NEW YORK -- An exhibit of fossils tracing man's evolution from a cat-size, tree-dwelling ape to an upright, big-brained toolmaker opens today with a round of unparalleled scientific hoopla.
The $500,000 exhibit -- 'Ancestors: Four Million Years of Humanity' at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan -- took three years to arrange, months to design and boasts fossils from the most important archaeological sites in the world.
Security was so elaborate the 55 fossilized skulls and bones, packed in special cases and hand-carried by curators from 25 institutions around the world, had their own armed escort from Kennedy Airport.
Bumps in the museum's floors were smoothed out to soften the daily ride the bones would travel from dusty vaults to shining display tables.
The extraordinary care preceded what exhibit designer Michael Blakeslee called a 'once-in-a-lifetime' exhibit -- a display of the original fossil record of human evolution under one roof at the same time for scientists to compare -- and for the public to see first-hand.
'These are the ancestors of all of us,' assistant registrar Paul Beelitz said. 'If we could trace each and every one of our own ancestry back as far as we could, we would all end up with the very same ancestors.'
'All of the skulls and bones really can be appreciated as works of art -- the patina and color and shape,' said Blakeslee. 'They are just as precious and priceless as famous paintings, and they connect us with our past.'
The display runs through Sept. 9.
What preceded the public exhibit amounted to a scientific bull session -- and had scientists 'acting like little kids, they were so excited,' Beelitz said.
Another staffer said when the fossils were first unpacked, 'it was so quiet in that one room, you thought you were in church.'
Museum curator Ian Tattersall called the comparative sessions among scientists 'absolutley electric.'
'Scientists look with much more attention to the original fossil,' said Tattersall. 'Its impact far surpassed everyone's expectations.'
A publication is expected soon to include papers delivered at a four-day symposium, which ended Tuesday, that capped the comparitive sessions.
But Beelitz said the exhibit itself will serve as model and 'that scientists will have in mind when they do their work over the next coming years.'
Some ofthe earliest primate ancestors in the display include 'Agyptopithecus,' a tree-dwelling ape that lived 35 million years ago in Egypt, ate fruit, had a tail and was about as big as a cat.
But the first ancestor admitted to the human lineage is 'Australopithecus,' an under-5-foot fellow with a small brain who walked on two feet but probably didn't make any tools on the South African savanna he roamed 3.6 million years ago.
'The 'Taung child' (the first australopith fossil ever found, 1924) really generated some excitement here,' said Beelitz. 'It was quite exciting to see it for real.'
The exhibit also includes the first complete skeleton of Australopithecus -- 'Lucy,' a 3-foot, 6-inch, 50-pound female around whom anthropologist Nancy Makepeace Tanner developed a theory propounding women as chief propellants of human origin.
Ms. Tanner, in her book 'On Becoming Human,' theorized female australopithecines really tamed aggressive and disruptive males by mating only 'those who were socially cooperative, willing to share and be protective.'
The exhibit also includes a early human skull representing 'Zinjanthropus,' who lived 1.7 million years ago in Tanzania, and found by renowed archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey.
'Homo habilis' and 'Homo erectus' fossils record what is known as early advanced humans -- the first members of our own genus, 'Homo,' who lived 2 million years ago.
More advanced humans, 'Homo Sapiens,' first appearing about 500,000 years ago in Europe, are represented by the Heidelberg jaw discovered in Germany in 1908.
The 'cave man' image most of us have comes from constructions of what Neanderthal man must have looked like. The exhibit shows what his skull looked like 150,000 years ago when he was living in Europe and the Near East.
The most modern fossil example of man is represented by Cro-Magnon, with his advanced tools, found in France and who lived some 30,000 years ago.
