Paleontologists on Route of Toll Road Discover Marine Life That Goes Back a Long Way

Crouched in the cool shade of the cliff, the young woman gently used her hammer to remove the hard dirt from the brown, bone-like objects trapped in the soil.

Pausing for a moment to wipe her perspiring brow with a gloved hand, she looked back at the dolphin-shaped outline of bones that had emerged over several days of work.

Watching the work from outside the dig, Thomas Minch was elated.

“It’s exciting! I’ve been in the business for more than 20 years, and this is one of the most spectacular things we’ve found,” said Minch, whose San Juan Capistrano-based company of paleontologists stumbled across the nearly intact skeleton of the 4-million- to 5-million-year-old whale two weeks ago.

Lisa Telles, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Corridor Agencies that hired Minch’s firm to inspect the future route of the San Joaquin Hills tollway for fossils, said fierce storms earlier this year aided the search by washing away topsoil from the cliffs and leaving fossils exposed.

Minch and his work crews have already located more than 140 probable fossils since they began their search in early April, Telles said. Crews also discovered the jaws and partial skeleton of a 40-foot baleen whale as well as several species of prehistoric shark.

Such discoveries are not unusual in Orange County, said Lawrence G. Barnes, the curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Barnes said some of the more fascinating things found in Orange County include fossils of porpoises with toothless, battering-ram-like jaws and sharks with teeth bigger than a human fist.

All of these animals, Barnes added, once swam beneath the waves of an enormous bay that stretched inland to the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains and as far north as Santa Monica.

“Orange County is one of the richest sources of marine fossils in the western United States,” said Barnes, who has collected marine mammal fossils in Orange County for more than 20 years.

Barnes recalled that a mutual desire to protect the invaluable fossils brought scientists and local residents together more than two decades ago to form the Orange County Natural History Foundation.

In one of the society’s first efforts, members persuaded the Orange County Environmental Management Agency to enact an ordinance in 1972 that requires on-site monitoring teams for developments where construction activity endangers fossil remains and other natural resources.

As a result of that ordinance, Minch and his team were brought in to find and remove fossils from the toll road route before grading begins.

Paleontologist John Leslie said he and his crews will continue to look for other fossils in the cliff and are hopeful that more fossils may be found when the cliff is cut back to widen the toll road.

As he discussed the recent discoveries, Leslie continually scanned the hill for traces of other fossils.

“It was really amazing!” Leslie said excitedly. “When we first started walking along, you couldn’t put your foot down without stepping on a bone.”

Minch said he hopes to put the whale fossil on exhibit at the Orange County Natural History Museum in Laguna Niguel sometime in the next six months.