Scientists identify “universal network” of microbes for decomposing flesh

Forensic scientists have identified a universal network of microbes driving the decomposition of dead animal flesh.

The National Institute of Justice funded the study.

The researchers conducted outdoor experiments between 2016 and 2017 on 36 human cadavers.

They found the same 20 decomposing microbes on all of the bodies, regardless of outdoor exposure.

The model performed remarkably well, predicting time of death within three calendar days in independent tests. The team attributes lingering errors to intrinsic factors like BMI /total body mass and extrinsic factors like scavengers and precipitation. These will be studied in future research to further improve predictive models.