carrion

1 dead and rotting flesh; unfit for human food

2 the dead and rotting body of an animal

English

Noun

carrion

1. Dead flesh; carcasses.

   Vultures feed on carrion.

Quotations

• 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, Vintage Classics, paperback edition, page 119

  Perhaps the Purple Emperor is feasting, as Morris says, upon a mass of putrid carrion at the base of an oak tree.

Translations

Related terms

• carrion beetle
• carrion crow

Adjective

carrion

1. Of or pertaining to carrion.

Carrion (from the Latin caro, meaning meat) refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters, or scavengers, include hyenas, vultures, Virginia Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, Bald Eagles, and Blue-tongued lizards. Many invertebrates, such as worms and carrion beetles (family Silphidae) also eat carrion and play an important role in recycling animal remains.

Carrion begins to decay the moment of the animal's death, and it will increasingly attract insects and breed bacteria. Not long after the animal has died, its body will begin to smell of a foul odour, caused by the presence of bacteria, and the emission of cadaverine and putrescine. Some plants and fungi smell like decomposing carrion and attract insects that aid in reproduction. Plants that exhibit this behavior are known as carrion flowers. Stinkhorn mushrooms are examples of fungi with this characteristic.

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