Fossil hunters made a gigantic discovery in Cambridgeshire last week, unearthing a massive 450,000-year-old tusk.

A gravel pit was at the unlikely center of the major find when a couple of history buffs stumbled upon the remains of an ancient giant.

Found just below the surface of the sand, the well-preserved relic is 4 feet long and may have belonged to a male “steppe mammoth” that roamed the Earth during the Ice Age.

Scientists believe this Pleistocene species was one of the largest mammoths in history, reaching heights of 13 feet and weighing 14 tons.

‘I couldn’t believe my eyes. It stuck out like a sore thumb,’ said Jamie Jordan, Founder and Curator of Fossils Galore.

Fossils Galore’s ‘Beagle Fossil Hunt’ crystal pictured with the 4ft tusk found in the quarry

“They are normally broken when extracted – but this one was in one piece. It was just above the ground – it was very heavy to pick up.

Mr. Jordan and his colleague Sarah Moore have previously discovered mammoth teeth and bones in the same quarry.

Their “Fossil Hunter Beagle”, Crystal, usually joins them as well, but missed this time.

“She’s trained to hunt fossils with us,” Mr Jordan told MailOnline.

“Unfortunately on this occasion she was not with us but was delighted to see the defense and did a big ladder for height.”

Although the pair had previously found a woolly mammoth tusk in this area, it had not been as well preserved as this one.

After digging up the last tusk, they carefully wrapped it up and brought it back to the laboratory in the village of March, Cambridgeshire.

Fossils Galore is now exploring what may have happened during the mammal’s lifetime – the creature having survived alongside cave lions, bears and even hippos.

Believe it or not, all of these species once roamed the land near Peterborough.

“We are going to spend the next few months working to preserve the defense – it can take up to six months to do that,” Mr Jordan said.

Located just below the sand, this relic is four feet long and may have belonged to a male ‘steppe mammoth’ from the Ice Age.

Mr Jordan (left) and his colleague Sarah Moore (right) found defense in a quarry where they had previously picked up mammoth teeth and bones.

After spotting the tusk, it was carefully wrapped up and taken back to the laboratory in the village of March, Cambridgeshire.

Scientists believe steppe mammoths were one of the largest to ever walk the planet

“You can tell a lot about the animal by looking at the tusk rings – like looking at a tree trunk.

“If the rings are tight, it shows that the habitat was not good and the food supply was poor. But if the rings are thick, it shows that it had a good habitat.

“We will also be looking for signs of predation, whether in early humans or other animals.”

Although this is a huge achievement for Fossils Galore, Mr Jordan told MailOnline it was not his favorite find.

“This is one of our most exciting discoveries, but our best discovery to date is still the Iguanodon Skeleton that we found in 2017,” he said.

This extremely rare find – said to be 132 million years old – was discovered in a brickyard in Surrey.

The herbivore, nicknamed Indie, is said to have stood 10ft tall, 30ft long and weighed 4.5 tonnes – much like an African elephant.

“Indie was hidden inside huge compacted clay blocks and was on a slope, which made the process difficult at times,” Mr Jordan previously said.

“However, thanks to the hard work of Fossils Galore volunteers, we were able to extract and transport the remains to our preparation laboratory.”

WOOLLY MAMMOTHS EXPLAINED: THESE GIANT MAMMALS CROWDED THE EARTH DURING THE PLEISTOCENE 10,000 YEARS AGO

The woolly mammoth roamed the frozen tundra of Europe and North America for 140,000 years, disappearing at the end of the Pleistocene, 10,000 years ago.

They are one of the best understood prehistoric animals known to science because their remains are often not fossilized but frozen and preserved.

Males were about 12 feet (3.5 m) tall, while females were slightly smaller.

The curved tusks were up to 16 feet (5 m) long, and their bellies sported a coat of shaggy hair up to 3 feet (1 m) long.

Tiny ears and short tails prevented the loss of vital body heat.

Their trunks had “two fingers” at the end to help them pick grass, twigs and other vegetation.

The woolly mammoth is one of the best understood prehistoric animals known to science because their remains are often not fossilized but frozen and preserved (artist’s impression)

They get their name from the Russian “mammut,” or earth mole, because the animals were believed to live underground and die on contact with light, which is why they were always found dead and half-buried.

Their bones were once believed to belong to extinct races of giants.

Woolly mammoths and modern elephants are closely related, sharing 99.4% of their genes.

The two species went down separate evolutionary paths six million years ago, around the same time that humans and chimpanzees went their own way.

Woolly mammoths coexisted with early humans, who hunted them for food and used their bones and tusks to craft weapons and art.