Posted on 08/06/2007 7:10:14 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - After 3.2 million years in East Africa, one of the world's most famous set of fossils was quietly flown out of Ethiopia overnight for a U.S. tour that some experts say is a dangerous gamble with an irreplaceable relic.
Although the fossil known as Lucy had been expected to leave the Ethiopian Natural History Museum this month, some in the nation's capital were surprised the departure took place under cover of darkness with no fanfare Sunday.
"This is a national treasure," said Kine Arega, a 29-year-old attorney in Addis Ababa. "How come the public has no inkling about this? It's amazing that we didn't even get to say goodbye."
Paleontologist Berhane Assaw said he arrived at the museum Monday morning after working late Sunday night to find that the fossil and key staff members had left for Texas, where Lucy will go on display this month. The departure "should have been made public," he said.
The Smithsonian Institution has objected to the six-year tour because museum experts do not believe the fragile remains should travel. Even in Ethiopia, the public has seen the real Lucy fossil only twice. The Lucy exhibition at the Ethiopian Natural History Museum is a replica, and the real remains are usually locked in a vault to protect them.
"Quite simply, the Smithsonian position is that the fossil Lucy, one of the most important specimens of its kind, is too fragile to go on public tour," National Natural History Museum spokesman Randall Kremer said Monday.
The curator of anthropology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, where Lucy will be on display from Aug. 31 to April 20, said he shared the Smithsonian's concern over ensuring the security of artifacts on display. But he said this should not preclude them from traveling.
"We will put Lucy on display with the utmost care just as we have put other fragile artifacts on display, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were returned to Israel in the same condition they came to our museum," Dirk Van Tuerenhout said.
The museum exhibited the Dead Sea Scrolls for three months in late 2004 and early 2005.
The fossilized partial skeleton of what was once a 3 1/2-foot-tall adult of an ape-man species was discovered in 1974 by U.S. paleontologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray in the remote, desert-like Afar region in northeastern Ethiopia. Lucy is classified as an Australopithecus afarensis, which lived in Africa between about 3-4 million years ago, and is the earliest known hominid.
Most scientists believe Australopithecus afarensis stood upright and walked on two feet, but they argue about whether it had ape-like agility in trees. The loss of that ability would suggest crossing a threshold toward a more human existence.
Lucy's name was taken from a Beatles song that played in an archaeological camp the night of her discovery.
Paleontologist Leonard Krishtalka, director of the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas, said the most dangerous risk of damage to Lucy would be from exposure to hazardous light levels while on display.
"There's no question that there are dangers while Lucy travels around the country, but museums ship valuable specimens around the world all the time. The question is, is the risk enough not to allow the public to see this treasure?" he said.
Ethiopian government officials have said that they will use the money raised from the traveling exhibit to improve museums and build new ones in Ethiopia, one of the world's poorest countries. Officials have declined to say how much they spent to insure Lucy or how much the government was being paid for the tour.
But some don't believe the money is an important enough reason to allow the remains to leave the country.
"Money cannot be a justification to export original specimens," said Zelalem Assefa, an Ethiopian who works at the Smithsonian and was visiting Addis Ababa. "These are original, irreplaceable materials. These are things you don't gamble with."
Ethiopia's culture minister, Mahamouda Ahmed Gaas, declined to comment on the tour Monday.
Other Lucy stops in the U.S. have yet to be finalized, but Ethiopian officials have said they include New York, Denver and Chicago.
The fossil is tentatively scheduled to be exhibited at The Field Museum in Chicago from November 2009 through April 2010, according to spokeswoman Nancy O'Shea. However, details have yet to be worked out, and no contract has been signed, she said.
Laura Holtman, a spokeswoman for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, said the museum has had discussions about hosting the exhibit, but has not made a final decision. She said it will require more work to set up than most traveling displays, and officials are also considering the ethical issues that have been raised about exhibiting the Lucy remains.
"We haven't ruled it out," Holtman said. "Certainly, it's an amazing opportunity."
___
Associated Press Writer Lily Hindy contributed to this report in New York.
Houston PING
Granted, you live in an ulna universe.
How do we know the touring Lucy isn't also a replica. I don't imagine they're going to let anyone actually touch or examine the exhibit. What's your thought?
Could you tell the difference just by sight?
ggg ping
Because the monkey is extinct? There's a certain fascination with that. We wish we could see the real animal cavorting, but I guess this is the next best thing. Oh, yes, and there are those who believe that monkey is their grandma.
I don't see anyone involved in this wishing to go to the slammer for felony fraud. They will be raising money from this, and would be criminally liable if this is a fake!
At the distance the observers will be at, probably not. The casts of fossil specimens are remarkably accurate--they have to be!
The vast majority of researchers who study these specimens do so from the casts. The only areas that differ in the specimens I have studied are the color and weight.
The color is generally quite close in the good casts, but look at the different colors in the various Mrs. Ples casts!
Did you miss post 7?
How far away was Lucy’s kneebone (the central bone that made her different from monkeys) found away from the rest of the bones? About as far as my house from the nearest McDonalds?
I’d have to check on that one. I’m a half mile away here myself if so.
Another creationist lie. Here is the real story:
Claim CC003:But will creationists ever stop propagating that lie?The knee of the "Lucy" fossil (the most complete Australopithecus afarensis fossil) was found over a mile away from the rest of the skeleton, so it cannot be used as evidence that Lucy walked upright. That evolutionists have never admitted this fact in print shows their dishonesty.
Source:
Willis, Tom. 1987. "'Lucy' goes to college," Bible-Science Newsletter (Oct.), 1-3. Morris, John D. 1989. Was 'Lucy' an ape-man? Back to Genesis 11b (Nov.). http://web.archive.org/web/20041011063219/http://www.icr.org/pubs/btg-b/btg-011b.htm
Response:
1. The claim is false. The skeleton called Lucy does not have an intact knee. A different, isolated knee fossil was found two to three kilometers away (Johanson and Edey 1981). Confusion over the two fossils apparently led to the false claim.
2. Far from indicating evolutionist dishonesty, this claim shows how creationists fail to check their claims (Lippard 1999).
Nope. You are the latest victim of the creationist websites, whose main goal seems to be to gain believers, and donors, by deception.
Keep Bill Clinton away from her. I really don’t need to know whether he’d be interested in “dating” a 3-million year old hominid.
Don Johanson was a curator at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History when the bones were found. They were brought back to Cleveland and studied for a number of years before returning to Ethiopia. The museum owns the casting rights for specimens and I think the only other replica is in Ethiopia. I guess they don’t even display the real thing. I’ve seen the replica and they sure look old and ‘real,’ but I have never seen them side-by-side. So unless you picked them up, who would know?
Is it true that she's touring with the Rolling Stones?
We sure are suckers. We fund museums and their staffs to buy treasures which they lock away from the public. Only experts get to see the storerooms. It is fun to go behind the scenes, but not for the public.
Keep Bill Clinton away from Lucy. He might attain his super horny mode like he did to that teenage mummy a few years back.
Ever been in the famous rock art-bearing caves in Spain and France?
The effects of one or two visitors are negligible, but when its millions of visitors it adds up quick. Just the temperature and humidity changes from breathing endangers those fragile paintings.
Why do you think there are "Please don't walk on the lawn" signs in some heavily-trafficked areas?
Same reason you don't you walk all over flower beds.
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