Ten-foot fossilized tusk of ancient elephant found in China

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BEIJING, May 6 (UPI) -- A fossilized elephant tusk at least 10,000 years old has been discovered in eastern China's Anhui province, local authorities said Monday.

A villager working on his farmland in the township of Gucheng in Huaiyuan County spotted the fossil tusk that measured nearly 10 feet in length, Chen Liding of the county's institute of cultural heritage management said.

Once the tusk was dug up from 6 feet underground it was identified as belonging to an adult elephant of the extinct genus Palaeoloxodon, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The species is believed to have inhabited China's Anhui and Henan provinces between 120,000 and 10,000 years ago, experts said.

Calcification has made the tusk very fragile, they said.