Sperm whale fossils up to 12 million years old unearthed at Irvine landfill (California, USA)

Fossilized teeth from a sperm whale were discovered at the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill in Irvine. The 40-foot whale is believed to have lived 10 million to 12 million years ago. Kevin Chang

Wednesday, June 22^nd, 2016 (Matt Morrison). More than 1,200 feet up on a hillside in Irvine probably isn’t the first place you’d expect to find the final resting place of a 40-foot sperm whale, but that’s what Melissa Macias stumbled upon last month.

The paleontologist with Santa Ana engineering contractor Psomas noticed something unusual while doing a site survey May 20 at the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill.

“I was walking down this hillside. I found a bone outcropping. I followed it and there was more bone and more bone, and then the teeth,” Macias recalled. “I knew that it was something big, something exciting. I didn’t really know what it was at the time.”

The find turned out to be fossils — parts of a skull, part of a jawbone, a flipper bone and 18 mostly intact teeth — from a sperm whale estimated to have lived 10 million to 12 million years ago.

The remains were unveiled to the media Tuesday morning at the landfill.

Circled in red on a diagram of a sperm whale are pieces discovered last month at the Bowerman Landfill in Irvine. The fossils found on a hillside are believed to be 10 million to 12 million years old. (Courtesy of Orange County)

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