Extremely creepy aerial view shots showing dead bodies in cages at a ranch have gone viral.
While that opening line may sound like I'm about to describe the latest true-crime series on Netflix, but this is is far from it.
In fact, this ranch serves a very important purpose - with many learning about it for the first time thanks to a recent post by Morbid Knowledge on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The aerial shots shared in that post are taken from The Forensic Anthropology Research Facility (FARF) - a 26-acre outdoor area that plays a vital role in much-required research.
Advert
The facility was commissioned by the Texas State University Department of Anthropology, and is under the direction of Dr. Michelle Hamilton.
To help get it going, the forensic facility received a financial donation of over $100,000 from a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Texas State University, with the development of the area also being made possible through the efforts of Dr. Jerry Melbye.
So, what exactly does the facility do?
Well, it is home to about 50 donated bodies, with some of them cadavers confined in cages to be studied for bacterial decomposition.
Meanwhile, the other bodies lay unprotected in the sun so that researchers can track the effects of scavenging.
The efforts tie in well with the university as well; anthropology students work alongside law enforcement officials and other researchers to study the corpses to enhance their knowledge of human decay.
As of 2017, 150 individuals had been studied in the lab after it opened in 2008.
The lab has acted as an invaluable resource for the international forensic science community, so not just in the US.
The individuals who make their way into the ranch for research efforts are purely there because of their own or families wishes.
It actually acts as a cheap alternative to funerary and burial expenses, with students from the university permitted to drive across the state of Texas to collect the individual after they've died.
Daniel Wescott, an anthropology professor at Texas State and the director of the body farm, said: "What we really want to figure out is, at a basic level, how decomposition works.
"There's a whole little ecosystem going on right here." He gestures towards one body, with a leathery face that's stiffened into an opened-mouth yowl. "And we want to understand every part of it."
On top of that, researchers at the ranch also use their knowledge of decay to help identify the bodies of those who die of dehydration or heat stroke every year.
Callum Jones