Next generation forensic taphonomy: Automation for experimental, field-based research

Determining the post-mortem interval (PMI) is often a critical goal in forensic casework. Consequently, the discipline of forensic taphonomy has involved considerable research efforts towards achieving this goal, with substantial strides made in the past 40 years. Importantly, quantification of decompositional data (and the models derived from them) and standardisation in experimental protocols are being increasingly re-cognised as key components of this drive. However, despite the discipline's best efforts, significant chal-lenges remain. Still lacking are standardisation of many core components of experimental design, forensic realism in experimental design, true quantitative measures of the progression of decay, and high-resolution data. Without these critical elements, large-scale, synthesised multi-biogeographically representative da-tasets - necessary for building comprehensive models of decay to precisely estimate PMI - remain elusive. To address these limitations, we propose the automation of taphonomic data collection. We present the world's first reported fully automated, remotely operable forensic taphonomic data collection system, in-clusive of technical design details. Through laboratory testing and field deployments, the apparatus sub-stantially reduced the cost of actualistic (field-based) forensic taphonomic data collection, improved data resolution, and provided for more forensically realistic experimental deployments and simultaneous multi-biogeographic experiments. We argue that this device represents a quantum leap in experimental meth-odology in this field, paving the way for the next generation of forensic taphonomic research and, we hope, attainment of the elusive goal of precise estimation of PMI.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Determining the post-mortem interval (PMI) is a critical goal in forensic casework. The discipline of forensic taphonomy has made significant progress in the past 40 years, but still faces challenges such as standardization of experimental design, quantitative measures of decay, and high-resolution data.