Could this be the oldest shipwreck? A debris field of amphorae from what is thought to be world’ s oldest shipwreck has been discovered off the coast of Türkiye. Archaeologists have dated it to between 4,400 and 4,700 years old – the early Bronze Age. The ship’ s wooden structure has long been eaten away, but the ceramic storage pots it was carrying were lying on the sea floor and still contain traces of what they held inside.
The archaeologists who found the ship say it was about 10m in length and was a trade vessel carrying cargo across the Mediterranean Sea.“ The shipwreck is a time capsule at the bottom of the sea,” said Prof Hakan Öniz, from Akdeniz University in Türkiye, who led the expedition. The wreck is close to the shore of Kekova Island in Antalya, its artefacts scattered across an underwater slope at about 30m. Three large stone anchors were found, as well as more than 30 ceramic amphorae.
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PHOTOS: HAKAN ÖNIZ |
The Lost Shark Guy has been at it again. Known to his friends as Dave Ebert, the Lost Shark Guy * has made a habit of finding and describing new shark species. His hit rate is impressive. Over the last 35 years, he’ s named 53 new species. And his latest discovery is causing more of a stir than normal, because of its impressive size. But this is definitely no Megalodon. This new shark, the big-nosed lanternshark( Etmopterus bulbosus), measures in at a measly 21cm. [* Dr Ebert, an American American ichthyologist, earned the nickname for his career-long mission to identify and describe overlooked, or‘ lost’ species of sharks, rays, skates, and ghost sharks ] The somewhat uncomplimentary name arises from its‘ conspicuously large, bulbous snout’ – rude! Despite the bulging proboscis, this shark may yet, says Dave, be a contender for the world’ s smallest shark. A single female specimen was collected by a trawl at 4000-5000m depth off Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. After her big nose raised suspicions and a close inspection revealed other notable differences from similar species, the researchers turned to DNA analysis to confirm their hunch. They found a 10.29 % difference in a small section of DNA which, apparently, sealed the deal.
This little shark comes from a large family of small sharks – there are now 43 lanternshark species, many of them bioluminescent, producing light from
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specialised organs called photophores. Their dark bodies and glowing patterns are part of a suite of adaptations for life in the deep sea.
The discovery of this tiny species raises some important questions: how widespread is this species, how many more lanternsharks are hiding down there in the depths and, potentially, are there other small deepwater sharks that have disappeared before we even got to give them a name.
The pressure on deep-sea sharks is growing. Deep sea mining operations and bottom fisheries increasingly impinge on the habitats of these poorly understood creatures. For now, at least, it may be that the lanternsharks are among the lucky ones. The nine species known to occur in southern and east African waters are currently assessed as least concern on the IUCN Red List. They are mostly found at depths beyond current bottom-trawl and longline fisheries, giving them some refuge. And their small size means they avoid capture in most fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean.
But we do need to be attentive. As the quest for resources from the seas reaches deeper and further, we have to keep supporting researchers to fill the gaps in knowledge so that governing bodies can make informed conservation and management decisions to ensure that sharks – big and small – can have a sustainable future. More power to the Lost Shark Guy! www. sharktrust. org
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