Ancient Elephant Fossil Discovered by New Mexico Bachelor Party

Many crazy antics can happen at bachelor parties, but discovering an ancient fossil isn't usually one of them. Well, that was the case for a group of campers celebrating a bachelor party at a New Mexico state park Monday, who stumbled upon the fossil of a 3-million-year-old elephant-like creature called a stegomastodon.

The stag group was at Elephant Butte Lake State Park, about 150 miles south of Albuquerque, N.M., when they saw something sticking out of the dirt.

"As we are cruising by we see a large tusk or what seems to be a large tusk coming out of the ground about a good three to four inches out," Antonio Gradillas told KRQE News 13.

Gradillas and his friends started digging, turning this bachelor party into an archaeological dig. They soon alerted the New Mexico Natural History Museum of their discovery.

At first they thought it was a woolly mammoth, but paleontologists who later arrived on the scene say it looked more like a stegomastodon - a 9-foot tall, 13,000-pound prehistoric elephant that roamed the subtropical area millions of years ago.

To scientists' delight, the fossil was nearly completely intact.

"This is far and away the best one we've ever found," paleontologist Gary Morgan told Las Cruces Sun-News. "Maybe the only complete one found in New Mexico."

Though they have not yet conclusively identified the fossil, it is most likely a stegomastodon from the Ice Age era (40 to 60 millions years ago) and was about 50 years old when it died. Though, the skull remains do not indicate its gender or cause of death. Experts say stegomastodons went extinct around 1.3 million years ago.

The area has been blocked off so a small team of paleontologists can work on excavating the fossil, which will then most likely be put on public display in the museum.

The excavation site will be refilled and open again for recreation as soon as the scientists are finished, added Kay Dunlap, the park's superintendent.