James Bristle probably expected to dig up some rocks and old tree roots, but he ended up discovering an apparently mostly intact wooly mammoth skeleton. The best part is, apparently it’s up to him whether or not he has to donate it to a museum, or keep it as a very large conversation starter. If he chooses the latter, he may want to look into getting a bigger living room…

The Michigan farmer had only bought that particular tract of land two months earlier. Now the excavation and restoration project is being overseen by the University of Michigan, although Bristle still owns the rights to the prehistoric animal carcass for the time being. Paleontologists accept that, while now extinct, wooly mammoths coexisted with humans. There was even evidence on the skeleton that Bristle found of methodical butchering.  Dr. Daniel Fisher, curator of the University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology, told Detroit’s local CBS affiliate that the mammoth would most likely have been butchered by early Native Americans.

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