While working on a wildlife-conservation project designed to protect a frog in California, scientists stumbled upon a 10,000-year-old tooth from a Pacific mastodon (Mammut pacificus). The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District announced in a press release that the fossil was in a creek, and geomorphologist Brigid Lynch was the one who first realized the “oddly shaped rock” was something much more special.

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The press release calls the molar an “exceptionally preserved fossilized tooth,” and experts believe it once belonged to an adult Pacific mastodon.

Paleontologist Wayne Thompson told the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District that the tooth is “the most complete mastodon molar from our area,” and the most spectacular mastodon molar he’s ever seen. “I had chills and shivers up and down my spine,” Thompson said.

See photos of the fossilized mastodon molar below.

Header stock image by AlizadaStudios/Getty Images

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