My name is Lauri Thompson, and I am the Project Manager for eSkeletons.org. I am a trained physical anthropologist and an archaeologist. My area is human osteology - BONES! I am very excited about our new website (in progress) www.eForensics.info. The site is not currently live, but for the purposes of this blog you are able to reach the site through the link on the introduction page or http://webtest.austin.utexas.edu/eforensics/ this is our development server and not the actual website address.
The eForensics Project website is designed for the practical application of osteological knowledge gained from the eSkeletons.org website. eForensics.info is focused on the study of Forensic Anthropology and offers an interactive set of teaching modules that allow users to learn the standard methods in osteology (skeletal anatomy and biology) that are used to identify skeletal remains and, in some cases, the cause of death. These methods include Age and Sex Assessment, Stature and Ancestry Estimation, and observations on Pathology (disease) and Taphonomy (after death processes) and are the evaluation techniques forensic anthropologists use to gain important information from a skeleton.
eForensics, when finished, will also offer teacher lesson downloads for different age levels, focusing primarily on middle and high school. However, both sites, eForensics and eSkeletons, are designed for learners of all ages. We are excited to participate in this blog and hope to gain valuable feedback towards both the construction of the new website and information as to what lessons provide the greatest interest for students.
For a starting point, how many of you had previously heard of the term “taphonomy”? Now that you know what it means, how many different things can you think of that would affect bones post-mortem (after-death)? On a deeper level, what are some of the taphonomic processes that could possibly cause a scientist to draw an erroneous (incorrect) conclusion when analyzing a skeleton? What could some of those conclusions be?
Best,
Lauri
Lauri,
Looking forward to what Elizabeth’s class finds out about “taphonomy.”
FYI I found this in NSDL from the Directory of Open Access Journals that may or may not be related to what happens after death. This is about pre-mortem cell information about “programmed cell death” that eliminates damaged cells so that the overall organism might be stronger:
Life after death: are trypanosomatids programmed to die for the survival of their partners?”
How fast do individual cells die when the overall organism dies? is it all at once?
Hi Carol,
I would say that the individual cells die as soon as their O2 supply is eliminated. At that point the process of decomposition would begin. Taphonomy comes from the Latin word “taphos” meaning “death”. Taphonomy is the study of what happens to bones after death and is concerned with such issues as how they were buried and preserved in matrix (dirt or earth). A taphonomist studies phenomena such as sedimentation, preservation properties of bone and other objects, and disturbance factors such as carnivores and rodents. The focus of taphonomy is the processes after death not the cellular causes of death. The article you pointed to presents more of a biological issue than a taphonomic issue.
Best,
Lauri