12-Million-Year-Old Whale Fossil Discovered At Palos Verdes School

PALOS VERDES (CBSLA.com) — A 12-million-year-old whale fossil was recently discovered at a Palos Verdes school.

A number of rocks containing fossils have been found on the grounds of Chadwick School for years, but a science teacher realized one of them appeared to be extremely rare.

In fact, paleontologists believe it's a new species of sperm whale and that's what they'll spend the next year trying to confirm at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, where it was moved to on Wednesday.

"We have special tools, they're like miniature jackhammers that take the rock off, and that's what I'll be doing for the next year, day after day after day. Hoping what will happen is that we'll discover a new species and a new genus of sperm whale, that's the whole reason of doing what we do," said the museum's Howell Thomas.