Putting the dead to work since 1992 The Centro de Estudios de Almejas Muertas (C.E.A.M.) is an informal organization dedicated to the study of taphonomy. Taphonomy is the study of dead things and how they get incorporated into the fossil record. C.E.A.M. is based at the Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona and its members are united by their interest in dead things - clams, insects, ...