Video: An exhibition opened this week at the Natural History Museum (NHM) of Los Angeles County, in the western U.S. state of California, uncovering the city's submerged prehistory through fossils. (Xinhua)
Visitors can view nearly 40 fossils that were formed during the 90 million years when L.A. was underwater.
LOS ANGELES, May 8 (Xinhua) -- An exhibition opened this week at the Natural History Museum (NHM) of Los Angeles County, in the western U.S. state of California, uncovering the city's submerged prehistory through fossils.
Before it was the vibrant city that people are familiar with, Los Angeles was underwater for over 90 million years.
People visit "L.A. Underwater" exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, the United States, on May 6, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)
The multimedia, immersive exhibition, L.A. Underwater: The Prehistoric Sea Beneath Us, explores the underwater realm of prehistoric Los Angeles when much of the L.A. area was submerged beneath the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
Visitors can view nearly 40 fossils that were formed during the 90 million years when L.A. was underwater. They can explore life-sized prehistoric animals like a shark bigger than a city bus, and encounter a hologram of an extinct squid-like animal that swam through Los Angeles 74 million years ago when large dinosaurs still roamed the coast of Southern California.
Many of these fossils were found by everyday Angelenos, from construction workers to Museum neighbors. These locally-discovered fossils are helping scientists understand the topography of the city's past and present, the organizers told Xinhua.
A boy visits "L.A. Underwater" exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, the United States, on May 6, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua)
Matt Davis, vertebrate paleontologist and exhibition developer at the NHM, told Xinhua the exhibition shows people how dynamic the Earth is. The landscape of Los Angeles changes dramatically.
"With climate change, sea levels are already rising in L.A. and could submerge places like Long Beach or Venice within the next 100 years," he said.
"We hope the exhibition will really show people how much the earth can change. All the nature is just below their feet and they can find fossils in their neighborhood," Davis told Xinhua. ■
