Ancient Whales Found Below Irvine

In what could be one of Orange County’s richest finds, scientists have discovered a treasure trove of fossilized remains, including evidence of more than 30 ancient marine mammals and fish and a remarkably preserved whale skeleton that could date back more than 12 million years.

Two weeks ago, machinery grading the earth in Bonita Canyon near MacArthur Boulevard exposed what appeared to be ancient bones. An archeology and paleontology team was dispatched to the Irvine Co. property and after a little digging, the remains of one whale appeared. Then another, and another.

“We thought it was going to be a small bone site,” said Richard Krautkramer, one of the crew members. “But we kept going until we found one whale, then another, and another. Then we found sharks, I mean different species of sharks. That’s when we had to bring down a bigger crew.”

While scientists say more research is needed before they can determine how significant the find really is, several notable discoveries have piqued their interest, including:

* Evidence of volcanic ash, which could possibly point to an eruption responsible for killing off the sea creatures.

* An unusual species of baleen whale, perhaps one of the oldest ever discovered.

* The remains of sea cows and a predator believed to be the great white shark’s ancestor.

“What’s also significant,” said archeologist Christopher E. Drover, as he stood over the site, “is that we have sharks, whales, but no fish, birds, turtles, or toothed whales.”

To Drover, that suggests that this part of Orange County was once the sandy bottom of the deep sea. While the dig reveals the remains of a once watery grave, a mystery now looms over the site: What caused so many sea creatures to die at once? And why here?

“Millions of years ago,” Drover said, “Orange County had heavy volcanic activity and that is the cause for the grayish ash soil that lies on this site. We still don’t know what this did to their environment.”

Drover and paleontologist Paul Langenwalter said volcanic ash may have adversely affected the whales as they surfaced to breathe and killed off their food source, such as krill.

Another theory, Drover said, is that nothing as drastic as an eruption took place at all. Perhaps they have just unearthed an environmental niche where the death of these creatures occurred under natural circumstances.

“We can’t say why they died with any certainty,’ Drover said.

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Orange County has been the site of many ancient finds, including whale remains that are much older than those unearthed by Drover’s team. The largest number of sea creatures and land animals ever found in the area occurred in the Eastbluff area of Newport Beach in the 1970s, said Cam Wallis, a volunteer paleontologist with the Orange County Natural History Assn.

For years, developers’ bulldozers have uncovered bones and fossilized remains that have helped scientists interpret how animals and fish have evolved.

“The whole of the coastline all the way down from Washington down to Baja California is a very rich depository of marine fossils,” said John Harris, administrator and chief curator of the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries in Los Angeles. “Much of what we know about the evolution of the whales is due to what we find along this coast.”

The Bonita Canyon site includes a species of a baleen whale that may never have been seen before, and could date as far back as the Miocene period about 15 million years ago. Crews already have encased the whale’s 28-foot skeleton in plaster. With flesh and fins, Langenwalter estimated the whale to be about 35 to 40 feet long.

Drover is director of archeology for The Keith Companies, the engineering firm hired for the development.

The find has delayed work on the Irvine Company’s 500-acre residential project in Bonita Canyon called Harbor View North. It will likely take a few more weeks before all the fossils are unearthed, Drover said.

The whale skeleton will be taken to a laboratory in Orange County for further study, he said.

“It’s anatomically all intact,” Drover proudly said. “And you can see the ribs, jaws, even the inner ear bones. We estimate the whale to be about 12 to 14 million years old.”

Irvine Mayor Christina L. Shea said she hopes the whales and other skeletons can eventually be placed on public display in Irvine.

“I think it’s very unique for the community at large, not only for Irvine but to Orange County,” Shea said. She added that schoolchildren and adults would gain an understanding of the county’s history if the whales were eventually displayed.

At the site, crews used brooms to carefully sweep away soil covering the fossils. Surrounding each find were wooden stakes outlining each creature’s skeleton.

As of Friday, 36 shark teeth had been found, the crew said, but it’s been difficult finding other traces of the predators.

“We have found shark vertebrae nearly 5 inches around,” Langenwalter said. “That would put this shark in the 30-feet length, definitely in the upper reaches of size for sharks.”

In addition, they have found three to four species of whales, including a whale with a bottle-nosed face.