This study assesses the use of pigs as human proxies in decomposition studies.
This study at the Forensic Investigation Research Station in western Colorado compared decomposition rate and gross tissue change in pig remains and human remains and found that (i) pigs are not an adequate proxy for human decomposition studies, and (ii) in the semiarid environment of western Colorado, there is a need to develop a regional decomposition model. Accumulated degree days (ADD) were used to assess the number of thermal units required to reach a given total body score (TBS) (1) which was used as the measure of decomposition. A comparison of slopes in linear mixed effects model indicated that decomposition rates significantly differed between human donors and pig remains χ2(1) = 5.662, p = 0.017. Neither the pig nor the human trajectory compared well to the TBS model. Pigs are a common human analogue in taphonomic study, yet data comparing the trajectory of decomposition between the two groups has been lacking. (Published Abstract Provided)