It was supposed to be a routine renovation.
It ended up discovering living history.
Back in 2023, during an exterior renovation of San Pedro High School in Los Angeles, California, a trove of ancient fossils were uncovered.
Today, millions more have been found at the site of the school.
“The San Pedro High School originally consisted of 1936 campus buildings surrounding a central courtyard. The courtyard had not been impacted much since the school was built, but had a number of important utilities planned as part of a 2021 construction project,” Dr. Wayne Bischoff, director of cultural resources for Envicom Corporation, told Fox News.
“During work in the courtyard in early 2023, I discovered large numbers of fossil bones from the Late Miocene time period (8.7 million years ago) that were embedded in limestone blocks being removed. Envicom worked with LAUSD and Pinner Construction the next year recording and salvaging fossil blocks as the trenching work continued.”
Bischoff said that the discovery “is one of the largest fossil bonebeds ever found in California.”
Many fascinating fossils were excavated from the Los Angeles site, including a large number of the fossils that belong to species that no longer exist today that lived during a time when the Palos Verdes Peninsula was underwater.
“The discoveries capturing the most interest have been a number of juvenile megalodon shark teeth – the largest shark that ever existed – sabretooth salmon jaw bones, sea turtle bones, baleen whale vertebrae, seabird bones, many dolphin bones including the back of a dolphin skull and dolphin ear bones, and fossilized dolphin coprolites (poop), which contain dozens of small fish bones,” Bischoff said.
Students at the high school will play an integral role in showcasing these rare finds, according to the team.
“Students will play a larger role in the future as we enter into a new phase for the discovery, which will involve making educational displays, murals, and showcasing some of the recovered fossils,” Bischoff continued.
Currently, the fossils found are being held at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.