Postmortem transition in the dynamic mechanical properties of bone

Measurements of dynamic shear compliance versus dead time at room temperatures are reported for a sample of rabbit bone and several samples of human bone, including an extracted wisdom tooth. In all cases an abrupt, second-order transition is observed in one or both components of the audio-frequency complex shear compliance, J*b = Jb; - iJb", at about 5 hours after death; this is considered to be an indication of the life-to-death transition in bones.