December's Storms Deliver A Deluge Prehistoric Fossils In California
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) -- The December storms that struck the Bay Area and the rest of the state has uncovered fossils on beaches and mountains along the Pacific Coast that date back anywhere from 5,000 to 10 million years.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the heavy rain, wind and runoff eroded coastal bluffs and mountains and exposed the fossils.
A marine biologist found an extremely rare meglodon tooth on a Santa Cruz beach that could be 10 million years old. Meglodons were massive great white shark of its era.
"San Francisco Bay is only 5,000 years old," Tom Hesseldenz, a scientist, told the Chronicle. "During the height of the most recent Ice Age, the coast of the Bay Area was out at the Farallones. What is going on is very complex but incredibly fascinating."
Other finds include the tooth of an extinct animal that was similar to a hippopotamus, and a bison tooth that lived about 5,000 years ago.
Hesseldenz said a blend of volcanic events, sea level fluctuations and geologic uplifting could have led to the discoveries of the fossils.
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