Construction Workers Accidentally Dug up ‘An Entire Ecology of the Ocean’ From 9 Million Years Ago Under a School in LA
A school's renovation project in Los Angeles stunned researchers as it brought to the surface a world hidden for centuries. San Pedro High School commissioned a construction project in 2022, which showcased to them and the world that they had been unknowingly sitting on an entire ecosystem, stated Popular Mechanics.
Soon after the construction project commenced, workers began finding invaluable fossils inside the school's jurisdiction. The fossils were varied, including creatures like saber-tooth salmon, shorebirds, sea turtles, a prehistoric megalodon, and many more. Around 200 species emerged in the following years from the area. Examinations indicated that specimens came from an ocean that possibly existed nine million years ago.
Taya Olson, a student, shared that everyone was surprised because such discoveries typically don't happen in the area. To see something that they had only learnt about in their textbook was an astonishing experience for the entire student body.
The diversity of creatures, which included several extinct marine species, indicated an entire ecosystem underneath the school's campus. "It’s the entire ecosystem from an age that’s gone," Wayne Bischoff, director of cultural resources at Envicom Corporation, shared. "We have all this evidence to help future researchers put together what an entire ecology looked like nine million years ago. That’s really rare." These fossils are currently with researchers from Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Cal State Channel Islands, and San Pedro High School.
Researchers believe these creatures lived when the Palos Verdes Peninsula was still covered by the ocean, according to Interesting Engineering. According to the latest updates, experts are still uncovering new species from the location. The school campus began operating in 1937. Experts spotted two distinct sites from separate timeframes, on the campus, where new buildings were being built. One of them had a bone dating back to the Miocene era, around 8.7 million years ago. The other one contained a 120,000-year-old shell bed from the Pleistocene era.
The buildings have completed construction, but the stories behind these fossils remain somewhat of a mystery. Experts are hopeful that such a huge storehouse of fossils will encourage more focused studies on the history of these regions. Researchers think the reason behind so many remnants being found here lies in an ancient submarine channel. The team thinks that a channel existed here in the past, which brought materials and creatures from shallow waters into deeper waters, like an ocean.
Researchers observed that the remains belonging to the Miocene era were covered in diatomite, a fossilized algae. This implies that the region was once rich in algae. Based on the findings, experts think that the region hosted a complex ecosystem containing algae, whales, fish, dolphins, and other creatures. Experts speculate about the organic remains, that a massive storm took place in the region during the Miocene era, which carried plant and animal debris from a prehistoric island. The debris, thereafter, got encased in the mud present in a submarine canyon. At present, there are no plans to put the findings from the school's jurisdiction on display.
Researchers have attributed the fossils' exceptional preservation to the school's solid original construction, according to San Pedro High School. The construction materials acted as a protective layer on the remains, which prevented them from any damage.