READ: Forensic Anthropology

Forensic Odontology

Forensic odontology is a field that is closely related to forensic anthropology. Odontology is the study of teeth. Sometimes an odontologist will be consulted in a criminal case. Odontologists can help identify a person based on dental records, or they can sometimes be called on the determine if a bite mark came from a certain person.

Body Farms

Body farms are research facilities where anthropologists study what happens as humans decompose under different conditions. There are several body farms in the United States. The first body farm was started by Dr. William Bass at the University of Tennessee. There is still a body farm run by the university today. The body farm will place bodies in different situations and record what happens as they decompose. This is very helpful to law enforcement agencies during an investigation. They study what happens to bodies under a variety of circumstances such as when a body is wrapped in bags, or when it is in the sun versus the shade, or if it is buried in a shallow grave, etc.

This research provides investigators with a time frame of how decomposition would proceed based on the conditions the body is in. The body farm uses human bodies that people decide to donate to the farm for research. They also sometimes use pig carcasses during the research as well. They study things such as, how insect life cycles proceed in a body, what insects are there, how long stages of decomposition take, and how bones become scattered after a period of time.