Exploring Forensic Analysis of Skulls and Decomposition Dynamics

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The chapter delves into the process of analyzing skulls for forensic cases, challenges in identification using facial features alone, and the role of DNA in bone analysis. It also discusses the operations of a body farm, emotional aspects of working with donors, and the speaker's decision to donate their body for research. The chapter further explores green burials, decomposition dynamics, and the complexities of forensic anthropology compared to TV portrayals.

Let's dig right into Spooktober with ... BONES. You're a steak-covered skeleton and it's nothing to fear. The amazingly kind and committed osteologist Dr. Daniel J. Wescott of Texas State University's famed Forensic Anthropology Research Center sits down -- surrounded by skulls and femurs and ribs -- and chats about how bones are formed, how they break, why they might hurt when the weather changes, what CSI gets wrong, how long it takes a body to decompose, looking for isotopes in found remains, cast iron coffins, skeleton myths, body donation, and more. Will Alie freak out, or will this exposure to hundreds of skeletons under one roof chill her out?

Also, dickbones: are they for winners or losers?

A donation went to the Texas State Forensic Anthropology Research Center

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Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

Special thanks to Dr. Joe Hanson

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