Forensic taphonomy, porcine analogues, and stable isotopes: changes in pig skin and muscle δ13C & δ15N during the early post-mortem interval in Atlantic Canada

This study aimed to provide preliminary regionally-specific taphonomic data in Atlantic Canada using porcine analogues. Six adult porcine analogues were left outdoors to decompose naturally in late summer, sampled every three days to measure δ13C and δ15N in both skin and muscle over a total of twelve days. Over the course of the study, as porcine analogues transitioned through the fresh, bloat, and active decay stages of decomposition, δ15Nmuscle became enriched from a mean starting value of 4.1‰, first detectable at day-6 in the bloat phase by a mean change of ∼0.5‰. No such enrichments were found in δ15Nskin, δ13Cskin, or δ13Cmuscle. This snapshot-in-time study provides important preliminary evidence that porcine muscle tissues become enriched in δ15N as decomposition progresses and is detectable in the very early post-mortem interval. Future research can expand these findings to further elucidate the potential of stable isotopes as a quantifier of post-mortem interval in humans, and further taphonomic research in the under-studied region of Atlantic Canada.