News Anthropology

A skeleton from Peru vies for the title of oldest known shark attack victim

The 6,000-year-old remains came to light after news of a 3,000-year-old victim in Japan

skeleton of an ancient shark attack victim at an excavation site

A roughly 6,000-year-old skeleton of a teenage boy missing a left leg, shown here during a 1976 excavation in Peru, may represent the oldest known case of a human killed by a shark.

J. Quilter

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Read another version of this article at Science News Explores

When news broke that the oldest known case of a person killed by a shark involved a member of Japan’s Jōmon culture around 3,000 years ago, two researchers took special notice (SN: 7/23/21).