Year after year, students have walked the halls of San Pedro High School in Los Angeles.
What seemed like a normal renovation turned out to be an extraordinary discovery when a treasure trove of ancient fossils was uncovered.
Millions of fossils have been excavated since the first ones were found in early 2023.
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“San Pedro High School originally consisted of 1936 campus buildings surrounding a central courtyard. The courtyard had not seen much impact since the school was built, but had a number of major utilities planned as part of a 2021 construction project,” Dr. Wayne Bischoff, director of cultural resources for Envicom Corporation, told Fox News Digital via email.
“During yard work in early 2023, I discovered a large number of fossil bones from the late Miocene period (8.7 million years ago) that were embedded in limestone blocks that were being removed. Envicom worked with LAUSD and Pinner Construction the following year logging and recovering fossil blocks as excavation 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 sites ever found in California.”
Many fascinating fossils were excavated at the Los Angeles site.
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Several of the fossils belong to species that no longer exist today and that lived during a time when the Palos Verdes Peninsula was underwater.
“The discoveries that have garnered the most interest have been a series of juvenile megalodon shark teeth (the largest shark that ever lived), sabre-toothed 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 tiny fish bones,” Bischoff said.
During the excavations, many shark teeth were found, including those of the megalodon, the largest shark that ever existed. (Dr. Wayne Bischoff, Envicom Corp.)
Many of the fish species found had never been recorded in Southern California, Bischoff added.
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The discovery of these fossils has not only been intriguing for scientists: it has also provided a unique hands-on learning opportunity for students.
“Students have not been allowed on the active construction site, but they have been helping us in the lab sorting and identifying fossils and shells from our collection,” Bischoff told Fox News Digital.
The discovery will have 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 recovered fossils,” Bischoff continued.
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The fossils found are currently housed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
There are also smaller collections at LAUSD and the Cabrillo Aquarium, Bischoff said, with large numbers of fossil blocks currently at California State University's Channel Islands.
