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A Life-Like Extinct Human Sculpture Expected To Bring 'Wow' Factor To U Of M Natural History Museum

University of Michigan

University of Michigan Natural History Museum curators are hoping for a “Wow” experience for visitors when the new museum opens next year.

Visitors to the evolution gallery will come face-to-face with a life-size reconstruction of an extinct human relative that roamed southern Africa 2 million years ago.  The sculpture, which is expected to be a real crowd-pleaser, was commissioned from a studio in Paris and was recently delivered to the U of M museum expected to re-open in about a year from now.

The reconstruction is based on fossil bones recovered from a South African cave in 2008 and is said to be shockingly realistic.  The adult female is just 45 inches tall with a hairy human-like body and a chimp-like head.

The one-of-a-kind reconstruction of an Australopithecus Sediba sculpture will remain in its shipping crate for now and is expected to be a real crowd-pleaser once it goes on display at the U of M Museum of Natural History next year.

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— Lisa Barry is the host of All Things Considered on WEMU. You can contact Lisa at 734.487.3363, on Twitter @LisaWEMU, or email her at lbarryma@emich.edu

Lisa Barry was a reporter, and host of All Things Considered on 89.1 WEMU.
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