In forensic practice, estimating the time of death is one of the most important procedures but is often extremely difficult. There are many methods for estimating the time of death, which can be divided into two categories (rate methods and concurrence methods). Postmortem decompositional changes to auricular cartilage were analyzed to help establish a new methodology in determining the postmortem interval.
Methods: The ears were collected from rabbits buried in simulated shallow graves for different time periods (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 days). The auricles were examined both macroscopically and microscopically to detect changes occurring over a specified time.
Results: Numerous macroscopic changes including color and texture changes and gradual degradation of cartilage were observed. LM showed gradual structural changes in the tissue over time including: cartilage matrix density and nuclear material. 
Conclusion: Postmortem degradation of ear cartilage may be useful for estimating a presumptive postmortem interval.