Franklin expedition captain who died in 1848 was cannibalized by survivors

Enlarge / Oil painting by Belgian marine artist François Etienne Musin depicting tje HMS Erebus trapped in Arctic ice. Public domain

Scientists at the University of Waterloo have identified one of the doomed crew members of Captain Sir John S. Franklin‘s 1846 Arctic expedition to cross the Northwest Passage. According to a recent paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, DNA analysis revealed that a tooth recovered from a mandible at one of the relevant archaeological sites was that of Captain James Fitzjames of the HMS Erebus. His remains show clear signs of cannibalism, confirming early Inuit reports of desperate

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