Hominid Mania

For the first time in over 3.2 million years, Lucy will get to see the United States. I know this is a little off topic for what we usually talk about 'round here, but if Ben can blog about a phone, then I can blog about a bunch of old bones. The Houston Museum of Natural Science is arranging the tour, though beyond their own they have not said which other cities will be visited. Officials from Ethiopia have commented on also including Washington D.C., New York, Denver, and Chicago. So no, no St. Louis date. We just ain't good enough I guess. At least Chicago is only about 4 hours away (though I made in just over 3 hours once). For those of you not in the know, Lucy is the skeleton of a Australopithecus afarensis, which lived in Africa roughly 3,200,000 years ago. The afarensis is the earliest known hominid, and Lucy is the most complete skeleton found to date.
Interesting side note, not everyone is happy about Lucy coming to the US. The Smithsonian has strongly objected on the grounds that the stress of a tour may damage the remains. Randall Kremer, National Natural History Museum spokesman had this to say; "This is one of the most important specimens relating to human origins in the world. We think it is too much of a risk to have it travel for the purposes of public viewing." Even in Ethiopia the remains are not on permanent display, they are housed in a locked vault while a replica is kept on display in the nation's capital, Addis Ababa.

-Dan