Rodents as taphonomic agents: bone gnawing by brown rats and gray squirrels

Autor:	Jennifer A. Synstelien, Walter E. Klippel
Rok vydání:	2007
Předmět:	Taphonomy Temperate environment Behavior Animal Forensic anthropology Sciuridae Anatomy Nocturnal Biology Bone and Bones Pathology and Forensic Medicine Rats medicine.anatomical_structure Postmortem Changes Genetics medicine Animals Forensic Anthropology Humans sense organs Cancellous bone
Zdroj:	Journal of forensic sciences. 52(4)
ISSN:	0022-1198
Popis:	Passive infrared technology was used to film diurnal and nocturnal scavenging behavior of brown rats and gray squirrels at the University of Tennessee's Anthropological Research Facility. This direct documentation demonstrated that brown rats modified fat-laden cancellous bone while gray squirrels generally gnawed the thicker bone cortices only after fats had leached away. A case study placed in a shaded portion of the Facility indicated the postmortem interval for initial gnawing by gray squirrels was slightly over 30 months. An examination of 53 human skeletons in the William M. Bass Forensic Skeletal Collection revealed that 10 cases had gnaw marks consistent with those made by gray squirrels. One of the 10 cases had been gnawed within 16 months of time-since-death, while the remaining nine had postmortem intervals >30 months. Additional observed modifications made to nonhuman bone by gray squirrels indicate that squirrel gnaw marks on bone can serve as a minimal estimate of time-since-death in a temperate environment similar to that of East Tennessee.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::65a4ff3544d0daf6fb2de48a383467e3 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17524050 Zobrazit plný text záznamu Plný text