NCJ Number
249077
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 60 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2015 Pages: 844-850
Date Published
July 2015
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Bacteria are taphonomic agents of human decomposition, potentially useful for estimating postmortem interval (PMI) in late-stage decomposition. The current study obtained bone samples from 12 individuals and three soil samples were analyzed to assess the effects of decomposition and advancing time on bacterial communities.
Abstract
Results indicated that partially skeletonized remains maintained a presence of bacteria associated with the human gut, whereas bacterial composition of dry skeletal remains maintained a community profile similar to soil communities. Variation in the UniFrac distances was significantly greater between groups than within groups (p < 0.001) for the unweighted metric and not the weighted metric. The members of the bacterial communities were more similar within than between decomposition stages. The oligotrophic environment of bone relative to soft tissue and the physical protection of organic substrates may preclude bacterial blooms during the first years of skeletonization. Therefore, community membership (unweighted) may be better for estimating PMI from skeletonized remains than community structure (weighted). (Publisher abstract modified)
Date Published: July 1, 2015