The Scanning Electron Microscopy/Replica Technique and Recent Applications to the Study of Fossil Bone

The SEM/replica technique employs high resolution replica materials in order to reflect microstructural details of specimens, such as fossil bones, which cannot be observed directly. The described technique is simple, provides excellent resolution, is maximally adaptable to field and laboratory settings, and is applicable to large and topographically complex bone surfaces. The advent of the technique has made it largely possible to address certain issues in anthropology and paleontology. These contributions have principally been concerned with taphonomy as the study of the bone damage process, and bone biology as it relates to bone growth remodeling processes characterizing the facial growth of our early fossil hominid ancestors