More than 600 houses are set to be built at a site in Carlsbad, California, but in July, the housing project has been stopped due to a surprising find - 200,000-year-old fossils. The construction company stopped the project in order to allow palaeontologists to possibly dig for more rare 200,000-year-old fossils.
Even the Project Superintendent, John Suster, reportedly got excited with the 200,000-year-old fossils and told the scientists, "Take your time, this is kind of cool."
Two months following the rare find in July, several more fossils of animals from the Pleistocene Epoch Age, more commonly known as the Ice Age, were unearthed still. The fossils ages range from 50,000 years old to 200,000 years old. In fact, most were believed to be 20 million years old.
"It's really an exciting project in terms of geology and paleontology," according to the curator of paleontology at the San Diego Natural History Museum, Tom Deméré.
The dam construction site in Silicon Valley in California apparently had more than 500 fossils in it.
Perhaps the most surprising discovery at the construction site in Carlsbad is the 200,000-year-old fossil of a massive bison, which included a skull and partial skeleton. The kind of species identifying the bison remains unknown, but according to scientists, they appear to be from either a giant bison or an antique bison.
In the county of San Diego, 200,000-year-old bison fossil discoveries aren't common. According to The Market Business, the only other bison discovery was several years ago at another construction site, but near Pala.
The 200,000-year-old fossils were taken to the San Diego Museum of Natural History from Carlsbad. They are being examined further and being prepped for proper storage. The bison fossils will be displayed and remain on display at the museum following further analysis, according to Pioneer News.
California is perhaps one of the places in the world where most of the oldest fossils have been unearthed. The mid-19th century gave birth to scientists' interest in local fossils.
Major finds during the recent excavation reportedly include Pleistocene mammal fossils of the La Brea tar pits, with the Pleistocene saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis is the California state fossil.
"We started finding fossils here before construction even started," according to paleontologist Jim Walker, who is working with the construction company on the project. "It was exciting. We were finding scallops, and I said, 'I want to get a whale.' And we did."
The site where the 200,000-year-old fossils were found is located in a new home development site. Since the discovery of the ice age fossils in July, development plans have been modified a little and work had been stopped temporarily in order for scientists to begin their excavation.
The company is now working closely with the palaeontologists, with construction set to continue early next year, according to Nature World Report.
