A female gray whale washed up dead on Black Sands Beach, a tucked away part of the Marin Headlands, on Sunday — an ...

and to solve the forensic mysteries surrounding the unexplained deaths of animals, including humans. The first, and arguably most dominant, organisms that colonize and decompose vertebrate remains ...

Decay sets in soon after the death of a whale, as the insides begin to decompose. The animal then expands with gas and sometimes floats up to the ocean's surface, where it can be scavenged by sharks ...