I am looking for novel ways to determine if the cause of death of an animal carcass was predation or if the carcass has subsequently been scavenged post-death due to other causes. The carcasses I will be looking at range form a couple of days old to several weeks old. For carcasses that are found fresh, I can look at bite marks and haemorrhaging around the neck area to imply predation. However, for carcasses that are not found immediately and may be somewhat eaten or decomposed I am lost as to how to attribute the death of the animal to predation, or other causes, with the carcass having be subsequently scavenged. Thanks in advance.
Hello,
That's also a key point for many forensic cases... Some specific scavenging patterns have been identified for common human pets (Article Specific Patterns of Canine Scavenging in Indoor Settings
) . But regarding wildlife things are of course different.For more or less fresh carcasses, a necropsy and careful histological analysis can give the answer. But after several days or weeks, and especially in cases of heavy decomposition with maggots feedings on the wounds, I believe it's impossible to answer this question...
Damien
Bones may display many specific signs of scavenging, well identified in Ubelaker's book : https://books.google.fr/books/about/Forensic_Taphonomy.html?id=oNsbKIeZpcQC&redir_esc=y
Thomas
Hello Patrick, this is indeed a very important and topical issue in taphonomy, including on humans. Accurate distinction between perimortem and postmortem trauma can be quite challenging, all the more in cases of advanced decomposition where the perimortem trauma can be concealed (See here for more details: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27623973). There is quite a lot of literature on the topic but as far as I'm aware, no clear consensus has been reached so far and I think further research is indeed much needed. I would be very interested to hear more about your project. Feel free to keep me posted on your findings. I wish you all the best with your research.
Best wishes,
Agathe
It depends on what level of certainty you want to assess your hypothesis. From the above I would say these signs are inconclusive, all can occur postmortem.
Decomposition poses a problem for many methods which are used to determine vitality when the injury occurred, however, perhaps histology and more specifically protein expression might help you to determine vitality.
van de Goot, F. R., Korkmaz, H. I., Fronczek, J., Witte, B. I., Visser, R., Ulrich, M. M., ... & Niessen, H. W. (2014). A new method to determine wound age in early vital skin injuries: A probability scoring system using expression levels of Fibronectin, CD62p and Factor VIII in wound hemorrhage. Forensic science international, 244, 128-135.
van de Goot, F. R., & Fronczek, J. (2017). The Dating of Injury; The Five Step Approach. A Clinical Method to Enlighten Forensic Aspects. In Essentials of Autopsy Practice (pp. 157-177). Springer International Publishing.
Dear Patrick and colleages,
I hope this two papers might help concerning how to differentiate between scavenged and predated humans (not an easy task when you only have fragmented skeletal remains). The research is half way between Archaeology and Forensic Anthropology.
Best!
Article Large carnivore attacks on hominins during the Pleistocene: ...
Article Hunted or Scavenged Neanderthals? Taphonomic Approach to Hom...
This is easy; you can follow the works of dominguez rodrigo, but when it comes to human activity, it is important to observe where the cutting marks are located, and the % of cut marks and his distribution Whe the cur mars appear in upper long bones (humerus and femur) or / and axial bones such as ribs, scapule, pelvis, is an indication of firs human access to the carcass = hunting.
There are authors who speak of the frequencies of tooth marks, however that is not decisive since carnivores always consume bones, whether they are hunters or scavengers, and in consequently they always leave tooth marks
best regards
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