I’m Madi Vollmer, reporting at the McMurtrey Aquatic Center for the city’s Shark Week event. With Shark Week here, I looked into Bakersfield’s deep history with ocean life — yes, even here in the dry Central Valley. I also spoke to a local dive expert about what it’s really like to swim with sharks.
Almost 15 million years ago, it may be hard to believe, but Bakersfield was once under an ocean. I spoke with a local geologist to learn more about the oceanic life that once thrived here.
Mark Hodson, is a Docent at the Buena Vista Museum and he says, “We had big rivers carrying in lots of nutrients. We had this large land mass blocking the worst of the storms. This was a very rich area for life. They’ve recovered the fossils of over 140 different species of animals from this thin bone bed called the Shark Tooth Hill Bone Bed — about 14.8 million years old.”…