Turns out, the hunter was right. After Juett reported the find to CBBS, a team of anthropology professors and archaeological researchers came to the ranch and swiftly confirmed the fossil was a mammoth tusk . "When they confirmed what they had uncovered, I couldn't believe it," Juett said.

Researchers plan to carbon date the tusk to get an idea of how old it is, Schroeder said. The last time a mammoth tusk was found in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas was in the 1960s, roughly a decade after carbon dating had been invented. Carbon dating has become a much more exact science now.