Skull found in Papua New Guinea was world's 'oldest-known tsunami victim'

• Skull fragment from coastal site believed to date from 6,000 years ago
• Scientists say sediments in which bone found bear hallmarks of giant wave

A mysterious partial skull unearthed in Papua New Guinea in 1929 that once was thought to belong to an extinct human species now turns out to have another unique distinction. Scientists believe it belongs to the oldest known human tsunami victim.

Researchers said on Wednesday that new examinations of the sediments where the 6,000-year-old skull was found detected hallmarks of a tsunami, with a composition remarkably similar to the remnants of a deadly 1998 tsunami that lashed the same area.