Here's where Canadians are living abroad: report
A recent report sheds light on Canadians living abroad--estimated at around four million people in 2016—and the public policies that impact them.
Researchers have discovered what they say is the earliest direct evidence of a shark attack on a human, with the sea creature inflicting some 790 injuries on a man 3,000 years ago.
Experts from the University of Oxford made the discovery while studying the remains of an adult male excavated from the Tsukumo site near Japan's Seto Inland Sea, which were covered in traumatic injuries to his arms, legs, front of chest and abdomen.
"We were initially flummoxed by what could have caused at least 790 deep, serrated injuries to this man," said researchers J. Alyssa White and Rick Schulting in a joint statement. "There were so many injuries and yet he was buried in the community burial ground, the Tsukumo Shell-mound cemetery site."
Some of the lesions were very sharp, deep, and V-shaped, and were similar to wounds caused by metal implements that weren't used by the Jōmon culture hunter-gatherers of this period, and terrestrial carnivores and scavenger tooth marks were also not consistent with the injuries.
"Through a process of elimination, we ruled out human conflict and more commonly-reported animal predators or scavengers," they added.
The shark species most likely responsible for the attack was either a tiger or white shark, researchers said.
Their findings were published Wednesday in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
The team worked with George Burgess, director emeritus of the Florida Program for Shark Research, to study forensic shark attack cases and put together a reconstruction of the rare case.
"There are very few known examples of shark attacks in the archaeological record," Schulting told CNN, adding that the earliest concrete example the team could find came from a late pre-Columbian site in Puerto Rico, dated to just before 1000 AD.
"The main reason that so few cases are known is simply because they were so rare," Schulting said. "Even today, with so many more people in the world, only a handful of lethal shark attacks occur each year."
After radiocarbon analysis the team concluded that the man died between 1370 BC and 1010 BC -- more than 3,000 years ago.
The team mapped the lesions onto a 3D model of a skeleton to visualize and analyze the injuries.
Experts think that the prehistoric hunter gatherer victim was alive at the time of attack due to the distribution of wounds, with his left hand missing, indicating a defense wound.
"We suspect that the man was probably out fishing with some companions in the Inland Seto Sea in southern Japan. They could have been fishing from a boat, or diving for shellfish," Schulting told CNN. "Perhaps they were even hunting sharks, as shark teeth are sometimes found in Jōmon archaeological sites.
"One or more sharks -- we suspect one but can't be certain about that -- attacked the man either while he was already in the water, or perhaps he lost his balance and fell, or was pulled overboard if the shark was on a fishing line -- this would not have been a small shark," he added.
Schulting said there were "so many tooth marks all over the skeleton" that the attack must have lasted "for some time."
The man's body was retrieved soon after the attack, and he was buried at the ceremony. He was also missing his right leg, and his left leg was placed on top of his body, researchers added.
Co-author Mark Hudson, a researcher with the Max Planck Institute, added in a statement that the case is a rare example of archaeologists being able to reconstruct a dramatic episode in the life of a prehistoric community.
A recent report sheds light on Canadians living abroad--estimated at around four million people in 2016—and the public policies that impact them.
Polish President Andrzej Duda says while no decision has been made around whether Poland will host nuclear weapons as part of an expansion of the NATO alliance’s nuclear sharing program, his country is willing and prepared to do so.
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer said Saturday that the onetime movie mogul has been hospitalized for a battery of tests after his return to New York City following an appeals court ruling nullifying his 2020 rape conviction.
One person was killed in a six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 in Innisfil Friday evening.
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
A number of LGBQT+2s groups in Central Alberta are pushing back against a request from the Red Deer South UCP constituency to reinstate MLA Jennifer Johnson into the UCP caucus.
It's one thing to say you like Taylor Swift and her music, but don't blame CNN's AJ Willingham's when she says she just 'doesn't get' the global phenomenon.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
A girl and a boy, both 14 years old, made their first appearance today in a Halifax courtroom, where they each face a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old high school student.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”