It was indecipherable what species of shark lash out Jeff Weakley while he was surf off Flagler Beach , Florida in 1994 . Whether it was atiger shark , bull shark , not bad bloodless shark , or some other vulture did n’t matter at the time — his priority was swim to guard before the shark could take another bite .
Twenty - five years later , the wound on Weakley ’s right foot has heal , and he ’s had quite a little of metre to wonder what exactly bite him on that beach trip . By canvas a tooth shard that was lodge in his foot for more than two decennium , a team of scientist has finally given him an response , theOcala StarBannerreports .
turn of shark tooth have come loose from Weakley ’s foot several clip since he was attacked in 1994 . The third time it happen , in fall 2018 , he collected the sherd and sent it to the Florida Program for Shark Research , a part of theFlorida Museumof Natural story in Gainesville . He had just read an article about the computer program ’s work identifying shark specie using the desoxyribonucleic acid from their teeth , and he distrust the squad might be able to do the same with his tooth fragment .
His hunch was correct : The scientist analyzed the sample and reassert that the shark that had bit Weakley a quarter - hundred earlier had been ablacktip shark(Carcharhinus limbatus ) . That determination was made possible by years of grueling work . Over more than two X , the program has pile up a database of shark DNA containing reference samples for roughly 70 percent of all known shark , skate , re , and Chimaera species . Luck was also on their side : The researchers had feared that Weakley ’s resistant system would have destroy any deoxyribonucleic acid in the shark ’s tooth , but when it go far at the lab , there was enough to make the identification .
Shark attacks are vulgar inmoviesandTV , but much less so in actual life sentence . You ’re more potential to bestruck by lightingor die from the flu than be the victim of a shark attack . When sharks do prick humans , it ’s often because they ’ve misidentify them for a quarry animal , and they ’ll normally rent the victim go once they ’ve realized their erroneousness . This is probable how Weakley scarper his shark attack with his ft mostly inviolate .
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