About 3 to 3.35 million years ago, when sea level was several meters higher than it is today, southern Florida was submerged by a shallow tropical sea with reefs and wetlands that were home to numerous mollusks, corals, fish, mammals, and birds. Although the shell, coral, and mollusk remains are fossils and are scientifically valuable to paleontologists and geologists, there is such a large supply of them that they can be used for other purposes. The Golden Gate Quarry uses the fossil shells and coral from this ancient environment in concrete mix in the foundations of buildings and for roads and highways in the area. Take a look when you walk down the roadways in Florida and try to find the same types of fossils from the quarry as part of the road itself.

It is surprising to most people that fossils are actually used to build roads and buildings. The fossils from the Golden Gate Quarry may be mixed with rocks and used as "fill" beneath roads and highways. They may also be mixed in the asphalt and be seen at the road surface. Rock and fossils from this ancient reef may also be used in producing cement, the glue of concrete. The concrete used to make curbs and gutters will contain these materials, and if you look closely, you can find shells and corals mixed in these products.

Bivalves first made their appearance on earth about 500 million years ago during what is called the Cambrian Explosion when there was a great diversification of life. The earliest bivalves burrowed in soft sediments on the bottom of the ocean. They lived just under the surface, not deep down like some modern bivalves. Over time, bivalves evolved structures allowing them to bury deeper such as snorkel-like tubes (siphons) to get water from above; and also evolved modified gills for filter feeding. Bottom-dwelling (benthic) bivalves became fossilized when sediment hardened around them. Fossil evidence is a shell itself or just an impression of the shell left in the sediment (an ichnofossil). Bivalves have evolved into many, distinct forms over time, and survived through major extinction events to become a very diverse group of organisms. Most modern forms are benthic, but others attach themselves to hard surfaces or even swim around a bit (e.g., scallops).