Warp wrote:
>   Why is it that when a dead animal rots, it's one of the strongest and
> worst smells in existence (so bad that it even sticks to any surfaces
> nearby and is extremely hard to get rid of), but when a dead tree rots,
> the smell is not bad at all (in fact, it could even be considered pleasant)
> and doesn't stick so much?

My guess is that you're asking why a dung-beetle isn't repelled by dung.

I'd guess people who hung around dead bodies wound up getting sick, and the 
farther away you stayed the better off you are.  You can't catch very much 
from dead trees, and you generally don't try to eat trees anyway. Hence, the 
idea that the scent is unpleasant got selected by evolution.

I recently read a finding that lots and lots of insects are all repelled by 
the same scent of death. So you can take a particular rotting lipid from a 
butterfly and it'll keep away roaches and ants and pretty much every insect, 
so that probably evolved way way early on. I don't remember whether it was 
the same thing that smells bad to mammals and such, but if so, one would 
have to guess it actually evolved before life left the water.

If you haven't read this:

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826/

it's very amusing and looks into various ways dead bodies get used. I bring 
it up because in it she mentions just how strong the odor is.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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