It was an informative session and it was very useful to me. Got to learn a lot from this ongoing lecture series. Thanks for conducting this session.
Forensic taphonomy is a subfield of forensic anthropology that involves studying what happens to the body after death. In recent years, it has seen unprecedented growth. Forensic experts and archaeologists use it to analyze data collected from the crime scene and reconstruct the crime scene using objects found, like skeletal remains, preserved plant parts, shells, etc.
The word ‘taphonomy’ derives its origin from ancient Greek, where ‘tapho’ means ‘burial’ and ‘nomos’ means 'laws', so it is the study of the laws of burial, or, to be more precise, the study of burials applied in a legal context. It emerged as a science in the 1940s as a support for paleontology to explain how and why animals become preserved and fossilized in their environment.
Due to this need, taphonomy has expanded to include the study of processes that affect decomposition, fossilization, burial, and erosion. So far, so good, but what has this got to do with forensics? Well, forensic taphonomy investigates the factors that decompose bodies and alter evidence that is subject to a medico-legal investigation.
Currently, the two major branches of forensic taphonomy are biotaphonomy and geotaphonomy.
This webinar on "Forensic Taphonomy: Identification of Chemical Biomarkers for Forensic Medicine", will focus on taphonomy overview, types of taphonomy, factors affecting the taphonomic process, its advantages, and its role in legal proceedings.
