Random Weirdest, Most Unexpected Places Fossils Have Been Found (10 items)

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  (#1) Massive Mosasaurs Were Found Behind A Busy New Jersey Shopping Center

  A shopping center in central New Jersey sits near a quarry that has become the center of increased attention from paleontologists. For years, excavation of the quarry has revealed a great number of marine fossils from the Cretaceous period. Largest among them are the remains of massive mosasaurs, but the fossils also include crocodiles, sharks, and brachiopods.

  The area was once part of a shallow sea, and the surrounding earth appears to be from the end of the Cretaceous period when dinosaurs and many other species went extinct.
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  (#2) The Fossil Of A Carnivorous Whale Was Found In The Peruvian Desert

  Most whales today are very docile and few hunt large animals. The same can’t be said for Livyatan, a massive and aggressive whale with large, sharp teeth. Livyatan was discovered in the middle of the vast Peruvian Pisco-Ica desert on the last day of a two-year archaeological search.

  Scientists theorize Livyatan would have preyed on its kind; the species likely ate whales when they were much more common in the world’s oceans.
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  (#3) The Shell Of A Giant Mammal Was Found Sticking Out Of A Riverbank In Argentina

  While taking a walk on Christmas Day, Argentinian farmer Jose Antonio Nievas found what he thought was a dinosaur egg sticking out of a riverbank. Instead, the pebbly object turned out to be the nearly complete shell of a glyptodont, a giant mammal that no longer exists.

  The glyptodont was similar to the modern armadillo but much larger, possibly weighing more than two tons. This prehistoric animal also had protective layers of bone on its head and a tail to defend against predators.
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  (#4) Mammoth Remains Were Found Under Los Angeles During Subway Construction

  A work crew extending the Los Angeles subway system encountered more than a few fossils as they worked their way west, including prehistoric camel and horse bones. The most amazing discovery, though, was a nearly intact mammoth skull.

  Under the supervision of paleontologist Ashley Leger, it was judged to be that of a juvenile and included both tusks, a rare piece of luck. It was named Hayden, after actress Hayden Panettiere.
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  (#5) A Giant Catfish Fossil Was Found In An Egyptian Desert

  Since the world has changed so much over hundreds of millions of years, it’s impossible to tell at a glance which species would have lived in certain places in prehistoric days. One great example: An arid and lifeless desert in Egypt called Wadi Al-Hitan was found to be full of whale and fish fossils. An especially unusual discovery was the nearly 7-foot-long fossil of a catfish.

  Although the fish is enormous by today’s standards, it probably would have been regular prey for the local whales.
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  (#6) A Group Of Boys Found A Mastodon In Their Backyard

  Two Mississippi brothers and their cousin were accustomed to finding petrified wood in their backyard; however,  in 2018, they found something much more exciting. “I thought it was a log,” Caid Sellers told Fox News. Instead, the object turned out to be the jaw of a mastodon. The boys used a golf cart to transport the fossil back to their home.

  The Sellers family is considering turning the jawbone into part of a coffee table.
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  (#7) Fossilized Prehistoric Footprints Were Found All Over A NASA Parking Lot

  In 2012, amateur paleontologist Ray Stanford was dropping his wife off at work in the parking lot of NASA’s Maryland office when he spotted a chunk of rock similar to one with a dinosaur print he discovered a few years prior. After some investigation, excavators discovered the chunk was the tip of a huge slab of sandstone with dozens of fossilized tracks from Cretaceous creatures.

  The 100-million-year-old rock contained tracks from sauropods, pterosaurs, and mammals, as well as fossilized worms and excretions. In a press release, paleontologist Martin Lockley called it “the mother lode of Cretaceous mammal tracks.”
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  (#8) Torosaurus Fossils Were Discovered At A Construction Site Near Denver

  Labor crews in Thornton, Colorado, dug deep into the earth - deeper than most projects usually go. While preparing to build a new police and fire station, the construction workers found the fossilized remains of a dinosaur. A partial skull was initially thought to belong to a triceratops, but further investigation found it to be the cranium of the closely related torosaurus. It was the most complete example of a torosaurus ever found.

  The find also included a tyrannosaurus rex tooth - perhaps the one that made a meal of “Tiny,” as the torosaurus was later nicknamed.
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  (#9) Giant Sea Scorpion Fossils Were Discovered In Iowa

  The fossils of a large undersea predator were unexpectedly discovered in the landlocked state of Iowa. Paleontologists found the new species of sea scorpion in a shale deposit. The specimen was nearly six feet long and lived as long as 460 million years ago. Considering most other documented sea scorpion remains are barely 8 inches long, this find was unusually massive.

  The species was likely among the top hunters of its time and place. Paleontologists named the species Pentecopterus after an ancient Greek ship.
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  (#10) Prehistoric Rhino Bones Were Found In A Small Underground Cave In Yorkshire

  In 1821, Yorkshire workers filling in potholes discovered a small cave. When they found bones inside, they assumed they had come from ranchers dumping cattle and used some of the fossils to make their repairs. Local scientists saw the bones and realized they were the fossils of many different animals, including prehistoric elephants, rhinos, bison, and hyenas.

  Though the animals were first thought to have been pushed into the cave by rising waters, scientists quickly realized the cave's entrance was too small for the majority of these prehistoric animals. One of the local scientists working on the site, Dr. William Buckland, theorized the cave was a hyena den, and most of the other animal bones were brought there in the stomachs of well-fed hyenas.

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