Rodents as Taphonomic Agents: Bone Gnawing by Brown Rats and Gray Squirrels

:  Passive infrared technology was used to film diurnal and nocturnal scavenging behavior of brown rats and gray squirrels at the University of Tennessee’s Anthropological Research Facility. This direct documentation demonstrated that brown rats modified fat‐laden cancellous bone while gray squirrel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of forensic sciences 2007-07, Vol.52 (4), p.765-773
Main Authors: Klippel, Walter E., Synstelien, Jennifer A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anthropology
Behavior, Animal
Bone and Bones
bone modification
Bones
forensic anthropology
Forensic Anthropology - methods
Forensic osteology
forensic science
Forensic sciences
Humans
Postmortem Changes
postmortem interval
postmortem scavenging
Rats
Rodents
Sciuridae
taphonomy
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Summary::  Passive infrared technology was used to film diurnal and nocturnal scavenging behavior of brown rats and gray squirrels at the University of Tennessee’s Anthropological Research Facility. This direct documentation demonstrated that brown rats modified fat‐laden cancellous bone while gray squirrels generally gnawed the thicker bone cortices only after fats had leached away. A case study placed in a shaded portion of the Facility indicated the postmortem interval for initial gnawing by gray squirrels was slightly over 30 months. An examination of 53 human skeletons in the William M. Bass Forensic Skeletal Collection revealed that 10 cases had gnaw marks consistent with those made by gray squirrels. One of the 10 cases had been gnawed within 16 months of time‐since‐death, while the remaining nine had postmortem intervals >30 months. Additional observed modifications made to nonhuman bone by gray squirrels indicate that squirrel gnaw marks on bone can serve as a minimal estimate of time‐since‐death in a temperate environment similar to that of East Tennessee.
ISSN:0022-1198
1556-4029
DOI:10.1111/j.1556-4029.2007.00467.x