If there's one thing that stag dos aren't known for, it's making scientific discoveries. But there's a first time for everything.

One party in the town of Elephant Butte, New Mexico may have made history by discovering the tusks and skull of a prehistoric animal. The friends were passing by a remote lake when Antonio Gradillas saw something emerging from the earth:

“As we are cruising by we see a large tusk or what seems to be a large tusk coming out of the ground about a good three to four inches out,” he told KRQE.

Thinking they may have discovered a woolly mammoth, they sent pictures to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Paleontologists from the museum believe that it may be a Stegomastodon, an elephant-like creature about 2.8 metres tall and weighing about 6,000kg.

Researchers have begun excavation work on the site and hope to confirm the identity of the fossil soon.