VCU Exhibits Ancient Fossils from South Africa

By Cassie Williams Jones

Richmond, Va. (Aug. 21, 2012) - The Virginia Commonwealth University Anthropology program in the School of World Studies in the College of Humanities and Sciences presents “Australopithecine!,” an exhibit featuring two fossilized specimens of the controversial Australopithecus sediba (A. sediba )(pronounced aw-stral-o-PITH-eh-cus seh-DEE-ba), a human-like primate with an estimated brain capacity that is a third of that found in anatomically modern humans (also known as Homo sapiens sapiens).

“Australopithecine!” is featured on the first floor of the VCU James Branch Cabell Library, 901 Park Ave., through Dec. 18. The exhibit will be open daily Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Discovered in 2008 in South Africa, the fossils arguably offer a new set of possible implications in the study of evolution and could shed light on how early humans migrated from Africa to other continents. The exhibit is on loan from the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Washington D.C., and a formal opening will be held Tuesday, Aug. 28, featuring the U.S. ambassador from South Africa, the Honorable Ibrahim Rasool.

The nearly 2-million-year-old specimens, one a child and the other an adult, are the center of ongoing debates in the scientific community because of the possibility of them being an evolutionary bridge to the genus Homo in the hominid family. Opportunities to examine the differences between humans today and A. sediba in terms of brain size, diet and other aspects of life are explored in the exhibit. It also walks visitors through the possible cause of the deaths of the specimens, their relationship to each other and the challenge of preserving them for the future.

The exhibit is made possible by VCU’s partnerships with the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa, the Virginia Museum of Natural History and the International Institute for Human Evolutionary Research. For more information, visit http://www.library.vcu.edu/events/fossils/.