SHIJIAZHUANG, April 1 (Xinhua) -- A buffalo horn fossil dating back more than 10,000 years is on display at a museum in Handan, north China's Hebei Province.

The crescent-shaped fossil is 141 centimeters in length and 64 centimeters in width and weighs about 16 kg. It is slightly larger than a modern buffalo horn. It was discovered by farmers when they were digging a trench in the 1970s and had been kept in an underground warehouse at a county museum for decades.

The buffalo horn fossil comes from the Pleistocene epoch, often referred to as the last Ice Age, some 10,000 years to almost 3 million years ago, according to archaeologist Qi Jikang.

"Its discovery showed the region was warm and humid in ancient times and provides information for the study of land and water distribution, climate change as well as animal evolution in the region," Qi said.