One of the surprising things about the natural world is that animals are dying around us all the time and yet we rarely see any evidence of it. This is a testimony to the efficiency of the large variety of organisms which decompose animal corpses. Whilst bacteria and fungi are the main groups involved in decomposition processes, the larger insects additionally provide an important physical disruption of body tissues, which aids the penetration of micro organisms and speeds the collapse of the body structure. A human corpse is treated no differently and the same groups of organisms are...