The La Brea Tar Pits are unveiling virtual reality models of Ice Age animals. (photo courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles)

Fearsome dire wolves and sabertoothed cats no longer prowl around La Brea Tar Pits, but thanks to new research anyone can bring these extinct animals back to life through augmented reality. National History Museum Exhibition Developer Dr. Matt Davis and his colleagues at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and La Brea Tar Pits collaborated with researchers and designers at the University of Southern California to create more than a dozen new, scientifically accurate virtual models of Ice Age animals, published recently in Palaeontologia Electronica.

The team was investigating how AR impacts learning in museums, but soon realized there weren’t any accurate Ice Age animals in the metaverse yet that they could use. So, they took the latest paleontological research and made their own.

The models were built in a block, low poly style so that they could be scientifically accurate, but still simple enough to run on normal cell phones with limited processing power.

“The innovation of this approach is that it allows us to create scientifically accurate artwork for the metaverse without overcommitting to details where we still lack good fossil evidence,” Dr. William Swartout, Chief Technology Officer at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, said.

Swartout coauthored the study. The researchers hope this article will also bring more respect to paleoart, the kind of art that recreates what extinct animals might have looked like.

“Paleoart can be very influential in how the public and even scientists understand fossil life,” said Dr. Emily Lindsey, Assistant Curator at La Brea Tar Pits and senior author of the study.

For more information about the virtual experience visit the La Brea Tar Pits website at tarpits.org.