Okay, but mammals have existed for 200M+ years before us, and reptiles, with similar-enough cells, for ~400M+ years, and on down the line. Were all of THEM hanging around for hundreds of millions of years?
Did people talk about how once livestock died, they never decayed? You know, just let it hang out as long as you want before you butcher it - refrigeration before refrigeration! Or how when dogs died, their corpses were perfectly preserved?
Simple: most creatures were simply eaten after they died, often by their own family members! Ancient humans were a bit opposed to this, but the poorest did often feed deceased bodies to their livestock
Fascinating! But I find it hard to believe that microbes, having had countless millennia to hone their craft, would leave giant piles of free food lying around until only a few thousand years ago.
I appreciate the skepticism. But strange things have been known to happen! For instance, for about 60 million years during the Carboniferous, trees couldn't rot, as lignin-digesting fungi hadn't evolved yet, so forests just piled up, slowly compressing down underneath the earth. And that's where coal comes from!
Decomposition starts with the gut microbiome—which was, of course, there in life. Since the deceased has stopped eating, there’s a switch in selective pressure, from bacteria that break down mainly carbohydrates (like the Enterobacteriaceae family) to ones that break down protein, which the dead body has lots of (like Fusobacterium, some Bacteroides, and Clostridia). This is why bloating is one of the first stages in decomposition, as the anaerobic metabolism of the gut microbiome produces more gas.
So it can’t be the case that saprophytes are a new invention. The decomposition call was coming from inside the house the whole time.
Very well written - all new to me, quite disgusting to think of dead bodies lying one above the other for unknown times and smelling kms away(three days away- travel-wise) from anaerobic metabolism producing gas. Also hard to believe that his grandmother's body stayed fresh for 3-4 days. Reading this i was reminded of Parsee well that I used to cross every day during my Ph. D days. Thanks for the enlightenment Abhishaike!
You almost had me there… please do more!
Okay, but mammals have existed for 200M+ years before us, and reptiles, with similar-enough cells, for ~400M+ years, and on down the line. Were all of THEM hanging around for hundreds of millions of years?
Did people talk about how once livestock died, they never decayed? You know, just let it hang out as long as you want before you butcher it - refrigeration before refrigeration! Or how when dogs died, their corpses were perfectly preserved?
Simple: most creatures were simply eaten after they died, often by their own family members! Ancient humans were a bit opposed to this, but the poorest did often feed deceased bodies to their livestock
Fascinating! But I find it hard to believe that microbes, having had countless millennia to hone their craft, would leave giant piles of free food lying around until only a few thousand years ago.
I appreciate the skepticism. But strange things have been known to happen! For instance, for about 60 million years during the Carboniferous, trees couldn't rot, as lignin-digesting fungi hadn't evolved yet, so forests just piled up, slowly compressing down underneath the earth. And that's where coal comes from!
This is not true. Lignin digesting fungi were ubiquitous in the Carboniferous period. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1517943113
Dude you are such a lovely writer. Please do continue.
With love,
Me
Wow. That is a good story, but not something conducive to my having a good night’s sleep while I contemplate the origin of human rot.
very nice, thank you.
Decomposition starts with the gut microbiome—which was, of course, there in life. Since the deceased has stopped eating, there’s a switch in selective pressure, from bacteria that break down mainly carbohydrates (like the Enterobacteriaceae family) to ones that break down protein, which the dead body has lots of (like Fusobacterium, some Bacteroides, and Clostridia). This is why bloating is one of the first stages in decomposition, as the anaerobic metabolism of the gut microbiome produces more gas.
So it can’t be the case that saprophytes are a new invention. The decomposition call was coming from inside the house the whole time.
Wait though you mention a merchant in *salted fish*, but why would they need to be salted if there was no chance of them decaying, hm, hm, *hm*?
An extremely fun read. I for one embrace the krissification of Owl Posting
Very well written - all new to me, quite disgusting to think of dead bodies lying one above the other for unknown times and smelling kms away(three days away- travel-wise) from anaerobic metabolism producing gas. Also hard to believe that his grandmother's body stayed fresh for 3-4 days. Reading this i was reminded of Parsee well that I used to cross every day during my Ph. D days. Thanks for the enlightenment Abhishaike!