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,

A deer hunter found a mammoth tusk on a West Texas ranch, and the discovery is being analyzed by researchers at a local university.

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.

A West Texas hunter discovered a rare mammoth tusk on a ranch, leading to the second Trans-Pecos mammoth artifact ever.

Researchers plan to carbon date the tusk to get an idea of how old it is, Schroeder said. The last time a mammoth tusk was found in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas was in the 1960s, roughly a decade after carbon dating had been invented. Carbon dating has become a much more exact science now.

A routine deer hunting trip in West Texas took an unexpected turn when a hunter unearthed what experts have confirmed to be a mammoth tusk.