Final answer:
A medical examiner's role in a death investigation is to determine the cause and manner of death using pathology expertise and also to assess factors like disease, toxins, and ballistic evidence. In complex cases, forensic anthropology contributes additional skills such as identification of remains and the assessment of postmortem alterations.
Step-by-step explanation:
A medical examiner (ME) during an investigation of a death aims to establish the cause and manner of death. The ME is a medically trained physician who, having specialized training in pathology, examines deceased bodies to determine these facts. The ME assesses various factors such as disease, toxins, blood and DNA analysis, firearms and ballistics to establish the cause of death—which could be natural, self harm, accidental, or homicide.
In more complex cases, forensic anthropology may be necessary to identify human remains using knowledge of human osteology, archaeological excavation, analysis of hair, understanding of plants, insects, footprints, determination of the time elapsed since death, past medical history, toxicology, assessment of postmortem injuries, and identification using skeletal and dental evidence.