On one of January’s first mornings, the workers of a sand quarry came into some huge and very light weighted rocks. At first, they thought they were normal rocks so they just throw them aside. Luckily the anthropologist Atilio Lobato was near the quarry, taking pictures of the Pucush Uclu Lake’s migratory birds. He became completely intrigued when he saw the workers throwing those huge rocks so easily and his curiosity made him run to the quarry.

To his surprise the “rocks” the workers were throwing were actually the bones of a huge animal. After digging some more in the sand, he found the maxillary bone (with 20 cm. wide molars and what seemed to be two holes where tusks used to be) and a broken femur of the animal, giving him clues that this could be a mastodon; the later studies soon confirmed his suspicion. The remains were of a 3 to 4 meters high – 7 meters long mastodon from the Miocene era.

It is the second time in three months that pre-historic remains are found in the Central Andes. In November the remains of a megatherium were found near Huancayo also.