762. Transporting Dead Things

Shabbos 18:18

One who transports a live locust of any size is liable but if it is dead, he is only liable if he transports a volume the size of a dried fig. One is liable for transporting any volume of a “bird of the vineyards” (a species of locust) whether it is alive or dead because this species is kept for medicinal purposes; the same rule applies in all similar situations. The minimum volume from a human corpse, an animal carcass or dead vermin is the same necessary to convey ritual impurity: an olive-sized piece of a human corpse or an animal carcass and a lentil-sized piece of vermin.

Shabbos 18:19

If there is exactly an olive-sized portion of carcass and someone removes from it a piece the size of half an olive, he is liable because his actions reduces the carcass to the degree that the minimum volume necessary to transmit ritual impurity is no longer there. However, if one removes a volume the size of half an olive from a volume of carcass that is one and a half times the size of an olive, he is not liable. The same rules apply to other sources of ritual impurity.