A carborundum wheel was used to prepare slices of cortical bone that demonstrate a predictable surface appearance in the scanning electron microscope. Osteoclasts were mechanically disaggregated from neonatal rabbit long bones and settled onto these slices. After 24h in culture osteoclasts were associated with areas of excavation in the bone surface. These excavated areas typically showed a well-defined outline and a distinctive fibrillar base, which resembled the pattern of collagen fibrils in bone. The majority of such concavities were of approximately circular outline and of smaller diameter than the associated osteoclast, but other excavations were elongated or of complex morphology, and may have been produced by osteoclasts that were resorbing bone while they migrated. Irregular concavities tended to be more shallow but to occupy a greater area of the bone surface than circular concavities. Roughening of the bone surface without detectable excavation was also seen adjacent to osteoclasts. Calcitonin and cytochalasin B, which inhibit osteoclastic motility, also inhibited bone resorptive activity by these cells. The techniques described in this paper represent a model system with which to assess the direct and indirect effects of hormones, cells and substrate composition on the induction, stimulation and inhibition of osteoclastic bone resorption and to investigate the mechanisms by which cells degrade extracellular matrices.