Lucy!

Did my now-annual guest lecture at the Royal Vet College in Camden this week, and had enough spare time before I needed to catch my train to take a look around their Anatomy Museum. And what do I find?

A cast of Lucy the Australopithecus! Of course, I've read about this and other hominids many, many times and knew that these guys were much smaller than modern humans. However, getting this close and discovering that she was about as tall as S&T was something else entirely.. I also really liked the way they'd mounted the skeleton, making it absolutely clear what remains were found and what bits had to be inferred (via v. cool looking brass fixings too!).

There's all sorts of other cool stuff too - like this turtle shell/skeleton, various rhinos, big cats, a polar bear and even a baby elephant!