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TCA PALEONTOLOGY PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTED AT GIRL SCOUT DAY CAMP
Paleontologist discusses fossils and artifacts discovered during construction of Orange County Toll Roads
IRVINE, Calif. (July 1, 2008) – Paleontologist Lloyd Sample discussed fossils and artifacts recovered during construction of the 73 and 241 Toll Roads today at Laguna Niguel Regional Park. Presenting at Paleontologist Day for the Girl Scouts Summer Day Camp, Sample, of LSA Associates, Inc., showed more than 350 scouts how to recognize and differentiate fossils of plants and animals that existed in prehistoric Orange County.
The presentation is similar to “Fossils in Your Backyard,” the paleontology program that brings Sample and other scientists into local classrooms to show students what Orange County was like millions of years ago. The Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA), the agency that builds and manages the toll roads, along with LSA, has been providing the free in-class paleontology and archaeology programs to Orange County schools since 2001. More than 38,516 students from the Capistrano, Saddleback, Newport-Mesa and Santa Ana school districts have benefitted from the free program.
Students are encouraged to touch and hold the fossils in their hands because “there is no other place kids are able to do that, especially in museums,” Sample said. He emphasized the importance of fossils as an educational tool because they are a rare, irreplaceable, non-renewal resource. “As soon as a fossil is bought and sold, it loses its value to educate.”
Thousands of bones and fossils were discovered when the Toll Roads were built and many of the fossils Sample brings into classrooms are 15 – 20 million years old. Representative of fossils found at the time, museum-replicated skulls of the extinct saber-toothed cat and dire wolf are brought in for students to touch and hold, as are real skulls of the bobcat and coyote, both of which can be still be seen around Orange County. Shark teeth, scallops, shrimp and ecological plants are also brought in for viewing.
For more information on the “Fossils in Your Backyard” program, please contact TCA’s environmental planning department at (949) 754-3481.
ABOUT TCA
More than 300,000 trips are taken on The Toll Roads every weekday. The Toll Roads are operated by the Transportation Corridor Agencies, two joint powers authorities formed by the California state legislature in 1986 to plan, finance, construct, and operate Orange County's 67-mile public toll road system. Fifty-one miles of the system are complete, including the 15-mile San Joaquin Hills (SR-73) Toll Road from Newport Beach to San Juan Capistrano; and the 36-mile Foothill/Eastern Toll Road system (SR-241, SR- 261, SR-133) from the 91 Freeway to south Orange County. More info: www.thetollroads.com.
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