Man Discovers Rare Mammoth Tusk While Digging in His Backyard

One man from Idaho made an unbelievable discovery in his backyard last month.

Kasey Keller was in the middle of digging a gravel pit with a backhoe in his backyard when he came across a millennia-old Colombian mammoth tusk.

“At first I thought it was a pipe,” Keller shared with Good Morning America. “Then, my instinct was, ‘This is a mammoth bone.’ I enjoyed prehistoric history as a kid and still do today. It was a unique thing.”

After Keller’s discovery, he called a paleontologist from Utah State University to check it out. The paleontologist confirmed the 3-foot-long bone discovery and said the bone could be anywhere from 12,000 to 150,000 years old. Back when the Colombian mammoths were alive, they could grow up to 13 feet and weigh up to 22,000 pounds.

“They never found anything like this in this valley,” Keller said. “The paleontologist from USU told me the odds were like finding a pin in a haystack.”

Keller shared his discovery with his 9-year-old twin boys who are major dinosaur fans.

“They love dinosaurs, so I showed them and they were on cloud nine,” Keller shared. “They couldn’t believe it was a fossil.”

The bone is now being held at Brigham Young University for preservation. After Keller “plans on loaning the tusks to a museum for a display,” shared GMA.

“If someone else found it, I’d be interested in seeing it,” he said. “It’s a piece of history.”

(H/T Good Morning America)