Japan: Researchers discover oldest known victim of shark attack

At first, the experts at Oxford University were puzzled. On the remains of a male corpse Japan They discovered a variety of injuries. But who or what did the man do like this? Researchers are now certain: She’s the oldest known victim of one Highangers.

The skeleton was found during excavations near the Seto Inland Sea in southwestern Japan, CNN reported, among others. Analyzes showed that the man was born between 1370 and 1010 BC. He must have lived.

“At first we were unable to understand what would cause at least 790 people to be severely injured,” Quoted by CNN The researchers c. Alyssa White and Rick Schulting.

She added that the judicial process allowed the removal of armed conflict and an attack by a wild predator from the list of causes. In the end, a shark attack is the most likely explanation.

Among other things, the victim’s left hand is missing, which can be considered as a possible defensive injury. He also appears to have lost a leg in the suspected attack. Defensive injuries and residual bite marks on the skeleton indicated that the man was alive in the attack.

Similar discoveries are extremely rare

Experts hypothesize that a great white shark or tiger shark was responsible for the attack. We suspect the man was attacked while hunting. “He was traveling in a boat or diving for crustaceans,” Schulting says. “One or more sharks – we suspect there is only one animal, but we cannot be certain – either attacked the man in the water or pulled the man off the deck with fishing rope. The bite marks indicate a large shark.”

So far, according to researchers, there has been one discovery Puerto Rico As the oldest evidence of shark attack. This probably happened around the year 1000.

The number of scientifically proven shark attacks is highly controllable. According to experts, this is due to the fact that similar attacks are extremely rare. Even in today’s world, with a much larger global population, there are only a small number of fatal accidents per year.