The University of Michigan now owns what's believed to be the only lifelike reconstruction of a human relative that roamed southern Africa 2 million years ago.
The Ann Arbor school's Museum of Natural History says the Australopithecus sediba sculpture will be displayed when the museum reopens in a new place in about a year.
The university says in a release the adult female sculpture stands at 45 inches (1.1 meters) and is based on fossil bones recovered from a South African cave in 2008. The model came from the Daynes Studio in Paris, which produced the Australopithecus afarensis dubbed "Lucy" at Chicago's Field Museum.
The university sought an extinct hominid not found elsewhere.
The new museum is being built in the Biological Sciences Building, next to its former home.
