A Texas fisherman caught more than he bargained for during a recent fishing outing near San Antonio. Davy Villanueva says he found a mastodon tooth along the riverbank, and produced evidence of the prehistoric pachyderm to KENS5.

According to Villanueva, “I walked in the river and reached down in there and pulled it out, and wow, I never seen anything like this.”

Mastodons and wooly mammoths disappeared from North America about 10,000 years ago. Both animals had fur and were similar in height (9 feet), but mastodons had shorter hair and a stockier build.

Texas has been plagued by persistent drought conditions, yet this has proven advantageous for the amateur paleontologist, as water levels were below normal, which facilitated accessibility to the find. Yet, subsequent to bagging the fossil, Texas has become waterlogged, and the dig site, which Villanueva is keeping a closely guarded secret, is submerged, prompting the fisherman’s son to erroneously believe that the skeletal remains are “bad luck.” Villanueva had planned on recovering more of the remains, which he believes to be buried nearby.

The fisherman has been offered $500 for the molar, but ironically, is thinking about giving it to his son.

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