VENICE, Fla. (WSVN) — A scuba diver recently made a prehistoric discovery off the coast of Venice, uncovering a 4-foot mastodon tusk that now adorns his Tampa apartment.

About a month ago, 29-year-old Alex Lundberg discovered the tusk while diving about half a mile off the coast.

“I swim over to it and start fanning it,” he said. “All of a sudden there’s a huge section of it exposed and I’m just thinking to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is a tusk.'”

Lundberg, who was diving with Blair Morrow at the time, managed to bring the fossil, which could be a million years old, to the surface.

“I just show her this 4-foot tusk and her eyes just light up. She comes up with me to the surface, we swim it to the boat, we made a sling out of a beach towel and kind of hoisted it over the side of the boat,” he recalled. “It’s absolutely surreal that it came up in one piece. Didn’t break apart at all.”

Lundberg has been diving off the coast of Venice for around five years and said the area is known for shark teeth, but treasures like this tusk reveal a whole other world beneath the waves. He plans to dive again this weekend, hoping to find another remarkable discovery.

Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Join our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox