An amateur fossil hunter found a 7-foot-long mammoth tusk that's thousands of years old — take a look

<p class="ingestion featured-caption">Eddie Templeton (right) found a well-preserved mammoth tusk in a Mississippi creek.Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>An <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-found-then-lost-mastodon-tooth-california-beach-2023-6">amateur fossil hunter</a> found a mammoth tusk in a Mississippi creek.</li><li>Experts said it was the first mammoth tusk found in the state.</li></ul><p>Amateur fossil hunter Eddie Templeton came across the discovery of a lifetime on the bank of a creek in rural Madison County, Mississippi.</p><p>Rains had recently uncovered a 7-foot-long mammoth tusk from the <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/extinct-giant-mammals-pleistocene-megafauna-ice-age-north-america">Pleistocene epoch</a> over 11,700 years ago.</p><p>Eddie Templeton was on the lookout for fossils when he spotted it earlier this month. But he had no idea that he'd found the only mammoth tusk ever discovered in the state.</p><p>Experts are now examining the colossal find to learn more about the animal that roamed the area <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/colossal-biosciences-stem-cell-breakthrough-woolly-mammoth-revival-closer-deextinction-2024-3">thousands of years ago</a>.</p>