Austrian experts recover giant tusks of rare mammoth breed

An Austrian museum team has recovered two giant tusks and other remnants of what experts say are apparently the remains of a rare mammoth breed, after construction crews unearthed them while working on an Austrian freeway.

An employee of Vienna's Museum of Natural History works on tusk of a mammoth 
[Credit: Dr. Ursula Goehlich/Museum of Natural History via AP]

The find, dating back to mid-August, was reported by Austrian media on Monday. They cite officials of Vienna's Museum of Natural History as saying the tusks are about 2.5 meters (more than 8 feet) long and apparently come from a mammoth that lived more than a million years ago. That precedes the more well-known wooly mammoth, which was hunted by ancient humans.

The museum team has recovered two giant tusks and other remnants of what experts say are apparently
 the remains of a rare mammoth breed, after construction crews unearthed them while 
working on a stretch of Austrian freeway near Bullendorf north of Vienna 
[Credit: Dr. Ursula Goehlich/Museum of Natural History via AP]

Also found at the site 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Vienna were parts of the animal's vertebrae.

Museum expert Oleg Mandic describes the discovery as "pretty sensational."

Source: The Associated Press [August 29, 2016]