A mammoth elephant's tusk will be given to the Burke Museum, in Seattle at the choice of the owner.
Construction workers found the tusk at a work site where an apartment was going up at 528 Pontius Ave. The Seattle Times reported.
"Since the tusk is on private property, it could have ended up in a private collection. We are very fortunate that AMLI contacted us to remove and care for the tusk," Dr. Christian Sidor, curator of vertebrae paleontology at the Burke Museum told French Tribune in a statement.
"The Burke has 25 mammoth fossils from King County, but most are very fragmented. There is nothing as complete as this," Sidor told The Times.
Officials anticipate removing the tusk from the ground with a crane, 137 feet in length at 4 p.m. Friday. The artifact could be three to four feet more than originally thought The Times reported.
The landlord of the property had not yet indicated if they wanted the tusk removed from the property.
The artifact is expected to weigh 500 pounds, and will be wrapped in protective material before being transported to the museum.
According to The Boston Herald, the elephant the tusk came from made its home in Washington 10,000 years ago.
Large mammoths came to North America from Asia two million years ago. Its counterpart, the mastodon resided in North America 9,000 to 15 million years ago The Times reported.
Larger mammoths developed to 12 feet at shoulders length. The elephants tusks rounded out as they hung from the face, before turning towards the sky The Times reported.
Scientists found another tusk in Eastern Oregon in October. Others have been found in the Pacific Northwest.
The species went out of existence 10,000 to 11,000 years ago because glaciers during the ice age diminished as the time period concluded The Times reported.
