Construction workers dig under high school, find more than 200 ancient species

• A construction project at San Pedro High School in Los Angeles has uncovered fossils of sea creatures about 9 million years old buried beneath the school.

• Scientists believe the area was once completely submerged under water, which explains the abundance of marine fossils.

• Along with beds of shells and millions of fish bones, researchers have discovered a fossil of a prehistoric megalodon.

Most high school students get only education. Excavations Through textbooks and videos. But students at San Pedro High School in Los Angeles got a more up-close and personal experience thanks to the discovery of millions of fossils dating back millions of years beneath the campus.

When a construction project to renovate the school began in 2022, fossils ranging from saber-toothed salmon to shorebirds and sea turtles to prehistoric dinosaurs were found. Megalodon“Things started happening very quickly. I thought, ‘This never happens, especially here,’” student Taya Olson He said Capacitor“This only happens in textbooks.”

The pace of fossil discovery did not slow down. Over the next two years, fossils continued to be discovered, with the number of bones from marine organisms of all kinds increasing to millions. “It represents an entire environment of the world. circumference “Nine million years ago,” said Wayne Bischoff, director of cultural resources at Invicom.

So far, the project has discovered more than 200 species, but it could be years before experts know the true extent of the discovery. “The fact that millions of fossils have been discovered at this site has led to the discovery of a new species. era “It is a focused study that will bring notoriety to this community and this high school,” said Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Located west of Long Beach on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the campus unknowingly sat atop two different fossil hotspots – bone A Miocene bed (about nine million years ago), and a shell bed from the Pleistocene (about 120,000 years old), According to to Los Angeles Times.

“This kind of density of fossils has never been found at a site like this before in California,” Bischoff told the newspaper, adding that the discovery confirms the existing scientific idea that ancient Los Angeles was once Underwater.

The oldest fossils were trapped inside a fossil. Algae Known as diatomite, the concentration of algae points to a nutrient-rich area that may have fed a variety of marine life — including dolphins and whales. The wealth of fossils mixed in with beach material has led to the theory that an entire prehistoric island once washed up on what is now Los Angeles Beach, Bischoff said.

Most of the fossil finds are now in the hands of Researchers—Whether from the school district, the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, the California Channel Islands, or the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

Even Milad Esfahani, a student at San Pedro High School, participated in the research at the Natural History Museum by sorting fossils. Shells“It was like mining gold,” he told TimesHe added that he now hopes to become a marine paleontologist.

Mining fossils can give researchers an extraordinary view into the past. “It’s Ecosystem “From a bygone era” He said english language:“We have all this evidence to help future researchers piece together what the entire ecosystem looked like nine million years ago. That’s really rare.”

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