Ice Age Bison Fossil Discovered in North San Diego County

A fossilized Ice Age bison was recently unearthed from a construction site near Pala Mesa in north San Diego County. The remains were discovered by construction workers who are working on the State Route 76 East highway project.

According to California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) spokeswoman Cathryne Bruce-Johnson, this is the first time that the remains of a bison from the Ice Age have been unearthed from southern California. The discovery put a halt to the construction work, and the fossil remains have been kept on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. The fossil was unveiled in a public ceremony Monday at Balboa Park. Paleontologists at the museum are working to clean the sediments.

Experts state that the fossil is roughly 200,000 years old.

Reports according to The San Diego Union Tribune state that under the California law known as the Environmental Quality Act, developers are required to collect all fossil specimens before completing any construction work.

Most often, scientists are hired by the state agency to carefully watch over the construction sites for crucial geologic or anthropological finds.

"We don't have the upper part of the back -- we don't have the shoulders, we don't have the neck, we have the head, but not the lower jaws, we don't have the legs," Museum Curator of Paleontology Tom Demere was quoted as saying in CBS 8. "It suggests that this animal was scavenged."

He continues to say that the bones are mainly from the back end of the bison, since the bones are from the lower part of the back and hips.

Prior to this, in February 2009, a construction crew in downtown's East Village came across the tusk and skull of a mammoth that was estimated to be some 500,000 years old.