Scuba diver discovers 4-foot prehistoric mastodon tusk: ‘Absolutely surreal’

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB/Gray News) – Venice Beach, Florida, is already known for shark teeth, but a scuba diver made a prehistoric discovery.

The 4-foot, 6o-pound mastodon tusk was recently found about a half-mile off the coast.

Alex Lundberg was scuba diving with Blair Morrow when he made the discovery about 25 feet underwater.

“I swim over to it and start fanning it, and all of a sudden, there’s a huge section of it exposed,” Lundberg described. “And I’m just thinking to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is a tusk.”

After finding the fossil, which could be a million years old, Lundberg got help from Morrow to bring it up to the surface.

“I just show her this 4-foot tusk and her eyes just light up,” Lundberg remembered. “She comes up with me to the surface, we swim it to the boat, we made a sling out of a beach towel and kind of hoisted it over the side of the boat. It’s absolutely surreal that it came up in one piece, didn’t break apart at all.”

Lundberg said that area around Venice Beach is known for shark teeth, but there is a whole other world down there.

He added that he’s been diving off the coast for around five years, and he will be out there again with the hopes of finding another treasure.

Copyright 2024 WWSB via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.