Bachelor mastodon find uncovers tusk, skull in Elephant Butte Lake State Park

SIERRA COUNTY, NM (WLS) -- Bachelor party mastodon skull and tusk find in Elephant Butte Lake State Park believed to be that of stegomastodon.

A bachelor party stumbled upon what appears to be the fossil of a stegomastodon last week in Elephant Butte Lake State Park in Sierra County, New Mexico.

"Fossil fragments of the same type have previously been found in Elephant Butte Lake State Park, but nothing this complete," New Mexico State Parks spokesperson Beth Wojahn told the Albuquerque Journal. "This appears to be a major find."

Paleontologists said the skull is from an enormous prehistoric elephant that weighed as much as 13,000 pounds and stood 9-feet tall.