Marine taphonomy: Adipocere formation in a series of bodies recovered froma single shipwreck

Taphonomy of marine environments has been studied mostly from individual ca ses. The formation of adipocere, or "grave-wax," is an important indicator of the postmortem interval. In thr: present paper, the conditions and the t iming of adipoceric formation are observed in a series of 15 cadavers recov ered at different times, over a period of 433 days, from the same contained environment. Initial foci of adipocere on the subcutaneous tissue of the c adavers were detected as early as 38 days from the time of immersion in col d (10-12 degrees C) sea water. The discrepancies between our findings and p revious reports on the correlation between time since death and decompositi on stages in marine environments are discussed.