A 10-year-old boy has discovered a million-year-old fossil by tripping over it while hiking in New Mexico with his family.

Local media KVIA reported that Jude Sparks was exploring the region’s Organ Mountains with his parents and two brothers, playing with walkie talkies, when he fell over something sticking out of the earth. They said he fell right on his face and opened his eyes to the remains of an elephant-type creature that was later identified as a million-year-old stegomastodon, an ancestor of modern elephants.

“I was running farther up and I tripped on part of the tusk. My face landed next to the bottom jaw. I look farther up and there was another tusk,” Jude told KVIA. Adding that his brother thought it was a “big fat rotten cow”.

The family did not dig out the fossil themselves, but later visited an expert, Dr. Peter Houde, at New Mexico State University.”I immediately recognized the importance of what it was. We went out there the very next day to have a look at it,” he told KIVA. “We know that these fossils exist here underground. Somebody’s house might be built right on top of them. But they don’t usually survive the erosional process to get to the surface. They just decay into tiny little bits. They are actually very, very fragile.”

KVIA said that the land owner gave permission for the fossil to be dug up, but wished to remain anonymous to protect his land from an influx of fossil hunters.

“The skull that we found is one of the very best to have been found in New Mexico,” said Dr. Houde.

The fossil is now being kept at the university’s Vertebrate Museum for further study.

Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Contact us at letters@time.com.