On the coast of Florida: a man found the tusk of an unprecedented creature

A man from Tampa, Florida, found a fossil of a prehistoric creature while diving off the coast of Venice. Alex Lundberg found a 1.2 meter mastodon tusk buried in the sand. The surprising and valuable find is one of a kind, as the piece is complete, in excellent condition and, for now, is kept in the young diver’s home.

The fossil enthusiast identified Manasota Beach as the place where he found the mastodon tusk, an animal considered a cousin of the mammoth. “I walked in and saw this piece right here sticking out, just a little strip. I thought it could be a fang… we have found many pieces out there, broken things, all the time,” she said in an interview with WTSP.

After cleaning and drying it, Alex made an important decision: he wants to keep the tusk, even though This historical piece could be truly valuable, since its age dates back several thousand years.a group of scientists from the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature told the television station.

Mastodon tusk found in Florida and seeks to preserve it

For the 29-year-old, who currently keeps the piece in a plastic box next to his bed, the tusk is truly significant and he hopes to keep it, even if its market value exceeds several hundred thousand dollars. “I’m never going to sell it, I even told my girlfriend that our children and then our grandchildren are going to inherit this tusk. Now it’s a family heirloom”he said enthusiastically.

However, in order to preserve it, Alex must report his discovery to the Vertebrate Paleontology Program of the Florida Museum of Natural Historywith which you would be complying with the stipulations of your Fossil Collection Permit, a document that anyone interested in searching and collecting fossils in Florida must process.

Once he reports the find, the museum board will decide if Alex can keep the mastodon tusk, since, according to the law, “all vertebrate fossils found on state-owned or state-leased land belong to the state”.