The world's most famous fossil, 3.2 million-year-old Lucy, embarked on a celebrity tour of America this past weekend - the beginning of a six-year trip away from her home country of Ethiopia. While this is a great opportunity for people like myself to view such an awe-inspiring piece of our ancestral past (and for the impoverished country of Ethiopia, which will use the profits from ticket sales to upgrade their museums), there are many who criticize the gamble being taken with this irreplaceable treasure. Several of the country's most respected museums, including the Smithsonian, have declined participation in the Lucy tour because they feel that Lucy is too fragile to travel. Famed peleontologist Richard Leakey offered even harsher criticism. "It's a form of prostitution, it's gross exploitation of the ancestors of humanity and it should not be permitted," Leakey told The Associated Press in an interview at his Nairobi office. Transporting the fragile fossil for a museum exhibit also disregards a 1998 UNESCO resolution that says fossils such as Lucy should not be moved outside of the country of origin except for compelling scientific reasons. Even in Ethiopia, the public has only seen the real Lucy skeleton twice since her discovery in 1974.

The Lucy fossil is currently on exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Other stops on the tour have not yet been finalized, but MSNBC reports that they may include New York, Denver and Chicago. Is this a gamble that's worth the rewards? Click on "comments" below to share your thoughts!