In the Earth, Oceans and Atmospheric Science (EOAS) building, there is a hallway full of skulls. One of them could be yours.
The skulls are replicas of our distant ancestors — the first hominins who evolved in East Africa. “Hominin” refers to the species sub-group that includes modern humans, as well as our extinct immediate relatives such as Austrolopithecus and Homo Habilis.
The UBC Pacific Museum of Earth’s new semi-permanent exhibit, Hominin Hall, is a seven-million year journey into the history of human evolution that spans a short hallway.
The exhibit is framed as a “family reunion.” It’s a cute, accessible and darkly funny way to reintroduce us to our archaic ancestors — and to remind us that one day, modern Homo sapiens will inevitably go the same way.
The evolution of Hominin Hall
Four years ago, the Pacific Museum of Earth (a small museum spread between the Earth Sciences Building and Earth and Ocean Sciences Main Building, across Main Mall from the Beaty) purchased a collection of replica hominin skulls through a grant for classes to use. But what’s the point of having a collection of (fabricated) millenia-old skulls if you can’t show them off?
The Hominin Hall exhibit has been almost two years in the making. The grant was spearheaded by EOAS professor Stuart Sutherland and Dr. Kirsten Hodge, who planned to display the skull replicas in their full glory and to tell a story about the lineage that we all share.
Strolling down the short hallway, it’s hard to fully comprehend the seven-million year timespan that divides us from our early hominin predecessors.
To bridge the gap, each skull has a plaque, written in the first person — a quick message from Australopithecus and other early species about their lives (mostly short) and diets (mostly nuts, leaves and small mammals).
Hominin Hall curator and third-year media studies student Oli Beeby spoke about some motivations behind the exhibit — using creative museum curation to reveal the people behind the bones.
“I think that sciences and arts should not be seen as separate fields, because they historically have not been,” said Beeby. “Making science more accessible to the general public and making science stories more accessible through effective communication and design is so important.”
The evolution of humankind
According to Beeby, the exhibit is meant to communicate that the history of Homo Sapiens (that’s us) is more complex and relational than we might imagine.
“A lot of people portray the history of human evolution as very linear — think of a picture of an ape turning into a person,” said Beeby. “That’s not really how human evolution, or evolution in general, functions.”
Instead, evolution is a branching tree of genetic possibilities, pruned by random disasters and natural selection.
In the story of hominin evolution, Homo sapiens are not necessarily the main characters.
“If you look at the exhibit, a lot of the [hominin] species are coexisting,” said Beeby. “You can find the evidence in our own DNA that they would have intermingled and such. For most of our history, we haven’t been alone.”
The exhibit represents Homo sapiens with a mirror, instead of a skull like the other hominins.
“I included a mirror to allow the reader to reflect both our species, and our planet,” said Beeby.
Beyond an opportunity to check your hair, the mirror is meant to provide an opportunity to consider yourself as a product of a long legacy of hominin evolution, and an active participant in the story of our species going forward.
In the relatively miniscule timespan that Homo sapiens have existed, Western civilization’s systems of industrial capitalism and colonialism have caused major ongoing changes in the global climate.
“By both decentring humans and focusing on our [ecological] impact simultaneously, I think [the exhibit] can create an activated narrative to help produce more stewardship for our planet,” said Beeby.
Share this article
