…and this is a 
The state department has approved a visit from an eminent foreigner: a certain 3.2 million year old australopithicene is going to be at the Houston Museum of Natural Science from 31 August 2007 through 20 April 2008…and then she's going on tour. Future locations haven't been determined yet, but Minneapolis is nice. Chicago would be OK. I hope I get a chance to pay court on her.
Just a thought, but the creationists have got it all wrong. They think we worship Charles Darwin, but actually, if there are any objects of reverence among evolutionary biologists, it would be the evidence — the bones of Lucy, of Archaeopteryx, of Tiktaalik, the little trilobite in shale that I keep by my hand at my office desk.
Comments
Posted by: MartinC | June 28, 2007 1:43 PM
Any chance of it going to a museum in the Ohio Kentucky border region ?
Posted by: TheBrummell | June 28, 2007 1:45 PM
Yes, we're much more about the graven images than we are about the false idols. I don't have anything nearly so nice as a Trilobite fossil, but someday I hope to have such a thing upon my desk.
There was a glass display case outside my office where I did my Master's, full of Burgess shale goodies. Sometimes I'd procrastinate by wandering out there and just staring at Anomalocaris for a few minutes.
Posted by: Hank Fox | June 28, 2007 1:49 PM
Jeez, if I was them, I'd be afraid to let this display be exhibited in anti-evolution hotspots. I grew up in Houston, but there are people there I wouldn't trust with irreplaceable fossils.
I hope they're secretly reproductions.
Posted by: Ezekiel Buchheit | June 28, 2007 1:50 PM
The Natural Science Museum in Houston is nice, which is ironic since Houston itself is actually located in Hell.
Posted by: Dutch Vigilante | June 28, 2007 1:52 PM
I think its silly to hold such things in reverence. Its nice and worth some admiration and satisfaction. Then again, I'm not an Evolutionary Biologist, so I might just not be exited enough about it.
Posted by: redstripe | June 28, 2007 1:54 PM
Dutch: it's called "sarcasm."
My wife & I are moving to Houston in a couple of weeks, and we're very excited to check out the exhibit. I've never seen a 3.2 million year old dead chick before. :)
Posted by: Russell | June 28, 2007 1:54 PM
Ezekiel, like General Sheridan before you, you're confusing hell with Texas. ;-)
Posted by: trcarroll | June 28, 2007 1:56 PM
There are some great beds in the Cincinatti area for finding trilobites.I've found hundreds of them.
Posted by: Ezekiel Buchheit | June 28, 2007 2:03 PM
I live in Austin, and have become so insulated in this little oasis I forget how insane the rest of Texas is. I mean, the worst we have here are the Forces of Woo - homeopathy, spiritualism, accupunture and so forth. Comical idiocy. The rest of Texas has, well, Texas. Which is everything your internal stereotype of Texas believes it is. And so much more.
Posted by: Russell | June 28, 2007 2:30 PM
Oh, there is some variation outside of Austin. There's even variation in Houston. The neighborhood around Rice isn't the same as the deep red suburbs. And some of the suburbs vary. Kemah is different, exemplifying the rule that the closer to big water, the bluer the voters.
And Austin is getting to feel a bit like a donut. Or maybe a kolache. Now me? I live in the blueberry filling.
Posted by: Uber | June 28, 2007 2:37 PM
Heh, heh enough of the Houston bashing. Wehave our share of rubes but the real scary stuff is in Dallas-Waco and the areas in between. Houston is relatively blue with pockets of red.
Posted by: Philboid Studge | June 28, 2007 2:43 PM
"I've never seen a 3.2 million year old dead chick before. :)"
redstripe, you've never seen Joan Rivers?
Posted by: gex | June 28, 2007 2:50 PM
Is she safe in Texas? I mean, the Christian Reconstructionist movement is pretty strong there...
Posted by: Dan | June 28, 2007 2:57 PM
Worshipping Darwin?? If Darwin disappeared from history we would still have evolution. If the writers of the bible disappeared......what would the fundies have??
Posted by: bernarda | June 28, 2007 3:01 PM
I don't understand how Fatherland Security(Heil!, just covering my ass) gave a visa to this dangerous terrorist. She may well be carrying an IED, an intelligent evolutionary description.
Posted by: ctenotrish, FCD | June 28, 2007 3:09 PM
PZ, why wait? There are plenty of folks in Houston who would be happy to roam about the Science Museum with you, then go drink liberally! I'll be moving to Houston for a post-doc, starting in December, and I would happily delay seeing the exhibit until early 2008. Seriously, by about mid-February to mid-March, you and your family might be very happy to spend some time in warm(er) Houston . . . Spring Break with Lucy, how great does that sound?
Posted by: QrazyQat | June 28, 2007 3:16 PM
but actually, if there are any objects of reverence among evolutionary biologists, it would be the evidence
A bit of bragging in support of that statement (I actually don't have that much to brag about, poor me, so bear with me :)). When the American Museum of Natural History had the display of original fossils some years ago, I got to see the exhibit after hours, just my wife, me, and a guard near the door to make sure we didn't smash and grab :). It was great, what with no one else there, the opposite of crowds, but it also made the effect of these great items on the mind even more intense.
The fossil shells and corals I found in shale beds in southern Minnesota as a kid did the same thing at that time. Driving out of the Bighorn mountains in Wyoming as you go past the signposts marking the age of the adjacent rock layers does it too.
Posted by: BWV | June 28, 2007 3:58 PM
Uber's right. Houston is a couple of hundred miles south of the Bible Belt. Unlike Dallas, we have liquor stores and adult bookshops on every corner (but unfortunately only the liquor stores are drive-thru's)
Posted by: ShadesOfGrey | June 28, 2007 4:06 PM
I happen to worship cosmology personally (go Big Bang and multiple universes!), but we're pretty tickled with the trilobites, crinoids, and brachiopods that we find in the rocks on our property. For those who like that sort of stuff, I would highly recommend a visit to Falls of the Ohio, which is on a much grander scale than our backyard. http://www.fallsoftheohio.org/
Posted by: Apikoros | June 28, 2007 4:10 PM
Well, I for one welcome our new australopithecine overlord.
TheBrummell-- I envy you your access to Burgess Shale fossils. When I was in Banff for a conference last year, I was very disappointed that there was no guided tour to the site high in the Rockies where those fossils were first found.
Posted by: Stewart Paterson | June 28, 2007 4:26 PM
Someone help me here: I read a quote by Sagan? about the wonder of seeing a fossil and a meteorite and what they represent. Since then I've been searching ebay to buy a metorite and a trilobite fossile and/or flint tool but I'm worried these things are too easily fakeable for a rube like me. Can anyone help me with the quote I'm thinking of?
Posted by: Scott Hatfield | June 28, 2007 4:32 PM
"... if there are any objects of reverence among evolutionary biologists, it would be the evidence -- the bones of Lucy, of Archaeopteryx, of Tiktaalik, the little trilobite in shale that I keep by my hand at my office desk."
Or the sheet of crinoids in my classroom cabinet!
Posted by: Sengkelat | June 28, 2007 4:40 PM
I wish Lucy would visit the California Academy of Sciences, but I am also happy to love her from Afar.
Posted by: mojojojo | June 28, 2007 4:40 PM
In spite of the emphasis placed on pure faith, "believers" like evidence, too, or at least they used to. I wonder how much the skull of Saint John the Baptist or finger bone of Sainte Anne de Beaupré would fetch on ebay these days (now strictly prohibited of course, though once a booming business).
Posted by: Scott Hatfield | June 28, 2007 4:41 PM
I forgot to mention that my 'holiest' of encounters was with a little bird that still had a tag reading (in faint ink) "J. Gould." There was another tag on the specimen, as well, that of the original collector, but I'm sure you can guess who that was.
Posted by: Alex | June 28, 2007 4:41 PM
"...adult bookshops on every corner..."
So you're saying there's no internet in Houston? Bummer.
Posted by: Torbjörn Larsson, OM | June 28, 2007 5:35 PM
Evidence is good in theory, but in fact it is awesome ideas and their predictions that moves me.
But I'm not sure reverence is the correct interpretation there - nothing is as satisfying than giving an old idea a kick on its behind, or booting it altogether.
Posted by: Doc Bill | June 28, 2007 5:43 PM
Houston is not located in Hell.
Hell is a suburb, and usually a few degrees cooler.
Reporting from Houston,
Doc Bill
Posted by: Siamang | June 28, 2007 5:58 PM
"I am also happy to love her from Afar."
Wah, wah, wah, waaaaaaaaaaa........
Use a pun, go to prison.
Posted by: bwv | June 28, 2007 6:12 PM
At least Hell is a dry heat, more than can be said for Houston in June. I think Hell has less mosquitos as well
Posted by: The Flying Trilobite | June 28, 2007 7:12 PM
Does the trilobite by your hand whisper softly to you? Tell you everything is going to be all right? Ask you to sacrifice young upstart land mammals?
Be careful revering trilobites. They always want something in return.
(Okay, that's enough coffee today. )
Posted by: The Flying Trilobite | June 28, 2007 7:15 PM
Does the trilobite by your hand whisper softly to you? Tell you everything is going to be all right? Ask you to sacrifice young upstart land mammals?
Be careful revering trilobites. They always want something in return.
(Okay, that's enough coffee today. )
Posted by: Justin Moretti | June 28, 2007 7:18 PM
the little trilobite in shale that I keep by my hand at my office desk.
You know, a trilobite (a rather fat one) might make an interesting mouse. Something to hook up to your computer (yes, even a laptop) to piss the Y.E. Creationists off.
Posted by: The Flying Trilobite | June 29, 2007 6:13 AM
Oops. Sorry for the double post. How did that happen?
(reaches for more coffee)
Posted by: Ex Patriot | June 29, 2007 9:07 AM
Maybe the fundie nut should have used LUCY and a male counterpart as models for adam and eve in his museum of idiocy instead of those WASPS he did use. After all if the earth is only 6000 years old Lucy was there with the designer twins and she probably should be considered the first of mankind and the others came later with their neatly combed hair and trimmed beard.I only wish I would be able to be in Houston to see her. Just guard her carefully, don't let the nuts get near her, she is a treasure.
Posted by: Gav | June 29, 2007 10:07 AM
Mojojojo #24 ... and there's the old story you can probably reconstruct from the punchline "Ah now the smaller one is the skull of St. Patrick when he was a boy".
Posted by: speedwell | August 29, 2007 10:10 PM
If Houston is Hell, then the fires got put OUT this week.
The suburb of Katy, however, is positively Camazotz. (Not the demon... the Wrinkle In Time planet. YOU know.)