Decomposition
Autolysis is when the body's cells consume themselves, through the action of the digestive enzymes released by the lysosomes into the cell's cytoplasm. Enzymes, however, are not alive. Autolysis is aseptic (free of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites- which ARE alive).
oops. later date insertion here: "Is a virus a living thing?
Not really. A living thing has seven features of life. These are feeding, respiring, excreting, growing, moving, breeding and responding to changes in the surroundings. When a virus is outside the body it does none of these things. In fact viruses can be stored in jars just like crystals of salt or sugar. When the virus is in the body it only breeds and this is just a process in which the DNA is copied. It does not even grow its case. The cell makes that for it. "
The party starts -your "life after death"- when, after autolysis creates an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment, your body's normal bacteria consume the body's carbs, proteins, and lipids. Bacteria are life-forms. (Btw, A "synthetic" bacterial life-form, whose parents were a "computer", was just created by Craig Venter (in wikinews).) It is estimated that there are 500-1000 species of microbiota in the human gut, and the same on the skin. Bacterial consumption of a corpse is called putrefaction.
If the body is outside,
Flys, especially blowflies, lay their eggs on the body so the young can consume the rotting flesh, to get a proper start on life.
Scavengers: Coyotes, dogs, wolves, foxes, crows, rats, and vultures all eat carrion.
And if the body is on the ground or in the soil, there is considerable activity by:
arthropods ("joint-legged" with exoskelotons, such as insects, spiders, etc. -over 1,170,000 described species; a study says there may be up to 5-10 million extant species) join in.
-Sarcophagidae ("flesh-flies") lay eggs, larvae, which are maggots that live 5-10 days.
-Formicidae (ants),
-Muscidae (house-flies),
-Sphaeroceridae (dung-flies/lesser corpse flies) of which there are over 1,3oo species, all in the section schizophora.
-Silphidae (known commonly as carrion or burying beetles)
-Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies; more than 180,000 species)
-Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants, sawflies)
-Histeridae (clown-beetles; 3900 species)
-Staphylinidae (rove beetles; 46,000)
-Piophilidae (cheese flies; they do not take residence in a human corpse until 3-6 months after death)
-Araneae (spiders; 40k species)
-Sepsidae (black scavenger flies/ensign flies; 250 species)
and after bloating comes the 'black stage' of putrefaction, which has:
-Gamasid mites (most mites are microscopic; 48,200 species are described (an estimated 5% of the total)
-Ptomaphila
-Trichopterygidae (aka ptiliidae; 630+ species, found in rotting organic material)
-Dermestes (feed on dry dead animals and vegetable material)
-Tyroglyphid mites (mold mites)
-Tineid larvae (clothes moths)
-and Diptera larvae "in almost all cases" ("True" flies, with only 1 pair of wings; a large order, containing 240,000 species of flies, mosquitoes, midges, and gnats)
Wikipedia's article on decomposition also details all the types of life that can be found around or near a corpse on the ground, as well.
Fungi, too, get some action.
That's a whole lotta Life After Death! A regular city, I should say.
which sheds new light on the expression "are survived by," lol.
