Fossil-hunting diver says he has found a large section of mastodon tusk off Florida's coast

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — At first, fossil-hunting diver Alex Lundberg thought the lengthy object on the sea floor off Florida's Gulf Coast was a piece of wood. It turned out to be something far rarer, Lundberg said: a large section of tusk from a long-extinct mastodon.

Lundberg and his diver companion had found fossils in the same place before, including mammoth teeth, bones of an ancient jaguar and parts of a dire wolf. They also have found small pieces of mastodon tusk, but nothing this big and intact.

"We kind of knew there could be one in the area," Lundberg said in an interview, noting...