microbial clock

English

Etymology

Coined by the microbial ecologist and evolutionary biologist Jessica Metcalf c. 2010.

Noun

microbial clock (plural microbial clocks)

1. (forensic science, forensic biology) The predictable, time-dependent succession of microbial communities during the postmortem decomposition of a body, used to estimate the postmortem interval.

References

• Beans, Carolyn (2 January 2018). "Can microbes keep time for forensic investigators?". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 115 (1): 3–6 – via PubMed Central.