RIVERSIDE, Calif., Sept. 21 (UPI) -- A huge cache of ancient fossils has been unearthed at a utility company excavation site about 75 miles east of Los Angeles, authorities say.
Crews from Southern California Edison digging for a new substation uncovered the first of the fossils in December, and the find has now grown to more than 1,450 fossils of a rare saber-tooth cat, a new species of deer, a horse, a panther, llamas and hundreds of rodents, The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise reported Monday.
The fossils at the 28-acre site in Timoteo Canyon near Beaumont are from the Irvingtonian North American Land Mammal Age of the early Pleistocene, epoch and show what life were like in the region 1.4 million years ago, officials with the power company said.
The fossils are remarkable finds for Southern California, experts say.
"It's fantastic to find so many species," Philippe Lapin, Southern California Edison's lead archaeologist for the site, said.
"This is a relatively tiny piece of land that was excavated. It makes you wonder what the potential is for further discoveries."
