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E.T. Lamm using the Buehler PetroThin Machine.
"At the MOR fossil material is embedded in resin, sectioned with diamond-bladed saws, mounted onto glass slides, and ground and polished until thin enough for light to reveal the exquisitely preserved microscopic structure. -ET Lamm"  Read more about our methods in:
​​​Bone Histology of Fossil Tetrapods - Advancing Methods, Analysis and Interpretation
Edited by Kevin Padian and Ellen-Thérèse Lamm
​UC Press (2013)

1. OBTAIN SPECIMEN

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Carefully extracting a sample from a dinosaur on display.

2. SPECIMEN PREPARATION

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Molding the specimen to produce a cast to replace or restore the original fossil.

3. EMBEDDING

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Vacuum embedding the specimen in plastic resin.

4. CUTTING

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Trimming the block and cut thin wafers of embedded bone using a diamond-edged blade on a tile saw.

5. MOUNTING

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Mounting a thin cut wafer of embedded bone onto a frosted glass slide with epoxy glue.

6. GRINDING AND POLISHING

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Following rough grinding - using fine grain aluminum oxide to polish all scratches out of a mounted section.

7. EXAMINATION

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Ellen-T. Lamm using a polarized-light microscope to examine a thin-section slide at Hooke College of Applied Sciences in Westmont, Illinois.