Forensic scientists have long used dead pigs and other animals as stand-ins for humans to better understand how the body decomposes after death.

Their research on decomposing animals has informed the views of forensic experts in police investigations. Expert witnesses have cited studies in court testimony, and the research has enjoyed star turns on television shows like “C.S.I.”

But recent work by a team of scientists at the University of Tennessee suggests that for anyone trying to draw conclusions about a person’s time of death or the way that decomposition progresses, pigs may be a poor substitute for humans.

The study, conducted at the university’s famed Forensic Anthropology Center, widely known as the Body Farm, compared the decomposition rates of pigs, rabbits and humans during different seasons. The speed at which the three species decomposed differed significantly, the researchers found, and the human bodies varied more in how rapidly they decomposed than the other animals. more