1.2-million-year-old fossil discovered by boy out playing

The ancient fossil.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/nmsunews)

He thought he tripped over a cow skull, but Jude Sparks actually discovered a 1.2-million-year-old animal fossil.

Now 10, Sparks came across the fossil while out with his family near their home in Las Cruces, New Mexico, last November. The Sparks family notified Peter Houde, a professor at New Mexico State University, who went out to the site and confirmed the fossil was of a Stegomastodon, an elephant-like animal. "I was real excited," Houde told ABC News.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.