The public will once again get an up-close view of scientists uncovering the bones of saber-toothed cats, mastodons and mammoths in the heart of Los Angeles.

Officials at the La Brea Tar Pits are reopening a shuttered exhibition hall and reactivating an excavation site, allowing visitors to look on as workers recover prehistoric fossils from naturally occurring asphalt in what is called Pit 91.

Digging was halted there in 2007 so scientists could focus on another project.

The chasm has already yielded more than a million fossils that have shed light on prehistoric Los Angeles and how local plants and animals responded to climate change.

In late June, the museum will resume tours of the Observation Pit, where the bones of horses, sloths and camels are trapped in natural asphalt.