microbial clock

English

Etymology

Term coined by microbial ecologist and evolutionary biologist Jessica Metcalf around 2010.

Noun

microbial clock (plural microbial clocks)

related to post-mortem forensic analysis, this is a specific microbiome which changes in a stereotypical fashion which marks time passed after expiration of a human or animal.

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.

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