Resumen de Shells and Bones: A Forensic Medicine Study of the Association of Terrestrial Snail Allopeas micra with Buried Human Remains in Brazil

Malthus Fonseca Galvao, José Roberto Pujol-Luz, Cristiane Vieira de Assis Pujol-Luz, Cassio Thyone Almeida de Rosa, Luiz Ricardo L. Simone, Sónia Nair Báo, Karine Brenda Barros Cordeiro, Larissa Pessoa, Giovanna Bissacot

• Little is known regarding the scavenger fauna associated with buried human corpses, particularly in clandestine burials. We report the presence of 20 shells of the terrestrial snail Allopeas micra, within hollow bones of human remains buried for 5 years, during the process of collecting DNA material. The fact that a large number of shells of A. micra had been found in the corpse and in the crime scene supports the assumption that there was no attempt to remove the corpse from the area where the crime occurred. Despite this, our observations cannot be used to estimate the postmortem interval because there is no precise knowledge about the development of this species. This is the first record of a terrestrial snail associated with a human corpse and its role in this forensic medicine case