section is titled “From lush to arid,” describing how the San Timoteo Canyon is actually part of an “ancient river valley” that used to be quite flourishing. And the final section is called “New species.”
    The sections work well, but the author seems to have abandoned the inverted pyramid strategy, placing what seems like the most interesting section, “New species,” at the end of the article. Either way, the information gets across clearly and concisely—with most answerable questions about the subject answered by the end.