Fossils found in Laguna Beach appear to be 17 million years old

Fossils believed to be 17 million years old have been found in Laguna Beach.

A Mission Viejo couple first noticed them in November when they were visiting Heisler Park and looking for sea glass.

Mark Garcia, a retired law enforcement official and photographer, and his girlfriend, Yvonne Bellgardt, a fellow photographer, frequently visit Laguna.

Garcia, who grew up in Huntington Beach, was looking closely at the ground last fall when he noticed what he thought were fossils. He took pictures and searched the internet before reaching out to experts, including John Foster, coordinator of Cal State Fullerton’s John D. Cooper Archaeological and Paleontological Center.

Foster looked at the pictures and suspected the fossils were of the Miocene epoch, 23 million to 5.3 million years ago. They turned out to be a cluster of clam shells, barnacles and snail shells.

“That was pretty exciting, in my mind,” Garcia said. “That’s not something you see every day and find.”

Garcia, Foster and another geologist and paleontologist visited Heisler Park on Monday. Foster had not seen the fossils in person until then.

Foster said Thursday that those types of fossils have been found in Orange County before and aren’t necessarily rare. What is significant, he said, is that the ones in Heisler Park are easily accessible to the public. Heisler is a marine protected area where such items cannot be disturbed or removed.

“From a public standpoint, it’s a great spot to have a show-and-tell,” Foster said.

Millions of years ago, what is now Laguna Beach would have been hundreds of feet underwater, Foster said. He believes some of the fossils were originally farther inland, in shallower water and closer to where the coastline was at the time, before ending up in deeper water where Laguna is today.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint