SOCORRO, N.M. >> New Mexico's standing as a paleontological hot spot has once again been confirmed.
Tom and Sissy Olney of Socorro, N.M., recently discovered a mammoth tusk on Bureau of Land Management land where the couple has a permit for grazing.
According to a news release, the Olneys noticed a white object in an arroyo on the property more than 20 years ago, first dismissing it as a rock or root. Erosion eventually exposed two feet of the specimen.
After reporting their finding, BLM New Mexico state paleontologist Phil Gensler, Gary Morgan of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque, the Olneys and their 7-year-old granddaughter Jenna Rose excavated the tusk on June 26.
The nearly complete tusk is about 5 feet long, which probably means that it was from a juvenile male or a female mammoth, according to the release. No other bones were located in the excavated area.
The tusk was taken to the Natural History Museum in Albuquerque for further stabilization and analysis.Earlier in June, scientists uncovered a nearly whole, fossilized skull of a stegomastodon, an extinct elephant-like creature, at Elephant Butte Lake State Park.