A study on the carrion fauna in the littoral zone

Magni, P.A. and Scaravelli, D. (2006) A study on the carrion fauna in the littoral zone. In: 4th Meeting European Association for Forensic Entomology (EAFE), 26 - 29 April 2006, Bari, Italy

Abstract

In the past many experimental works on the necrophagous fauna highlighted a big presence of “not specialized” fauna in carrion decomposition. Specialists ignored this array of species for a long time, though their presence is very important as occasional active participant of body degradation. Also these taxa are potential contenders, predators and parasites of carrion fauna, able to partially or totally inhibit the development of some species usually used as foremost indicator of PMI. In some habitats the presence of this fauna is particularly high and when the body is positioned in ecotonal situation, the inference between different sources of degradation agents can complicate the scenario. This work is aimed at studying the specific habitat of the littoral zone, that can be considered a ephemeral transition between aquatic and land environments. Along coastal area it is possible to find human and animal corpses, carried by waves, currents and tides. The purpose of these experiments is to monitor animals naturally stranded on the Italian coasts and to carry out specific carrion studies in controlled conditions along littoral zones.

Item Type:	Conference Paper
Conference Website:	http://www.eafe.org/
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/57685

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