Crystal orientation in the shell of the domestic fowl: An electron diffraction study

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Abstract
The eggshell of the domestic fowl has been studied by transmission electron microscopy and diffraction. Thin sections of shell were prepared by chemical and ion-beam thinning techniques. Each calcite column of the palisade layer consisted of crystallites of diameter 20 to 30 µm with some tendency for crystallite alignment within a single column. Evidence indicates that there was no significant preferred orientation in the palisade layer as a whole. Only in the surface layer was any preferred orientation detected, and here {1014} planes tended to lie parallel to the surface. The results are compared with previously published data, and calcite nucleation and growth are discussed.