Lucy's tour has sparked vocal criticism from some prestigious anthropologists, including Bruce Latimer, director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He was a graduate student when a team from the Cleveland museum working in Ethiopia discovered Lucy in 1974.
Bruce Latimer: There really is only one, one-of-a kind Lucy. The risk inherent in moving her from venue to venue and packing her and repacking her is just too great.
Latimer says Lucy is our most important evolutionary ancestor, having pinpointed for scientists exactly when early humans began to walk upright.
Bruce Latimer: Walking is the hallmark of humanity. That was the breakthrough adaptation. She changed the way we view human evolution.
Ethiopian authorities loaned the remains to Cleveland for five years of study, but the museum never exhibited its find. Latimer said Cleveland will continue to display detailed plaster casts of Lucy in its permanent collection. Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3.