Otavipithecus: Ape or Ancestor? (Exhibition)

Exist Dates

1992 March 31 - 1992 May

Biographical or Historical Note

abstract

Exhibition. Opened March 31, 1992 and closed May 1992. Located in the Hall of Primates at the American Museum of Natural History. "Otavipithecus: Ape or Ancestor? featured the fossil of a newly discovered species of prehuman, Otavipithecus.

Summary

"Otavipithecus: Ape or Ancestor? featured the fossil of a newly discovered species of prehuman, Otavipithecus. At approximately 13 million years of age, Otavipithecus gave new insight into the first steps in the evolutionary split between humans and their closest relatives. The fossil was found in Namibia, Africa by a joint American-French paleontology team led by Glenn Conroy of Washington University in St. Louis and included John Van Couvering, a geologist from the American Museum of Natural History, as well as Martin Pickford and Brigitte Senut of the Institut de Paleontologie at the Musee National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. The exhibition featured other fossils found with Otavipithecus as well as some of the minerals found in the mines where the fossil was found. It was on view in the Hall of Primates of the American Museum of Natural History starting on March 31, 1992 and continuring through May 1992.

Individuals and institutions involved in the creation of the exhibition: AMNH Department of Paleontology.

Sources

American Museum of Natural History Press Release, March 5, 1992. Departmental Records, 101; American Museum of Natural History Library Archives.

AMNH Annual Report for 1991-1992.

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Related Corporate, Personal, and Family Names

American Museum of Natural History. Hall of Primates.
Location of exhibition.

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