The newly opened Anne and Bernard Spitzer Hall of Human Origins presents the remarkable history of human evolution from our earliest ancestors millions of years ago to modern Homo sapiens. The innovative Spitzer Hall combines the most up-to-date discoveries in the fossil record with the latest in genomic science to explore the most profound mysteries of humankind: who we are, where we came from, and what is in store for the future of our species.
The Museum's stibnite specimen is the largest on public display in the world. It was likely formed some 130 million years ago when water heated by volcanic activity dissolved antimony and sulfur from surrounding rocks and flowed between layers of limestone, leaving a dense band of stibnite and occasional pockets containing long, elegant crystals. Complete stibnite crystals as long as the ones this specimen exhibits are rare—they are typically found broken because of their extreme fragility and the industrial nature of modern antimony mining.
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