The PMSI in marine environment: a multidisciplinary approach

The evaluation of PMSI (post mortem submerged interval) can be a useful instrument for understanding time of death and/or time of disappearance, for personal identification of bodies found in an aquatic environment. PMSI estimation is the result of the combined assessment of taphonomic factors, thanatological factors and entomological/biological factors (i.e. the studies of sessile invertebrate). Our study represents the first research on decomposition in seawater which made it possible to obtain a linear regression formula for the calculation of the time of death. So our thanatological results, the evaluation of taphonomic factors and the study of biological elements (study of life cycle of a species of Barnacles: Lepas anatifera) can give useful indications to estimate time of death in case of decomposed bodies discovered in Southern Adriatic Sea.