On Monday, March 23, students returned to Irvington High School from spring break with a surprise: the Irvingtonian Park! Not to be confused with Irvington Park, the Irvingtonian Park is a zoo on campus, featuring a variety of creatures from the Irvingtonian North American Land Mammal Age, including mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and giant sloths. Although the grand opening featured a zoo break during yet another fire drill, the Irvingtonian Park has become a beloved attraction for both students and locals of Fremont. But, how was the Irvingtonian Park established?
During campus reconstruction, fossils from the Irvingtonian Age were discovered beneath the 200s buildings. Of the specimens discovered, most were skeletal fragments that were donated to the Washington Township Museum of Local History for display, but few were amber, which featured preserved mosquitoes. Tara Dactyl (12), a new member of Girls in STEM with a passion for paleontology, discovered the presence of ancient DNA within the samples of blood drawn from the preserved mosquitoes. With the assistance of other Girls in STEM members and a generous donation of California newts from Tule Ponds, she was able to supplement the missing genetic information with the DNA of local wildlife to produce the first smilodon, or saber-toothed cat, embryo…