Construction workers have found a tusk from an ice age mammoth, says a U.S. museum official.

The workers stopped digging when they found the fossil and called Seattle's Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, reported KIRO-TV.

The construction site where a wooly mammoth tusk was discovered is shown on Tuesday, February 11, 2014. The construction site is adjacent to the Bright Horizons Childcare and Early Learning facility in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood in the downtown core of the city. The Burke Museum confirmed that the ancient find is a mammoth tusk. (Associated Press/seattlepi.com, Joshua Trujillo) (Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com/The Associated Press) Museum experts have examined the fossil and "we are confident that it represents a tusk from an ice age mammoth," said the museum's Christian Sidor on Tuesday.

Since the fossil was found recently on private property, Sidor says it's up to the landowner to decide what to do with the tusk.

Sidor calls it "a rare opportunity to directly study Seattle's ancient natural history."

The ancient elephant relatives lived in Washington state until approximately 10,000 years ago, according to the museum.