STEPHENVILLE, Texas — The remains of a long-extinct mammoth will be relocated to Tarleton State University after being discovered in Central Texas this summer.  

Two campers originally found a portion of a fossil they thought resembled dinosaur bones, sparking them to contact park rangers. The location of the find is being kept under wraps to allow for excavation.

“What I saw when I got here was about four to five inches of tusk,” said Tarleton State Instructor of Geosciences Kris Juntunen, who traveled to the site to confirm the find. “It was pretty clear it was a mammoth.” 

In what is believed to be a first for the university, Tarleton students are participating in the dig. The university’s geosciences program along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Waco Mammoth National Monument are teaming up to remove the remaining fossils from the site.

“The plan is to bring them to Tarleton State, and they’ll become part of the teaching collection,” said Juntunen. 

Experts have determined the fossils, including what are suspected to be part of a skull, a piece of an arm bone and spinal bones, are of a 40-year-old male Columbian mammoth which weighed around 10 tons and was approximately 13 feet tall. The prehistoric mammals roamed across present-day Texas thousands of years ago.

A founding member of The Texas A&M System, Tarleton State University is breaking records — in enrollment, research, scholarship, athletics, philanthropy and engagement — while transforming the lives of approximately 18,000 students in Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Bryan and online. For 125 years, Tarleton State has been committed to accessible higher education opportunities for all while helping students grow academically, socially and professionally through programs that emphasize real world learning and address regional, state and national needs.