Following July's powerful California earthquakes, a utility crew on a private road made a remarkable find: a 600-pound stone block encasing a fossil of a large torso that scientists believe probably dates back 15 million years.
The scientists think the July 4 earthquake – magnitude 6.4 – and the July 5 earthquake – magnitude 7.1 – in Kern County dislodged the 4-foot-long block from the Tapo Canyon area, causing it to roll down into the Simi Valley.
Russell Shapiro, professor of paleontology at CSU Chico, believes the fossil could be a small whale, the kind that swam in the Pacific Ocean when it covered the Simi Valley area and coastal Southern California millions of years ago.
But he's not certain because the creature's head hasn't been found.
"I really want to go back and look for it," Shapiro said with a laugh.
Thus, he said, the fossil could be a sea hippo, a species that also lived in the Pacific when the Simi Valley area was underneath it. "We're confident that this rock is of the Miocene age," which ranges from 23 million years ago to 5.3 million years ago, he said.
"We think this particular one is probably about 15 million years old," he said.
Shapiro said he's excited "by how much material is in the large block. It's not just a few random bones...
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