Fossils Teaching San Pedro Youth

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Bayne Westrick-Snapp pointing to dolphin vertebrae in a fossil from San Pedro High School. Photo by Alejandro Barlow
How John Olguin’s Fossil Finds Continue to Inspire

By Alejandro Barlow, Editorial Intern

Today’s youth are learning about San Pedro’s history at museums and in the field. In 1971, a complete gray whale skeleton was unearthed near the intersection of Gaffey Street and Westmont Drive, near where the Home Depot is today. At the time, Vincent Thomas advocated to keep San Pedro’s history in San Pedro and for the skeleton to be put on display in the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, as noted by contemporary newspapers. Fossils found underneath San Pedro High School in 2023 are displayed at CMA today. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County taught summer campers how to sort out fossils using the fossils from San Pedro High School, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

In 1971, Los Angeles Harbor College students, staff and CMA staff excavated the gray whale fossil while teaching children who gathered near the excavation site about the fossil and the area they lived in. Today, CMA is a big advocate for the History of San Pedro to stay here and be free to the public. The Gray Whale fossil and some of the SPHS fossils currently reside in the National History Museum.

John M. Olguin graduated from San Pedro High School in 1941, and was the first champion of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. He found and presented fossils for the public to enjoy and interact with at the Cabrillo bathhouse before the aquarium was built. Olguin’s love for sharing the history of San Pedro and fossils found locally is still true for the staff at CMA with new fossils found.

Most of California was underwater at one point in history; and marine fossils can be found inland. Olguin shared collections of shells of new marine life and fossilized marine life at the Cabrillo bathhouse. Fossilized shells are once again emerging to teach us more about the way things were from local experts and paleontologists.

In 2023, San Pedro High School broke ground to renovate buildings and build a new quad. Because fossils were found in the area on two separate occasions prior, the Los Angeles Unified School District hired a company to survey the unearthed land for any signs of fossils.

Paleontologist Wayne Bischoff, the director of cultural resources at Envicom Corp., along with a team from the Natural History Museum, joined the dig and determined the site to be the largest marine bonebed from the Miocene period ever found in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Bischoff and the head of the construction project hosed off the mud and dirt from excavated boulders, revealing the vertebrae of a baleen whale and other fossils. This was the highlight of the first day on site.

Bischoff notified the Natural History Museum to take a look at the fossils. One employee said the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium would most likely be happy to add local finds to their collection. Bischoff then reached out to the Cabrillo Aquarium for assistance.

Bischoff invited Bayne Westrick-Snapp, a full-time aquarium educator at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium who recently received his master’s in geochemistry from California State University Fullerton.

“I went there at 7 a.m., saw the site, all the fossils, they’re all kind of in different piles under the bleachers and Wayne was [excitedly] like, check this one out,” Westrick-Snapp said. “We just kept seeing all these cool things and he’s like, which ones do you want? He tagged them with spray paint and a few months later, they were here.”

Bischoff shared that the fossil bed revealed species previously not recorded in Southern California, which have been identified. The end dates for the sabretooth salmon and an extinct dolphin species’ have been changed due to the site findings.

Diatomaceous earth is a chalky silica-based substance most commonly used as a supplement or a natural pesticide commonly found around marine fossils. The diatomaceous earth layer surrounding the fossils was dated to be 8.7 million years old; this puts the species in the Miocene period, Bischoff’s report notes. Knowing the era and period allow the fossils to be more accurately dated and gives the researchers key species to look out for in the fossil bed. Westrick-Snapp said the diatomaceous earth is very dusty and tends to erode rather quickly when left in the elements. He said the “bench size” fossils in the aquarium garden have eroded slightly from the rain and wind revealing some new fossils. He said more are sure to be revealed with time.

During the Miocene era, all of San Pedro was underwater and a part of the shallow ocean coast. Westrick-Snapp said for fossils to form, environmental conditions have to be almost perfect. Bischoff’s report shows that the fossils “appeared to be flowing down from the west to the east,” and most of the rock was deposited in dozens of individual layers. The report showed that currents created a groove or ravine, which allowed for the perfect area for fossils to slowly build up year after year.

The fossils were taken to multiple locations to be further studied and shared with the public. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has fossils for further analysis and curation, LAUSD holds fossils for future display, Cal State University Channel Islands holds large fossil blocks in open space storage and Cabrillo Marine Aquarium has fossils for educational use.

The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium has a fossil bed fragment with a prominent dolphin vertebra showcased in the exploration center of the aquarium. Westrick-Snapp and the other CMA staff encourage guests to touch and take a closer look at this and other fossils on display.

“We want our specimens to be hands-on and experienced,” Westrick-Snapp said. “Standing in the exploration center, you hear more often than not, ‘Wait, that says please touch. Am I reading that correctly?’ Like. Yeah, yeah, definitely touch.”

Cabrillo Marine Aquarium wants to teach visitors about the marine life local to San Pedro and Southern California. They offer visitors the ability to use all five senses in their exploration center and find things out for themselves with a knowledgeable staff member close by.

Westrick-Snapp shared that some of the fossils on display came locally, similar to the ones found under San Pedro High School. He said some came from the dirt hill right behind the aquarium and some came from the cliffside along the ocean. Any time they come across fossils, they are excited to share that part of history with the rest of San Pedro.

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Fossilized whale brain cast close up. Photo by Alejandro Barlow.

“The longest time, that was just the doorstop,” Westrick-Snapp said, referring to the fossil of a whale brain on display. “And someone was like, ‘Do you know what this is?’ It was another rock that we had and then somebody that was in the fossils was like, I think you guys should probably take care of this one.”

The fossilized whale brain is rare to have on display, Westrick-Snapp said there are only about one or two others in the world on display that he knows of. He says the whale brain casing will be closed to the public while renovations occur.

In the early 1970s, John Olguin, John Heyning and Cabrillo Marine staff assembled and hung the bones of a baby gray whale in a natural state. CMA staff agree that this was the first time a whale skeleton was displayed in a natural state, similar to how they look in the wild; all other whale skeletons at the time were displayed completely flat prior to this display.

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CMA whale skeleton displayed in its natural state. Photo by Alejandro Barlow.

The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium is currently undergoing renovations on its aquarium side. The aquarium is renovating the animals’ life support systems to provide a safer and more efficient environment for the animals and staff. The exploration center will remain open during the renovation and will have more bones and fossils in the courtyard with more staff to showcase those items.

“The hope is to … reopen fall next year,” Westrick-Snapp said.

Despite the renovations, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium hosts special events throughout the year, such as the grunion run, and exhibits on endangered animals like the Leatherback sea turtle. The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium also hosted a special event on Oct. 19 called “Sea Scare.” Westrick-Snapp said he enjoys the Skull Alley at the sea scare event because they showcase the Leatherback Sea Turtle skull, along with other skulls they make look spooky for the children.

 

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