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forensic science part 2: the 4 different kinds of -mortis

here's the second part of my death notes. almost everyone knows about rigor mortis, but many people don't know that there are actually 4 different -mortises. 

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1. pallor mortis: this happens 15-20 minutes after the person dies. the heart stops pumping blood and the breathing stops so the skin starts to turn hella pale due to lack of blood flow.

2. algor mortis: this is when the body slowly becomes the temperature of the surrounding area. it lowers from the average body temp of 98.6 down to whatever the outside temps is. USUALLY it goes down. but if it's consistently 100 fuckign degrees then it gets higher i guess. if the surrounding is colder than the body, the body goes down 2 degrees in the first hour and then 1 more degree each hour until it's the same temp as the surroundings. this is not completely accurate all the time though, because other factors such as clothing can make the body lose or gain heat much slower or faster. 

3. rigor mortis: this is when the muscles stiffen and contract. basically when the whole body gets HARD. before rigor mortis the body is soft because of Primary Flaccidity, which is because the brain is dead and cant make the body tense up. (during primary flaccidity, the body expells any bile and bodily fluids such as pee and feces) but then cellular breakdown makes the muscles go all tense. it peaks at like 12 hours and then the body relaxes again. generally this is a more accurate tell to how long the body has been dead because it doesn't rely on other external factors.

4. livor mortis: basically this is when the blood begins to get pulled out of the body parts and pools at the part closest to the ground due to gravity. everywhere except the bottom turns white. at 2 hours is when it starts to become noticeable, at 6 hours staining starts to take place, at around 8-12 hours the stains turn purple because the blood chemistry changes


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Carny Cadaver

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Yo I learned all about this stuff in my forensics class!! I got super excited for no reason when I saw this


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i love forensics! i took a class on it too

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