Human femoral bone, AFM

False-colour, atomic force micrograph (AFM) showing the topography (surface contours) of a section of healthy femoral bone (femur or thigh bone). This image was acquired over an area of 4x4 micrometres and coloured depending on the height of the features with a height difference of 2 micrometres between the lowest (yellow) and highest (purple) areas. The vertical layers are sheets of lamellar bone that are composed of collagen fibres. This femoral bone section was removed from an archaeological middle-aged male, whose skeletal remains are curated in the School of Anthropology and Conservation at the University of Kent.