The men were hiking through Elephant Butte State Park near Albuquerque, New Mexico, when they saw a large object protruding from the ground. They dug further and discovered what was later identified as a 3 million-year-oldstegomastodon skull, and quickly snapped a few photos, which they sent to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.Archaeologists determined that the skull, which weighed about one ton, belonged to a prehistoric relative of the elephant that lived during the Ice Age. It likely went extinct around 10,000 years ago.

“It’s almost a complete skull. The only thing that’s missing is the bottom jaw. The teeth still have enamel on them,” Randall Gann, the museum’s public information officer, told Mashable. Gann was at the site when the specimen was excavated. Source: Mashable