Ribéreau-Gayon Agathe, Carter David O, Regan Stephanie
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H 0PY, UK.
Department of Security and Crime Science-Centre for the Forensic Sciences, University College London, 35 Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9EZ, UK.
Int J Legal Med. 2018 Sep;132(5):1381-1387. doi: 10.1007/s00414-018-1786-8. Epub 2018 Feb 14.
The feeding patterns of species of large sharks on human corpses are well documented in the literature however, that of smaller sharks are less known. This may introduce uncertainty in the medicolegal conclusions. For that reason, accurate identification of patterns of shark predation is very relevant, specifically in areas bordered by the sea. In the case described here, an unidentified lesion was noted on the body of a victim of a scuba diving accident off the island of Kauai, in Hawaii. The aim of this study was to identify the origin of the lesion and investigate its potential to inform on the context of death and/or decomposition. The original outline of the lesion was digitally reconstructed to enable the collection of measurements which were compared with the literature and interpreted with an interdisciplinary approach. This approach permitted to determine that the macroscopic appearance and dimensions of the lesion (major axis = 3.53 cm) were consistent with a bitemark of a cookiecutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis). It was further determined that the bitemark was incomplete and that the specimen involved had a total length of about 24 cm and was likely to be a juvenile. This is the second report in the published literature of cookiecutter bitemarks on humans in the Hawaiian waters. This study brings new evidence-based insights into the interactions between cookiecutter sharks and human remains in marine environments and provides a valuable contribution to the knowledge base on the topic.
大型鲨鱼对人类尸体的进食模式在文献中有充分记载，然而，小型鲨鱼的进食模式则鲜为人知。这可能会给法医学结论带来不确定性。因此，准确识别鲨鱼捕食模式非常重要，特别是在沿海地区。在本文所述的案例中，在夏威夷考艾岛附近发生的一起水肺潜水事故受害者尸体上发现了一处不明损伤。本研究的目的是确定损伤的来源，并调查其在推断死亡和/或分解情况方面的潜力。通过数字重建损伤的原始轮廓，以便收集测量数据，并与文献进行比较，采用跨学科方法进行解读。这种方法能够确定损伤的宏观外观和尺寸（长轴 = 3.53厘米）与雪茄达摩鲨（Isistius brasiliensis）的咬痕相符。进一步确定咬痕不完整，涉事标本全长约24厘米，可能是幼鲨。这是夏威夷海域关于雪茄达摩鲨对人类咬痕的已发表文献中的第二篇报告。本研究为海洋环境中雪茄达摩鲨与人类遗体之间的相互作用带来了新的基于证据的见解，并为该主题的知识库做出了宝贵贡献。
