9-Year-Old’s Childhood Stumble Reveals Astonishing 1.2 Million-Year-Old Stegomastodon Fossil in New Mexico
You ever trip over something and think, “Well, that’s odd,” only to find out you’ve just unearthed a 1.2 million-year-old Stegomastodon tusk? Yeah, me neither — but nine-year-old Jude Sparks sure did. While out on a family hike in New Mexico’s Orange Mountains, Jude stumbled on what looked like “fossilized wood” but was actually a massive prehistoric relic. His brother wasn’t sold, calling it “just a big fat rotten cow,” but Jude, with a hunch that it wasn’t quite ordinary, set off a chain of events that led to unearthing an entire skull of these elephant cousins. Turns out, sometimes being clumsy isn’t just embarrassing — it’s historic. Ever wonder how many ancient giants might still be hiding just beneath your feet, waiting for someone—or some kid—to trip over them?
“I didn’t know what it was,” the boy said. “I just knew it wasn’t usual.”
Peter HoudeDr. Peter Houde with the Sparks brothers during the Stegomastodon excavation.
There are benefits to being clumsy. For example, when you trip on something in a New Mexico desert and it turns out to be a Stegomastodon fossil from 1.2 million years ago.
That’s what happened to 9-year-old Jude Sparks when he was exploring the Orange Mountains with his family.
Jude’s brother, Hunter, originally wasn’t convinced that the find was impressive. “Hunter said it was just a big fat rotten cow,” Jude told KVIA TV. “I didn’t know what it was. I just knew it wasn’t usual.”
To him, the discovery looked like “fossilized wood.” His parents agreed and contacted Peter Houde, a professor at New Mexico State University, who returned with the family to the site the next day.
Sure enough, the boy had stumbled over a fossilized tusk.
It’s a big discovery – both literally and metaphorically. The ancient mammals were cousins to the woolly mammoth and modern-day elephant, so the remains are large.
They’re also rare, since prehistoric bones typically disintegrate quickly after being exposed to the elements. Houde suspects the Sparks family came across the tusk just after erosion had brought it to the surface.
“This is really very unusual to find,” he told The New York Times.
With Houde’s help, the family reburied the remains and set about fundraising for a formal dig.
It took them months to organize a team and secure a permit, but they finally uncovered an entire skull made of fragile “egg-shell thin” pieces.
Peter HoudeJude Sparks with the Stegomastodon fossil.
“We’re really, really grateful that they contacted us, because if they had not done that, if they had tried to do it themselves, it could have just destroyed the specimen,” Houde, who hopes to display the remains at the university, said. “It really has to be done with great care and know-how.”
Oddly, this isn’t the first accidental Stegomastodon find. In 2014, a hiking bachelor party found a 3-million-year-old skull belonging to the dino in New Mexico’s Butte Lake State Park.
Humans may have hunted the Stegomastodon toward the end of its existence, though it’s likely that its mammoth competitors kicked it off the evolutionary tree. The creatures remains — a bit smaller than the average African elephant — are easily identified by their broad, upward curving tusks.
As for Jude, he isn’t really as into fossils as he was when he was “little.”
He’ll take the attention, though.
“I’m not really an expert,” the now-10-year-old told the New York Times. “But I know a lot about it, I guess.”
Next, read about the 14-year-old who discovered a German warplane while working on his World War II homework assignment. Then, check out the fossilized “sea serpent” recently found with a baby in its belly.
