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Haemotaphonomy or hemotaphonomy (from the Greek haima for blood, taphos for burial, and nomos for law) is the study of bloodstains, and especially of the changes in appearance and size of the cellular components, as well as the characteristics of their cell position and appearance in function of the superficial topography and composition of the substrate. This science was founded by the Catalan biologist Policarp Hortolà, who in 1992 used for the first time the term 'hemotaphonomy' to refer to his cytomorphological researches on red blood cells in bloodstains. [1] Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means. ...
Human red blood cells Red blood cells are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate bodys principal means of delivering oxygen from the lungs or gills to body tissues via the blood. ...
This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...
Historical antecedents of haemotaphonomy
The most abundant of the blood corpuscles (the red blood cells) were yet observed during the last half of the 17th century by early optical microscopists, such as Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Jan Swammerdam, Marcello Malpighi and Anton van Leeuwenhoek. The occurrence of (at least cytomorphological) preservation of anucleate, mammalian red blood cells in bloodstains has been reported even in Olduwan palaeolithic tools from Sterkfontein Cave (South Africa), assigned to be ca. 2 Ma old,[2] at the boundary between the Pliocene and the Pleistocene epochs. These corpuscles have also been identified in prehistoric immovable items, such as an early Holocene building at Çayönü Tepesi (Turkey), containing anucleate red blood cells, human immunoglobulin G (IgG) and both human and non-human haemoglobin (Hb) on a stone slab. [3] Human blood smear: a - erythrocytes; b - neutrophil; c - eosinophil; d - lymphocyte. ...
Giovanni Borelli ( 1608- 1679), born in Pisa, Italy, was a Renaissance physicist and mathematician. ...
Jan Swammerdam (February 12, 1637 - February 17, 1680) was a Dutch biologist and microscopist. ...
Marcello Malpighi (March 10, 1628 - November 29, 1694) was an Italian doctor, who gave his name to several physiological features. ...
Anton van Leeuwenhoek Anton van Leeuwenhoek (October 24, 1632 - August 30, 1723, full name Thonius Philips van Leeuwenhoek (pronounced Layewenhook) was a Dutch tradesman and scientist from Delft, Netherlands. ...
Orders Multituberculata (extinct) Palaeoryctoides (extinct) Triconodonta (extinct) Subclass Australosphenida Ausktribosphenida Monotremata Subclass Eutheria (excludes extinct ancestors) Afrosoricida Anagaloidea (extinct) Arctostylopida (extinct) Artiodactyla Carnivora Cetacea Chiroptera Cimolesta (extinct) Cingulata Creodonta (extinct) Condylarthra (extinct) Dermoptera Desmostylia (extinct) Dinocerata (extinct) Embrithopoda (extinct) Hyracoidea Insectivora Lagomorpha Leptictida (extinct) Litopterna (extinct) Macroscelidea Mesonychia (extinct) Notoungulata...
Chopper with a Simple edge. ...
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic – lit. ...
Archaeologists in a structure above the entrance to Sterkfontein. ...
Annum is a Latin noun meaning year. ...
The Pliocene epoch (spelled Pleiocene in some older texts) is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5. ...
The Pleistocene epoch (IPA: ) is part of the geologic timescale. ...
// For other uses, see time scale. ...
Stonehenge, England, erected by Neolithic peoples ca. ...
The Holocene epoch is a geological period that extends from the present back about 10,000 radiocarbon years. ...
Schematic of antibody binding to an antigen An antibody or immunoglobulin is a large Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects like bacteria and viruses. ...
3-dimensional structure of hemoglobin Hemoglobin or haemoglobin is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red cells of the blood in mammals and other animals. ...
Some epistemological principles of haemotaphonomy The presence of all kind of residues on implements agrees with the criminalistic well-known Locard’s Principle of Exchange ('every contact leaves traces'). On the other hand, experimental palaeontology (actuopalaeontology) and experimental archaeology are both based upon the Lyell’s Principle of Actualism ('the present is the key to the past'). A short-time preservation of specimens is a sine qua non precondition to do feasible a (palaeobiological, bioarchaeological, forensic) longer one. Also, in forensic analysis the presence of RBCs in a smear is considered a blood confirmation. Therefore, the study of the different erythrocyte and plasma-matrix morphologies exhibited in bloodstains represents a field with applications to forensics, prehistoric archaeology, and palaeoanthropology. Dr. Edmond Locard (1877-1966) was a pioneer in forensic science who became known as the Sherlock Holmes of France. ...
A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ...
Archaeology, archeology, or archology (from the Greek words αÏχαίος = ancient and λόγος = word/speech/discourse) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. ...
Charles Lyell The frontispiece from Principles of Geology Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet Kt (November 14, 1797 – February 22, 1875), Scottish lawyer, geologist, and populariser of uniformitarianism. ...
Forensic science (often shortened to forensics) is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to the legal system. ...
Vertebrate blood Vertebrate blood (i.e., blood sensu stricto) is a cell suspension into a fluid medium (the plasma). In this histological tissue, three types of cells are present: erythrocytes (red blood cells, RBCs), leukocytes (white blood cells, WBCs) and thrombocytes (platelets, in mammals). Unlike the other vertebrates, mammals have anucleate RBCs (erythroplastids or akaryocytes). As an exception, the slender salamanders (family Plethodontidae, order Caudata, class Amphibia) have some proportion of anucleate RBCs, with Batrachoseps attenuatus (Eschscholtz, 1833) possessing nearly 95% erythroplastids. Also, the pearlside teleostean fish Maurolicus mülleri (Gmelin, 1789) (family Sternoptychidae, order Stomiiformes, class Actinopterygii) has anucleate erythrocytes. Classes and Clades See below Vertebrata is a subphylum of chordates, specifically, those with backbones or spinal columns. ...
Subfamilies Desmognathinae Plethodontinae Lungless salamanders (Family Plethodontidae) are salamanders which do not have lungs and instead conduct respiration through their skin and the tissues lining their mouth. ...
Suborders Cryptobranchoidea Salamandroidea Sirenoidea Salamander is the common name applied to approximately 500 amphibians with slender bodies, short legs, and long tails. ...
Subclasses and Orders Order Temnospondyli- extinct Subclass Lepospondyli- extinct Subclass Lissamphibia Anura Caudata Gymnophiona Amphibians (class Amphibia) are a taxon of animals that include all tetrapods (four-legged vertebrates) that do not have amniotic eggs. ...
Genera Subfamily Sternoptychinae - Marine hatchetfishes Argyropelecus Polypipnus Sternoptyx Subfamily Maurolicinae Araiophos Argyripnus Danaphos Maurolicus Sonoda Thorophos Valenciennellus Deep-sea hatchetfishes (Sternoptychidae) are a family of deep-sea fishes. ...
Families Suborder Gonostomatoidei Gonostomatidae - Bristlemouths Sternoptychidae - Deep-sea hatchetfishes Suborder Photichthyoidei Photichthyidae - Lightfishes Stomiidae - Barbeled dragonfishes Stomiiformes is an order of ray-finned fish that includes the dragonfishes, lightfishes, hatchetfishes, viperfishes, and loosejaws. ...
Orders See text The Actinopterygii are the ray-finned fish. ...
Mammalian RBC morphologies in the body and in the smear Due to the lack of nucleus, the typical mammalian RBCs are shaped as biconcave discs (discocytes). This does not apply to the family Camelidae, where RBCs are oval (ovalocytes). Other physiological shapes, which are minor or pathologic, are: echinocytes (burr or berry cells), dacryocytes (tear drop cells), schizocytes (helmet cells), keratocytes (horn cells), drepanocytes (sickle cells), and many others. The largest part of the smear-origin RBC shapes share morphology with those described in haematology. But two time-independent RBC shapes are due specifically to blood drying phenomena. So they are considered as genuine RBC morphologies characteristic of mammalian bloodstains, not found under physiological conditions. These shapes are moon-like shapes or hecatocytes (related to erythrocyte-plasma interaction when drying), and negative replicas or janocytes (related to imprinting by dried plasma matrix). Species Lama glama Lama guanicoe Vicugna pacos Vicugna vicugna Camelus dromedarius Camelus bactrianus The four llamas and two camels are camelids: members of the biological family Camelidae, the only family in the suborder Tylopoda. ...
 Systematics and etymologies for erythrocytes in mammalian bloodstains, as developed by the founder of haemotaphonomy, Policarp Hortolà.
The role of membrane in the erythrocyte morphology The RBC morphology is encoded in the mechanical properties of its composite membrane. This composite membrane is composed of a plasma membrane plus a membrane skeleton. The plasma membrane contributes bending rigidity, and the membrane skeleton contributes stretch and shear elasticity. The RBC plasma membrane is the lipid bilayer containing proteins such as ankyrins, band 3, and glycophorins. The erythrocyte membrane skeleton, which is localized exclusively on the cytoplasmic surface of the plasma membrane, is a network of proteins, mainly spectrins, actins, and band 4.1. // In animal cells the plasma membrane alone establishes a separation between interior and environment, where as in fungi, bacteria, and plants an additional cell wall forms the outermost boundary. ...
The eukaryotic cytoskeleton. ...
Ankyrin is a membrane protein that mediates the attachment of the erythrocyte membrane skeleton to the plasma membrane and interacts with CD44 and inositol triphosphate. ...
Glycophorin C (GYPC; CD236/CD236R; glycoprotein beta; glycoconnectin; PAS-2) is an integral membrane protein of the erythrocyte and acts as the receptor for the Plasmodium falciparum protein PfEBP-2 (erythrocyte binding protein 2; baebl; EBA-140). ...
Spectrin is a cytoskeletal protein that lines the intracellular side of the plasma membrane of many cell types in pentagonal or hexagonal arrangements, forming a scaffolding and playing an important role in maintenance of plasma membrane integrity and cytoskeletal structure (Huh et al. ...
G-Actin (PDB code: 1j6z). ...
Influence of the smear substrate and ageing in erythrocyte morphology in bloodstains From the haemotaphonomical point of view, the concrete type of bloodstain substrate (stone, metal, paper...), whether of similar physical properties, do not seems to play a dramatic role in RBC morphology. The most significative bloodstain substrate physical properties would be grouped into three categories: (i) those related with the degree of thickness homogeneity of the smear by the forming of thicker/thinner subareas (topography), (ii) those related with the mechanical seizing and/or breaking of the cell fraction by surface microcrystals while smearing, and with the adherence of the whole blood to substrate while drying and/or ageing (roughness and texture), and (iii) related with the infiltration of blood (mainly plasma) into the substrate (permeability, its related absorbency, and permeability-influencing fissuration). On the other hand, the high RBC preservation exhibited in the samples when examined under a scanning electron microscope seems to indicate that dried blood tissue is homologous or at least analogous to a mummified one. Therefore, it is not expected that the ageing time span be determinant per se of the degree of bloodstain preservation. SEM Cambridge S150 at Geological Institute, University Kiel, 1980 SEM opened sample chamber The scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a type of electron microscope capable of producing high resolution images of a sample surface. ...
Notes - ↑ SEM analysis of red blood cells in aged human bloodstains
- ↑ Bloody stone tools tell hominids' tales
- ↑ Blood Residue Analysis at Çayönü Tepesi, Turkey
References - SEM characterization of blood stains on stone tools, The Microscope vol. 40, pp. 111-113, 1992.
- Application of SEM to the study of red blood cells in forensic bloodstains, Microscopy and Analysis vol. 40, pp. 19/21 (United Kingdom Edition) & vol. 28, pp. 21/23 (European Edition), 1994.
- Experimental SEM determination of game mammalian bloodstains on stone tools, Environmental Archaeology vol. 6, pp. 99-104, 2001.
- Morphological characterisation of red blood cells in human bloodstains on stone: a systematical SEM study Anthropologie vol. 39, pp. 235-240, 2001.
- Red blood cell haemotaphonomy of experimental human bloodstains on techno-prehistoric lithic raw materials, Journal of Archaeological Science vol. 29, pp. 733-739, 2002.
- The “strange” world of bloodstain cells. A brief overview of haemotaphonomy, Problems of Forensic Sciences vol. 57, pp. 16-23, 2004.
- SEM examination of human erythrocytes in uncoated bloodstains on stone: use of conventional as environmental-like SEM in a soft biological tissue (and hard inorganic material), Journal of Microscopy vol. 218, pp. 94-103, 2005.
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