---
title: "Horrifying Study: Corpses Thrash Around For a Year After Death"
description: "After photographing dead bodies for 17 months, scientists at a body farm made a greusome discovery: decomposing corpses wriggle around as they dry up."
date: "2019-09-14"
modified: "2019-09-14"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/dead-bodies-thrash-year"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "biology"
  - "death"
  - "forensics"
---

# Horrifying Study: Corpses Thrash Around For a Year After Death

![After photographing dead bodies for 17 months, scientists at a body farm made a greusome discovery: decomposing corpses wriggle around as they dry up.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/dead-bodies-thrash-year.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Images via Pxhere/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

People spinning in their graves is actually quite common, according to gruesome new scientific research.

As bodies decompose, they tend to slowly-but-surely writhe around for a year or longer, [according to *Agence France-Presse*](<https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/skin-crawling-discovery-body-farm-scientists-find-corpses-move-doc-1k89hy2>). This disturbing factoid comes courtesy of scientists at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research — a "body farm" where human corpses are made available for scientific research — and it could have far-reaching implications for forensic investigators.

To determine how corpses wriggle around over time, Australian scientists photographed a man's corpse — donated to the body farm for study — every half hour for 17 months, [according to research](<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589871X19301421>) published last month in a new journal called *Forensic Science International: Synergy*.

Troublingly, the body's arms started down along its sides — but ended up outstretched.

"We think the movements relate to the process of decomposition, as the body mummifies and the ligaments dry out," Central Queensland University scientist Alyson Wilson told *AFP*.

Wilson told *AFP* that she hopes her discovery can help improve forensic investigators interact with bodies at crime scenes. Time-lapse photography is already a commonly-used practice to [monitor decomposition](<https://futurism.com/the-physics-of-death>) and calculate the time of death, but understanding how bodies move over time could make those calculations more accurate.

"Once I observed a movement in a previous study, I started researching and couldn't find anywhere in the world that looks at quantifying the movement," Wilson told *AFP*, "so I thought 'OK, I'm going to do this.'"

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)