Saponification

Related terms

Adipocere

A waxy, soap-like substance formed by saponification of body fat under anaerobic, wet, cool-to-moderate conditions. Replaces unsaturated fatty acids with saturated palmitic...

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...

Calcination

Bone transformation at temperatures above 700°C: complete combustion of the organic collagen fraction, leaving only white hydroxyapatite mineral. Destroys DNA, collagen (precluding...

Carnivore Gnaw Marks

Bone surface modifications produced by carnivore feeding: bilateral cortical furrows from canine teeth at shaft ends and epiphyses, pitting from incisor and...

Dermestid Gnaw Marks

Irregular, randomly spaced small pits and channels on bone cortical and cancellous surfaces produced by Dermestidae (dermestid beetle) larvae feeding at Stage...

Float-Sink Transition

The shift from negative to positive buoyancy in an immersed body as putrefaction gas accumulates in the body cavities. Typically occurs 5...

Maggot Mass Temperature

The elevated temperature (10 to 15°C above ambient) generated by metabolic heat from dense aggregations of blowfly larvae on a decomposing body....

Necrobiome

The microbial community associated with a decomposing body, encompassing the thanatomicrobiome (internal community at the time of death) and the successive soil...

Taphonomic Modifier Correction

A documented adjustment to the raw Megyesi TBS-ADD-PMI estimate to account for identified environmental conditions (climate, soil type, burial, fire, water immersion,...

Explained in

• Taphonomic Modifiers: Soil Chemistry, Scavenging, Fire and Water ImmersionThe chemical conversion of fatty acids to fatty acid salts (soaps) by hydrolysis and hydrogenation under anaerobic conditions. The biochemical mechanism of adi...