AFTER
Definition
Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research, University of Technology Sydney (2016). First body farm outside the United States; subtropical eastern Australian decomposition rate calibration and Australian insect succession research.
- Full name
- Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research
- Institution
- University of Technology Sydney
- Opened
- 2016
- Significance
- First human taphonomy facility outside the United States
- Research focus
- Subtropical decomposition rates and Australian insect succession
Common questions
Why did it take until 2016 for a body farm to open outside the US?+
Donor-body research facilities require specific legal permissions for outdoor human decomposition, dedicated secure land, and public and ethical acceptance, all of which took decades to negotiate outside the original Tennessee model.
Why does a facility in Australia matter if Tennessee already has one?+
Decomposition rate and insect colonisation are strongly climate- and species-dependent, so postmortem interval formulas built from Tennessee data do not transfer accurately to subtropical Australian conditions or its distinct blowfly fauna.
Related terms
- Accumulated Degree Days (ADD)
- The sum of daily mean temperatures above a threshold (usually 0 °C) over a period of interest. Used as a measure of...
- Anthropology Research Facility (ARF)
- The first outdoor human decomposition research facility, established by William M. Bass at the University of Tennessee Knoxville in 1981. The foundational...
- Cadaver Decomposition Island (CDI)
- The localised area of soil and vegetation altered by the decomposition fluids and gases released from a body. A CDI has a...
- FACTS
- Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State, San Marcos Texas. Semi-arid Hill Country climate, providing a third distinct US regional ADD calibration baseline...
- Human Tissue Act 2004 (HTA)
- UK legislation governing the use of human tissue for scheduled purposes including research. Any outdoor human decomposition research facility in the United...
- Necrobiome
- The microbial community associated with a decomposing body, encompassing the thanatomicrobiome (internal community at the time of death) and the successive soil...
- Scavenger Succession
- The sequence in which vertebrate carrion feeders (dogs, coyotes, vultures, raccoons, rodents, feral pigs) interact with decomposing remains. Documented systematically by Haglund...
- STAFS
- Southeast Texas Applied Forensic Science Facility, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville Texas (2009). The second major US body farm; subtropical humid Gulf...
- Willed-Body Donation
- The voluntary, pre-mortem consent by an individual to donate their remains to a specific research programme after death. Distinguished from anatomical donation...