November 03, 2006

Will 3 million-year-old 'Lucy' visit New York?

"Lucy," the 3 million-year-old ancestral human remains of Australopithecus afarensis, are set to leave Ethiopia for the first time next year to tour 11 American cities.

The tour will begin at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, which arranged the loan with Ethiopia's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, but other U.S. scientist are saying it's foolish for the fragile bones to travel at all, according to National Geograhic. Among the museums refusing to take part is the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

It's unclear what New York's American Museum of Natural History might do.

From the National Geographic report:

Ian Tattersall, curator of the department of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, says the tour may not be in the best interest of science.

"While I can see a very positive side to a single showing of Lucy in Houston, I think a protracted tour would be very undesirable," Tattersall said, emphasizing that this is his opinion and not an official position of the museum.

"It would unacceptably increase the risk to the specimen, and even in the best of scenarios would take it out of the scientific arena for an extended period," he said. "It is active science that gives Lucy her true value."

November 3, 2006 01:06 PM in History, Kids, Museums, Sightsology, Upper West Side

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