On land and even in fresh water, insects will devour a body. In the sea, you’re more likely to find other arthropods such as crabs and sea lice—or, less often, fish or sharks, Anderson says.

The decomposition of a human can be affected by many different factors, like moisture, temperature, and insects, not to mention the diverse aspects of the body itself.

Research at body farms—research facilities dedicated to studying what happens to human bodies after death—supplies law enforcement with valuable information about the process of decomposition ...

Massachusetts State Police were the first to respond. "The body, which was wrapped and in a state of decomposition, is now with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for autopsy purposes.

But at human decomposition facilities, sometimes known as "body farms," students and researchers see rotting corpses every day. They watch as scavengers and bacteria feast on them.

Body Mass Index (BMI) Impacts Soil Chemical and Microbial Response to Human Decomposition. mSphere, 2022; DOI: 10.1128/msphere.00325-22 ...

The researchers investigated how intrinsic factors like disease, BMI or medication load affected microbial life at the university’s body donation research facility, specifically established for the ...