Uhhh, good news for lizard-skin purse owners? Above is a video showing the quite thorough decomposition of a savannah monitor lizard, which naturally lives south of the Sahara Desert, but is also a common pet and source of leather. At the end of four weeks of getting worked over by maggots and larder beetles, the only things that are left of the lizard are its skeleton and its tough skin. Pretty cool.

 

The video comes from Earth Unplugged, a BBC-backed YouTube channel of science videos. The decomposition time lapse happens right near the beginning, but be sure to stay for the explanation, about midway through the video, of the different stages of decay.