...an additional question: In Bryant et al. 1996 I read that New Zealand is the only country which uses forensic palynology routinely. Is this information still valid?
It is used frequently and accepted in the UK as well. Patricia Whitshire would be a very good resource.
This is a good intro video on forensic palynology http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_drori_every_pollen_grain_has_a_story.html.
Could I make a plea or you all to use the word "forensic" accurately. Nothing is forensic unless it has the potential of being heard in a court of law. One major aspect of my work is defending it against the opposition in court under cross examination. I have been cross-examined continuously for periods of five days several times. It is very hard indeed. The nature of our work is very different from that of the non-forensic palynologist. Many of the models in standard text books just do not apply. The forensic palynologist needs to have a strong background in botany, ecology, and soil science.
Thanks a lot for your help-the lecture was a success. Unfortunately I downloaded Hawksworth & Wiltshire´s article about forensic mycology too late....
Hawksworth DL, Wiltshire PEJ (2011)
Forensic mycology: the use of fungi in criminal
investigations. Forensic Science International 206:1-11.
I have written several papers on problems associated with palynological taphonomy. You will find them in Forensic Science International (2006). They do not make easy reading and so tend to be ignored by many authors. However, you will find useful information in them. Most papers tend to deal with case histories but do not address fundamental difficulties. Each case is unique and each presents its own problems. It is exceedingly difficult to construct predictive models based on a few case histories, or on individual experiments. The only way to understand this discipline is to do case after case after case which, of course, is what I have been doing in the UK over the last 20 years. The literature contains too many papers based on limited information.
If you just put a range of key words into Google or Google Scholar, you will get lots of literature on many aspects of environmental forensics.
May be a little late for a reply, but this paper also looks at amoebae in this context:
Swindles, G.T. and Ruffell, A. 2009. A preliminary investigation into the use of testate amoebae for the discrimination of forensic soil samples. Science and Justice 49, 182-190.
Thanks a lot-will take a look (esp. because testate amoeba are quite interesting…)
The problem is that you hardly ever come across them in the forensic context. When you think about it, any tiny organism could be relevant but, because of the nature of most criminal activity, they are unlikely ever to be important or valuable.
Indeed a fair point, I just thought it might be interesting to include for the sake of variety, curiosity and breadth; I am not a forensic palynologist, merely a palynologist of the ordinary variety, but as far as I know the use of testate amoebae in forensic contexts is in its early stages.
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