Human Evolution A 'landmark finding': Homo naledi buried their dead 250,000 years ago, according to newly updated research. ... "When you see such a kind of body with adipocere, ...

What exactly happens to human remains at sea? How long does it take for a body to decompose in water? Here is everything you need to know about how bodies decompose in water.

With a little work experts found that it was human, ... The whitish substance wasn’t just a blob around it, but had grown from the body itself. It’s called adipocere, or corpse wax.

That's what happens when chemical changes transform body fat into adipocere, which has the consistency of semi-hard cheese and a soapy, ... 5 Stages of Human Decomposition.

Human fat is converted by bacteria into free fatty acids, which then harden into the soap-like adipocere that can effectively mummify the dead. Adipocere can also help scientists date corpses.

The adipocere could have formed in these conditions and would have helped prevent the body decaying in the water. For a closer look at Ötzi's clothing and artefacts, view the Iceman gallery .

Style A museum’s historic human remains are now the center of an ethics clash. At the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, 19th-century body parts are reexamined under the modern lens of medical consent ...