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 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,

I was skeptical when a deer hunter showed me a picture of what he thought was a fossil ,” Juett, manager of the 02 Ranch, said in the release. “I figured it was likely just an old stump, but imagined how great it would be if he was right.