Biology

3,000-Year-Old Remains to Show the Oldest Known Shark Attack Victim Met a Grisly End

3,000-Year-Old Remains to Show the Oldest Known Shark Attack Victim Met a Grisly End

The remains of a man who suffered horrific consequences in the jaws of a shark have been discovered at the Susuko site near Japan’s Seto inland sea, where sharks still attack occasionally. The adult male skeleton was Radiocarbon 1370–1010 BC, set by him during the Jōmon period, meaning he was a fisher-hunter-gatherer looking for food on the Japanese islands.

Archaeological and forensic investigations suggest he may have been killed by a giant white or tiger shark, and is likely to survive. A research paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Sciences, detailing the research around the remains, believes this person to be the oldest example of a shark predicting a human being. The unfortunate death was not immediately apparent, as the sample, known as No. 24, was puzzled with evidence of traumatic injury. Oxford researchers J. Alyssa White and Professor Rick Schulting said in a statement, “We were initially concerned about at least 790 deeper, charitable injuries by this guy.” 

“There were many wounded and yet he was buried in the cemetery, Susuko Shell-oundpi Cemetery. “The injuries were mainly confined to the front of the arms, legs and chest, and abdomen. Through the eradication process we have eliminated human conflict and more commonly reported animal predators or rudeness. ”

Not sure how to proceed, they turned to the skills of George Burgess, director of the Emeritus Florida Program for Shark Research, whose knowledge of forensic shark attacks equipped him with the knowledge of reconstructing the final moments of No. 24. With at least 790 traumatic wounds at the end of it, the grieving state of No. 24 is known to be characterized by shark attacks to include gauges, punctures and bone cuts as well as blunt force fractures. The researchers mapped the injury map to a 3D model of a human and the resulting scene indicated that the victim was probably more likely to have survived the attack than to have been attacked by a shark after he had already died.