A hunter looking for deer on a West Texas ranch instead discovered a rare mammoth tusk, researchers say. The tusk was sitting in the drainage area of a creek bed on the O2 Ranch in Brewster and Presidio counties near Big Bend National park,

Sul Ross University announced its researchers have confirmed an unusual find: a mammoth tusk on a ranch in the Trans Pecos region of West Texas. A deer hunter at a ranch in Brewster and Presidio counties found and took photos of a large, curved relic, telling the ranch operator he’d come across a fossil.

I was skeptical when a deer hunter showed me a picture of what he thought was a fossil,” the ranch manager said. “I figured it was likely just an old stump."