PARKER COUNTY, TX (KTVT/CNN) - A man in Parker County, TX, discovered mammoth remains as he was building a house.
Anthropologists believe the creature went extinct 10,000 years ago.
For centuries, a Columbian mammoth lay buried under the field, until this past spring when the property owner grazed a piece of bone with a bulldozer.
Geology professor, Lori Gouge, believes he stood 9 to 12 feet tall, and was 30 years old.
"He could've been like 20,000 pounds or as much as three Suburbans," she said.
At a lab at Weatherford College, half of the animal's tusk is protected in a plaster jacket, parts of a giant tooth glued back together.
William Seigler is co-leading the dig.
"This is a fairly significant find. Because usually you find a bone, a tusk, at least 15 percent of this animal is there," he said.
Students helped dig up the property.
"They're really excited. Because now, instead of sitting in a classroom, playing with piles of paper, they're getting their hands dirty," Seigler said.
The property owner donated the mammoth, which will be cleaned and displayed at Weatherford College.
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