Lucy in United States for six-year tour

William Atkins
Wednesday, 29 August 2007 19:39

Science - Biology

Lucy, or more formally AL 288-1 (a nearly half complete skeleton of "Australopithecus afarensis"), is on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the first stop on a eleven city U.S. tour. The visit to the United States is not without controversy.                    

Australopithecus afarensis is an early descendent of humans. Lucy, herself, was discovered on November 30, 1974 by the International Afar Research Expedition (IARE), which consisted of Maurice Taieb, Donald Johanson, and Yves Coppens.

About 3.2 million years ago Lucy lived in what is now called the Awash Valley of the Afar Depression, a desert region in northeast Ethiopia. Several hundred bone fragments were discovered of Lucy, the first skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis ever found.

When Lucy was alive she was about 3 feet, 6 inches tall (107 centimeters, just over 1 meter) and weighed about 62 pounds (28 kilograms). She walked upright, walking on two feet (bipedal). Some evidence indicates that she may have climbed trees like apes and lived in trees (arboreal), however, scientists continue to be unsure whether this is the case or not.

Lucy will begin her public display in Houston on Friday, August 31, 2007, and will last until April 20, 2008. The tour is called “Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia”. According to the Houston Museum of Natural Science website: “In addition to the fossil of Lucy, over 100 artifacts such as ancient manuscripts and royal artifacts from a dynasty Ethiopians believe stretches back to the son of the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba will be on display.”

Lucy will be part of a touring exhibition of several hundred relics from the African country of Ethiopia. However, many experts are critical of the tour because they say that her bones are too fragile to handle moving around so much (and may be permanently damaged as a result) and they also contend that the bones should be reserved for scientific study and not shown as a tourist attraction. Among the scientific organizations and scientists against such a display are the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.) and Kenyan archaeologist Richard Leakey. The amount of the financial contract to display Lucy between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Ethiopia) and the Houston Muesum of Natural Science (Texas, United States) has not be stated publicly.

However, other scientists contend that museums trade museum pieces on a regular basis. They also say that such a public display will help to inform the public on human evolution.

Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian Institute's Human Origins Program, says of Lucy: "Due to her completeness as a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton, Lucy is a truly exceptional, irreplaceable discovery.”