International Journal of Scientific Reports | February 2017 | Vol 3 | Issue 2 Page 33 International Journal of Scientific Reports Singh RR et al. Int J Sci Rep. 2017 Feb;3(2):33-38 http://www.sci-rep.com pISSN 2454-2156 | eISSN 2454-2164 Original Research Article Scanning electron microscopy: a potential forensic tool to identify a piece of rhinoceros horn Rina Rani Singh 1 *, Naresh Kumar Saini 2 , Surendra Prakash Goyal 3 INTRODUCTION There are five species of rhinoceros in the world, of which two, black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) and white rhinoceros (Ceratothorium simum) are found in Africa and rest three, Sumatran rhinoceros (Didermocerus sumatrensis), Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) and Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) are found in Asia. 1 Both African species and one of the Asian species (Didermocerus sumatrensis) has two horns, instead there is only one horn in other two Asian species. 1 All five species of rhinoceros are endangered and are placed in Appendix - I of the CITES. 1 The rhinoceros populations in Africa and Asia have been badly affected due to reckless poaching and extensive loss of habitat. 1-3 the total population of Asian species is fewer than 2,700. 4 Presently, the Indian rhinoceros, which ABSTRACT Background: Illegal trade of rhinoceros horn in the global market has posed a serious threat to the long-term survival and the conservation of endangered one horn rhinoceros. Presence of fake horns imitating rhinoceros horn makes the situation graver. Thus, to curb the trade it is very important to scientifically identify the horns used in trade to support and strengthen the enforcement agencies. The presence of fake items makes the identification task much more difficult thus, a project entitled “Characterization of species from bone, tusk, rhino horn and antler to deal wildlife offence cases” was developed to identify rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) horn in complete to pulverized form. Methods: Various bio-scientific techniques like morphological, analytical and molecular were applied to identify the rhinoceros horn. Most of these techniques are promising in identifying rhinoceros horn in different forms. In present paper, we discuss on identification of a piece of rhinoceros horn using Scanning Electron Microscope and total nine horns were examined. The required micrographs were saved using software Digital Image Scanning System (DISS 5, Point Electronics, Germany). Scanned images for both rhinoceros horn from wild and zoo were similar. To find the specific signature, the micrographs of the rhinoceros horn were compared with buffalo and fake horns. Results: Differences were noted on both dorsal and ventral surfaces of rhinoceros horns examined under scanning electron microscope. On ventral surface numerous uniformly placed circular pores with mean diameter of 320 μm and had characteristic “sub pores within a pore”. Instead, in fake horn only few non -uniform pores were visible without any sub pores. The ventral portion of buffalo horn does not indicate presence of any such pores. Conclusions: The characteristic “sub pores within a pore” signature of the ventral portion of rhinoceros horn has high potential for forensic identification and consequently, proving offences and convicting offenders. Keywords: Rhinoceros horn, Scanning electron microscopy, Forensic 1 Department of Biotechnology and Biochemistry, Sardar Bhagwan Singh Post-Graduate Institute of Bio-medical Sciences and Research (S.B.S.P.G.I.), Post – Balawala, Dehradun–248161, Uttarakhand, India 2 Retired from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, 33, GMS Road, Dehradun -248001, Uttarakhand, India 3 Retired from Wildlife Institute of India, Post Office - Chandrabani , Dehradun - 248001, Uttarakhand, India Received: 28 December 2016 Revised: 10 January 2017 Accepted: 16 January 2017 *Correspondence: Dr. Rina Rani Singh E-mail: rina76india@yahoo.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/issn.2454-2156.IntJSciRep20170355