A Florida man has discovered the remains of a prehistoric monster that could be 10 million years old.
Alex Lundberg, 29, was diving with his friend near Venice Beach when he pulled up a four-foot mastodon tusk from 25 feet below the surface.
The tusk comes from a mastodon, a distant relative of the woolly mammoth, which lived 10 million years ago, Lundberg said.
An expert at the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton verified the discovery, which is considered “super rare” because only prehistoric shark teeth and broken pieces of mammoth tusks are usually found in the area.
Lundberg will have to report his findings to the Florida Museum of Natural History to determine if they have any scientific value.
Mastodon tusks, which are typically only a few centimeters long, have sold for as little as $20 to $350, but Lundberg speculated that the value of his 60-pound tusk is about $5,000.
Alex Lundberg (left) was diving with his friend Blair Morrow (right) near Venice Beach when he discovered a four-foot mastodon tusk.
Alex Lundberg (pictured holding the mastodon tusk) said he hopes to preserve the fossil and was surprised that it remained intact when he pulled it out of the water.
The diver and part-time fossil hunter said it was surreal that the mastodon tusk didn’t break when he pulled it from the seabed.
“When I first saw it, I only saw a small strip exposed in the sand,” Lundberg told DailyMail.com.
‘When I started fanning the sand, I saw the cross section and realized it was full of tusks.
“We made a sling out of a beach towel and hoisted him over the side of the boat,” he continued.
“It’s absolutely surreal that it came together in one piece, that it didn’t break at all.”
Lundberg has searched for fossils near Venice Beach for five years, where the area is known for thousands of fossilized shark teeth estimated to be approximately 10 million years old.
However, he estimated that “the tusk is between 10,000 and 500,000 years old based on other fossils that we have recovered from that area.”
Speaking of the tusk, Lundberg said Tampa Bay News: ‘This is once in a lifetime, is what they told me.’
The tusk (pictured) weighed about 60 pounds and is probably millions of years old.
The mastodon lived 5.4 million years ago until 10,000 years ago when it became extinct. It is a distant relative of the modern elephant.
Mastodons are an extinct relative of modern elephants that ranged throughout North America until about 10,000 years ago.
Fossils are typically found in well-preserved deposits from the Pliocene, 5.4 to 2.4 million years ago, and the later Pleistocene, which lasted 2.5 to 11,000 years.
Mastodon fossils, including tusks, bones and skulls, are common in only four US states: Indiana, Colorado, California and New York, making their appearance in Florida incredibly unusual.
Only about a dozen complete mastodon skeletons have been found in Florida, compared to more than 140 in New York state alone.
Lundberg said it may have taken so long to discover the fossil because Florida’s coast had changed since the Pleistocene.
‘The sand is constantly moving and exposing and covering new areas. Especially after a cold front and big storms,” she stated.
“We’ve been looking for that spot for years and we got lucky that day.”
The tusk was located about 25 feet underwater off the coast of Venice Beach, Florida.
Alex Lundberg (pictured) will have to share his findings with the Florida Museum of Natural History, which will decide if the tusk is scientifically significant or if he can keep it.
“All paleontologists are looking for that kind of diamond in the rough,” Hunter Windham, an education specialist at the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton, told Tampa Bay.
“The best thing about Florida, especially if you’re looking for animals that lived during the last ice age, is that the coast extended much further than it does today. “So these animals were walking on dry land up to 50 or 60 miles into the Gulf of Mexico relative to us today,” he added.
Lundberg will need to share his findings with the Florida Museum of Natural History after his Florida fossil collecting permit expires in six months.
At that point, the museum will decide if the tusk is scientifically significant or if he can keep it, but he is hopeful it can remain in his family.
Mastodon fossils are typically found in well-preserved deposits from the Pliocene age, from 5.4 to 2.4 million years ago, and from the later Pleistocene, which lasted from 2.5 to 11,000 years ago. In the photo: Lundberg’s dog hovers over the mastodon tusk
“It’s been rolling around on the ocean floor for at least the last 10 million years,” he said. USA Today.
“Its scientific value is limited, at the moment it is more of an interesting display piece.”
In a separate interview, Lundberg told Tampa Bay: “I told my girlfriend, this tusk is going to our children and grandchildren, like it’s a family tusk now.” He’s part of the family.’