The Forensic Biology course is investigating what happens to a body after death and how to determine PMI (post mortem interval). Maxwell was a 60 pound feeder pig who died a natural death and was then donated to the program. Maxwell was placed outdoors and nature was allowed to proceed uninterrupted.
Unfortunately, for the first week that Maxwell was placed outdoors, temperatures plummeted to refrigerator range and lower, so very little decomposition was observable, and insects were not active. Temperatures then rose into the 60-80 degree range.
About a day after temperatures rose again, black blowflies and blue blowflies were observed walking on the specimen. After three days at higher temperatures, saw beetles were observed as well as other unidentified species of fly.
Photos of Maxwell can be found here. Please be aware that these are photos of decomposition and may not be for the faint of heart or stomach.
First pictures: April 8, 2011.
New Pictures: April 11, 2011. Insects present include bluebottle flies, greenbottle flies, ants, unidentified gnats, silpha beetles and geotrupine dung beetles, carrion beetles. The body was examined by the Forensic Biology class.
New Pictures: April 14, 2011. Large number of fly larvae. The body has been extensively scavenged, possibly by a possum. The site was processed by the Trace Evidence class as a sample crime scene.
New Pictures: April 18-20, 2011. The Forensic Biology class processed the scene and collected insect larvae and adults. No puparia were located. Bloat caused the body to burst allowing a gigantic maggot mass to spill out. Maggots are covering much of the body. Maggot activity has completely exposed the skull.
New Pictures: April 26, 2011. Maxwell is now primarily bones in a gooey bug-filled mess. Maggot activity has stripped away most of the soft tissue.