Huge mammoth tusk discovered sticking out of Mississippi streambed

A man rambling through the wilds of Mississippi recently stumbled upon a stunningly preserved mammoth tusk sticking out of a steep cliff along a stream. The tusk is the first known mammoth fossil unearthed in the area, scientists say.

Amateur fossil collector Eddie Templeton was walking in rural Madison County in early August when he encountered the tusk partially submerged in water and stuck into the silt and clay of the streambed. He contacted the Mississippi State Geological Survey, which excavated the fossil, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) representatives said in a statement.

Survey scientists studied the 7-foot-long (2 meters), 600-pound (270 kilograms) ivory tusk, which was almost entirely intact, and confirmed it belonged to a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi).

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"When I learned it was a mammoth and not a mastodon, I got even more excited. I've never found any part of a mammoth. I always hoped to find a part of a mammoth, but that's pretty rare down here," Templeton told the local newspaper The Clarion-Ledger.

James Starnes, a geologist with the MDEQ, told The Clarion-Ledger that tusks generally "don't preserve well" in the area.

"This is not something you see every day," he said. "This was a big, big animal."