Anthropology museum exhibit looks at earliest human ancestors

LAWRENCE -- If you'd like to know what life was like 5 million years ago, come visit Lucy and her kin on the University of Kansas campus.

Also known as an Australiopithecus afarensis, Lucy was one of the earliest human ancestors. Casts of her fossils, which were discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, will be among the items displayed in the exhibit "Early Us (and Them) in Africa" at KU's Museum of Anthropology. The exhibit begins Monday, March 25, and runs through Aug. 25.

David Frayer, professor of anthropology and curator of the anthropology museum, said he hopes the exhibit clears some misconceptions that people have about prehistoric life. Many people picture our earliest ancestors as large, lumbering beasts, but that wasn't the case, Frayer said.

Instead, the scientists who discovered the fossils and pieced together more than 40 percent of Lucy's skeleton and teeth learned that our earliest ancestors were relatively small in size -- the males were under 5 feet tall and females were just above 3 feet tall. Their brains were much smaller than those of modern humans as well, although their back teeth were much larger.

More important, Frayer said, these prehistoric human ancestors survived for a span of about 5 million years -- roaming Africa for a window of time 1 million to 6 million years ago. Taking that into context, he said, modern humans, who have been around for fewer than 40,000 years, are relatively young.

"These forms were around for millions of years, so they represent really successful adaptations," he said. "Do you think we'll be around for as long as they were?"

Along with casts of Lucy's bones, the exhibit will include photographs of sites in Africa where early hominids were discovered. The exhibit will feature reconstructions of what these hominids looked like and what they ate and evidence for bipedalism, including casts of footprints dating back more than 3.5 million years ago.

Frayer said the exhibit would be unlike any other collection in the country, bringing together the most complete collection of specimens that document this earliest phase of human evolution.

Moreover, the exhibit will attract some of the nation's most prominent scholars in early hominid paleontology. Among them is John Gurche, a KU alumnus who is internationally known for his prehistoric reconstructions. National Geographic magazine, the British Broadcasting Company and the Smithsonian Institution have featured Gurche's reconstructions. His paintings also were used for the 1989 dinosaur stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

Kim Taylor, exhibit designer and program assistant at the anthropology museum, said that while the exhibit deals with such complex material as human evolution and prehistoric reconstructions, it also will be a lot of fun for children.

She should know -- her 10-year-old daughter already has had a sneak preview, Taylor said.

"My daughter was really impressed with how anthropologists could tell so much about hominids just by looking at the teeth, bones and angles of the skull, and she's not even really into science," Taylor said. "It's kind of like being a detective, and I think kids are really into that."

Frayer said making the exhibit fun for children was a high priority. He also said that the exhibit was put together with plenty of assistance from KU students -- many of whom were in his anthropology class last semester.

The guest lectures will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesdays in the Museum of Anthropology, Spooner Hall on the KU campus. All lectures are free and open to the public. The speakers scheduled to attend are:

 • April 3: Jon Kalb, author of the recent book "Adventures in the Bone Trade: The Race to Discover Human Ancestors in Ethiopia's Afar Depression." Kalb will give an update of his most recent expeditions in Ethiopia. Kalb, a well-known author in the field and geologist from the University of Texas-Austin, also will have a book signing after his lecture.

 • April 17: John Gurche, KU alumnus and internationally acclaimed artist of prehistoric reconstructions. Gurche will discuss his method and theory in re-creating prehistoric hominids. Gurche's art has been featured in the film "Jurassic Park," on postal stamps and in BBC and National Geographic documentaries, among others.

 • April 24: Bruce Latimer, Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Latimer will deliver the lecture "The Perils of Being Bipedal," which reviews evidence of bipedalism from bones and footprints.

 • May 8: Carol Ward, University of Missouri. Ward will deliver the lecture "Roots, Trees, and Bushes: Newest Fossil Evidence of Earliest Human Evolution." She will discuss her work with Australopithecus anamensis -- the likely ancestor to "Lucy" -- and review evolutionary trends in the earliest hominids.

The "Early Us (and Them) in Africa" lecture series is sponsored by First State Bank & Trust, the African Studies Resource Center and the Graduate Students of Anthropology at KU.