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A team of researchers from Oxford University discovered the oldest shark attack victim ever. J. Alyssa White and Professor Rick Schulting were examining prehistoric skeletal remains found at an excavation site near Japan's Seto Inland Sea when they came across a skeleton that left them puzzled.
One of the skeletons was an adult male, and it was riddled with nearly 800 injuries and had its left hand sheered off.
"We were initially flummoxed by what could have caused at least 790 deep, serrated injuries to this man," the researchers said in a statement. "There were so many injuries, and yet he was buried in the community burial ground, the Tsukumo Shell-mound cemetery site."
After carefully inspecting the wounds, they determined the wounds were not caused by human conflict or other common predators in the area.
"The injuries were mainly confined to the arms, legs, and front of the chest and abdomen. Through a process of elimination, we ruled out human conflict and more commonly-reported animal predators or scavengers."
White and Schulting concluded that the only animal that could cause those types of wounds was a shark.
"Given the injuries, he was clearly the victim of a shark attack. The man may well have been fishing with companions at the time since he was recovered quickly. And, based on the character and distribution of the tooth marks, the most likely species responsible was either a tiger or white shark."
They determined he died nearly 3,000 years ago, between 1370 to 1010 BC. The victim's body was quickly recovered and buried at a cemetery in a nearby village, where it was unearthed by archaeologists.
Schulting said that finding archeological evidence of shark attacks is extremely rare because of how few lethal attacks there are, even today.
"The main reason that so few cases are known is simply because they were so rare," Schulting told CNN. "Even today, with so many more people in the world, only a handful of lethal shark attacks occur each year."