‘Body of Evidence’ spotlights human evolution

The exhibit will make a stop in Cleveland.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A new exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania about human evolution gives a new meaning to the expression “nobody’s perfect.”

Scientists say we have evolution to thank for our survival, but that it’s also where we can point the finger when we experience backaches, impacted wisdom teeth or difficulty giving birth.

The remarkable yet imperfect process that has brought homo sapiens to where we are now, and where it might take us down the road, is the theme of “Surviving: The Body of Evidence,” at the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

An exhibit five years in the making, it uses fossils and interactive multimedia displays to tell the story about how the human race adapted, thrived and continues to evolve. It leaves Penn in May 2009 for a multi-city tour including stops at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and The Health Museum in Houston.

The exhibit’s message, right down to the title, is that finding evidence of the evolutionary process is as simple as looking at ourselves.

“You are a living artifact of evolution,” said Janet Monge, co-curator of the exhibit. “We didn’t want it to be something remote. It’s about you — you’re the artifact and this will tell you why.”

Visitors can stand toe-to-toe with a skeleton cast of 3.2 million-year-old “Lucy,” one of the world’s most famous fossils, and children can see how they measure up to Nariokotome Boy, a nearly complete skeleton discovered in Kenya of a child who lived 1.6 million years ago.

Also included are more than 100 touchable casts of fossil bones and skulls from the evolutionary history of primates and humans.

The show is more focused on concepts rather than artifacts, however, and is replete with child-friendly interactive elements such as peek holes, sliding panels and video monitors.

A 16-foot-long figure of a woman with transparent plastic skin, nicknamed “JaMo” in honor of Monge, is the centerpiece of the show. Stationed around the recumbent figure will be interactive display screens using animation and 3-D graphics illustrating how and why our muscles, bones and joints evolved and their complex interplay that allows us a wide range of movement.