Nuevo León, Mexico - It's not uncommon for fragments of the past to come to light building work, but as finds go, this is a big one.

The complete skull of a 10,000-year-old mammoth has been found on a building site in Mexico, together with part of its massive skeleton.

It was discovered in the neighborhood of El Ejido San Rafael in the city of Galeana - a rural area of Nuevo León in north east Mexico.

Paleontologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico uncovered the remains. It's thought the skull comes from an adult male which was between 35 and 40 years old when it died.

The prehistoric beast would have weighed between three and five tons when it stomped through the area thousand of years ago.

Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi) were one of the latest, and largest species of mammoth, reaching up to 13 ft tall (4 meters) at the shoulders.

There are no specific measurements for the specimen found.

The mammoths inhabited North America as far north as the northern US and as far south as Costa Rica during the Pleistocene epoch and are thought to have become extinct around 10,000 years ago - although precisely why is a mystery.

The Mayor, Alejandra Ramirez, said that the discovery is very important because the remains are in a perfect state of conservation.

Paleontologist Ivan Alarcon said they are so well preserved because they had probably been in a prehistoric lake.