Farmers unearthed a 60,000-year-old mammoth skeleton in a family gravel pit in Texas. The almost complete set of pristine fossils was discovered in May when Marty McEwen and his grandson Ethan Beasley were digging at the family business.

After hitting a 6ft-long tusk with an excavator, they alerted nearby paleontologists who carefully removed layers of millennia-old mud.

The experts believe the creature’s relatively small size, about 9ft (2.7m) tall, indicates it is a female mammoth. Tom Vance, a paleontologist from nearby Navarro College, suggests that the mammoth likely died after falling on her left side. The visible skull, ribs, and lower jaw appear relatively untouched, with a few missing leg bones.

The mammoth skeleton, estimated to be between 20,000 and 60,000 years old, will be transported to its permanent home at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas.

The McEwen family, who discovered the mammoth, chose not to disclose the excavation site to protect the precious fossil.

Ron Tykoski, the museum’s paleontologist, expressed gratitude for the McEwens’ contribution to science, emphasizing that the mammoth fossil is now part of the public trust, allowing scientists to study, describe, and display it for the benefit of scientific knowledge.