Boy's incredible discovery in creek

Proud Jackson with his prize. Photo / The Inn at Honey Run Facebook

An Ohio boy was taking a break from his family photo obligations, messing around in a creek bed, when he stumbled across a ridged object jutting out of the mud.

In a blog post, the resort explained that 12-year-old Jackson Hepner spotted the tooth near Honey Run Creek in Millersburg, Ohio,.

"It's been verified by several scholars as an upper 3rd molar of a Woolly Mammoth!" says the resort.

As Jackson Hepner, 12, wandered along the water's edge during a break in the photo session, he spotted something intriguing. Photo / The Inn at Honey Run Facebook

Jackson writes in an account of the discovery, "I found the mammoth tooth about ten yards upstream from the bridge we had our family pictures on. It was partially buried on the left side of the creek. It was completely out of the water on the creek bed."

Jackson's letter requests his treasure back as soon as "possable". Photo / The Inn at Honey Run Facebook

Within a few days, the resort explained, the item was identified by numerous scholars and professors including Dale Gnidovec of The Ohio State University's Orton Geological Museum, Nigel Brush of Ashland University's Geology Department, and P. Nick Kardulias College of Wooster' Program of Archaeology.

"Teeth of Woolly Mammoths are distinguished by parallel ridges, which the animals used to grind grass and seeds," the Inn explains.

The woolly mammoth (M. primigenius), developed about 400,000 years ago in East Asia, with some surviving on Russia's Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until as recently as roughly 3,700 to 4,000 years ago, (during the construction of the Great Pyramid of ancient Egypt).

According to Ohio History Central, both mastodon and mammoth fossils have been found around the state. They became extinct in that area about 10,000 years ago.