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Join Telegram ChannelYear after year, students have walked the halls of San Pedro High School in Los Angeles.
What seemed like an ordinary renovation turned out to be an extraordinary discovery when a treasure trove of ancient fossils was discovered.
There are millions of fossils that make up those excavated since the first ones were discovered in early 2023.
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“San Pedro High School was originally a complex of buildings constructed in 1936 around a central courtyard. The courtyard had not been significantly impacted since the school was built, but a number of major infrastructure improvements were planned as part of a construction project scheduled for 2021,” Dr. Wayne Bischoff, Envicom Corporation’s director of cultural resources, told Fox News Digital via email.
“During yard work in early 2023, I discovered a large number of late Miocene (8.7 million years ago) fossil bones embedded in limestone blocks that were being removed. Envicom worked with LAUSD and Pinner Construction the following year to record and recover fossil blocks while trenching work continued.”
Dr. Wayne Bischoff led the discovery of millions of fossils at a California high school. (Dr. Wayne Bischoff, Envicom Corp)
Bischoff said the discovery “is one of the largest fossil bone deposits ever discovered in California.”
Many fascinating fossils have been excavated from the Los Angeles site.
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A number of fossils belong to species that no longer exist today and that lived at a time when the Palos Verdes Peninsula was underwater.
“The most interesting finds were a number of juvenile megalodon shark teeth – the largest shark ever to exist – saber-toothed salmon jaw bones, sea turtle bones, baleen whale vertebrae, seabird bones, numerous dolphin bones, including the back of a dolphin skull and dolphin ear bones, and fossilized dolphin coprolites (feces), which contain dozens of small fish bones,” Bischoff said.
Many shark teeth have been discovered during excavations, including those of the megalodon, the largest shark that ever existed. (Dr. Wayne Bischoff, Envicom Corp)
Many of the fish species discovered have never been recorded in Southern California, Bischoff added.
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The discovery of these fossils not only intrigued scientists: it also provided a unique hands-on learning opportunity for students.
“The students were not allowed access to the active construction site, but they helped us in the lab sort and identify fossils and shells in our collection,” Bischoff told Fox News Digital.
This discovery will be of great educational value for students, experts say. (Dr. Wayne Bischoff, Envicom Corp)
“Students will play a larger role in the future as we enter a new phase of discovery, which will involve creating educational exhibits, murals and displaying some of the fossils recovered,” Bischoff continued.
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Currently, the discovered fossils are preserved at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
There are also smaller collections at LAUSD and the Cabrillo Aquarium, Bischoff said, with large quantities of fossil blocks currently at California State University Channel Islands.