Mastodon bones found in Daytona Beach

From 13News: Mastodon bones found in Daytona Beach
DAYTONA BEACH --

The digging will continue in a residential area where archaeologists are making a pre-historic discovery.

Workers digging a hole for a retention pond in Daytona Beach earlier this week found what appeared to be pieces of a mastodon.

Archaeologists say they believe it belongs to an American mastodon, an elephant-like animal which lived in Florida thousands of years ago.

On Wednesday archaeologists found part of a mastodon's rib. On Thursday, however, they uncovered two tusks -- about five and a half feet long each.

Part of the jaw, skull, leg and vertebrae were also found.

The dig is bringing out curious locals, excited to see what is being unearthed underneath Daytona Beach. For one boy, it will be quite a story to share with his classmates Monday.

"I'm gonna tell them that right up the street from my house they found dinosaur bones," Jeremy Gilbraide said.

The president of the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach says it will be a while before they can carbon date the remains found, but they could be as many as 100,000 years old.

But they want to eventually exhibit their find next to remains of a prehistoric sloth found just a few miles away from the Mastodon