ESTIMATING THE ROLE OF ARTHROPOD SUCCESSION IN PREDICTING THE POSTMORTEM INTERVAL OF INDOOR DROWNED AND SLAUGHTERED RAT CADAVERS

Abstract

Estimating the succession period of a carcass, or the so-called postmortem interval, is a topic that has occupied forensic arthropodologists since the nineteenth century. Arthropods are considered one of the main invertebrates for accessing and colonizing cadavers. The present study aimed to identify the arthropod succession in indoor rat carcasses. The current study considered the link between the developmental larval stages of arthropods and the postmortem interval. Fifteen female Wistar rats ( Rattus norvegicus ) were equally allotted into three experimental models based on their manner of death: group “1” (control, killing by head dislocation), group “2” (killing by drowning), and group “3” (killing by slaughtering). The abundance of related arthropods did not differ greatly between the control and the drowning groups, but there are clear differences between the two groups in the carrion's shape and color. The slaughtered group showed a large difference in the abundance of related arthropods from groups “1 and 2”. This study reported 16 invertebrates’ taxa belonging to 13