New UT research shows humans have different decomposition patterns than pigs and rabbits—a finding that could immediately impact court cases around the world.

For years, forensic court cases worldwide have routinely used animal models to estimate time since death, or postmortem interval, of human remains, largely because access to human subjects was not available. The UT study shows that doing so could yield flawed results because decomposition rates, insect activity, and scavenger activity vary greatly between human and nonhuman subjects.