Pulsed laser ablation technique has attracted great attention as a method for preparing nanoparticles. In this work, calcined fish bones and synthetic hydroxyapatite, have been used as target to be ablated in de-ionized water with a pulsed CO2 laser to produce calcium phosphate nanoparticles. The obtained nanoparticles were amorphous and spherical in shape with a mean diameter of about 25 nm. The microanalyses revealed that nanoparticles obtained from the synthetic HA undergo transformation to tricalcium phosphate. While nanoparticles obtained from the biological hydroxyapatite mostly preserve the composition of precursor material. (C) 2010 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.