Tooth DNA identifies shark species that chomped boy’s leg

Researchers have successfully identified the species of shark that bit a 13-year-old boy off the coast of New York using DNA from a small tooth fragment plucked from the boy’s leg.

The researchers extracted a DNA sample from the tooth and compared it against a genetic dataset of common shark species to determine that a sand tiger shark was responsible for the bite.

This is the first time that a shark involved in a bite has been successfully identified using DNA, says Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research (FPSR) at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

“We’re as close to 100 percent sure as we can get that this shark was a sand tiger,” he says.

Fire Island attacks

The bite was one of a pair of unusual attacks that occurred just minutes and miles apart at Fire Island National Seashore in mid-July. A 12-year-old girl who was also bitten reported seeing a 3- to 4-foot orange-brown animal with a dorsal fin.

Reuters reported that the victims received emergency medical treatment for puncture wounds in their right legs, and both were expected to fully recover.

“If they really wanted to nobble you, they could.”

Naylor believes juvenile sand tiger sharks following schools of bait fish inshore caused both bites. Sand tiger bites are uncommon, and no reported sand tiger bites have proven fatal, he says.

“If they really wanted to nobble you, they could,” he says. “Sand tigers can weigh 500 pounds and have very sharp teeth. They have the potential to do real damage to humans but don’t, which underscores the fact that these bites are accidental. Sharks are not hunting humans.”

Shark attacks in New York are rare, but as large schools of bait fish head inshore, predators often follow, increasing the chance that they may bump into people swimming and playing in the water.

Mistaken identity

In the conditions at Fire Island—turbulent surf, high light, schooling bait fish—the sharks could easily have mistaken a solid object in the water, such as a human leg, for the fish they were pursuing.

Unlike many shark species, sand tigers will feed during the day, he says, but don’t typically hunt when the surf is up, making the Fire Island bites exceptional.

“Perhaps incorrectly, I’m putting these in the bin of naïve young sharks,” Naylor says. “I’m sure the children who were bitten were petrified, but the sharks probably were, too.”

According to the International Shark Attack File based at the Florida Museum, the last reported sand tiger bites near New York occurred in 1988 and 1974. The most recent attacks in the area involved unidentified species in 2017 and 2015.

Unidentified species cause about 70 percent of shark bites, Naylor says. People often blame great whites, tiger sharks, and bull sharks for attacks because of their large size and the fact that they are responsible for the majority of identifiable bites, but “maybe there are other species that are hard to identify or are not so conspicuous,” Naylor says. “They could be hiding under the radar.”

Anonymous bites

Using DNA evidence could also help pin specific species to bites that aren’t identified.

“People have talked about getting DNA out of teeth left behind in a bite, and we thought we’d go ahead and do it,” Naylor says. “We didn’t know if it would work, but it did.”

Lindsay French, program manager for the FPSR, arranged for the tooth fragment to be sent down from New York. Postdoctoral researchers Lei Yang and Shannon Corrigan cleaned it of any possible contamination and swabbed for DNA inside the pulp cavity.

After extracting the DNA and removing unwanted cellular debris, they broke the purified DNA into small pieces and put molecular “bookends” on either side of each piece of the fragmented DNA, creating a genomic “library.” The team could then select any particular “page” or set of pages from the library using a process called target capture.

“We chose to target a set of genes that we routinely use to identify different species of sharks,” Naylor says. “We determined their sequences and lined them up against a reference dataset that we maintain and found the sequences to have nearly a 100 percent match to sand tiger DNA.”

“If bait fish are near shore, don’t go in. If people are fishing nearby or visibility is low, don’t go in.”

Naylor says the FPSR is well equipped for this kind of genetic sleuthing, and the team would gladly analyze other DNA samples from bites.

In the meantime, beachgoers should exercise caution, not fear, when enjoying the water, he says.

“It behooves us to be informed and understand these animals and take the appropriate precautions,” Naylor says. “If bait fish are near shore, don’t go in. If people are fishing nearby or visibility is low, don’t go in. We share the ocean. I think it’s a good sign that there’s a lot of life in it.”

The findings appear in Nature Correspondence.

Source: University of Florida

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