Freaky species goes on show

This freakish skeleton is in the Natural History section of the City Museum in Hanley, next to the stuffed birds, and not far from the Mammals. As you can see, it has extraordinarily long arms.
When I passed it, more than a few people were scratching their heads. They were wondering: what sort of animal was this? An urban monkey?

Well, after the double-take, one realises it's a joke. Well, sort-of. It's part of a subversive art project in which a number of odd, barmy objects are placed around the museum at strategic points, apparently as though they really are long-term exhibits.  (There's a plane made of pottery in the engineering section for instance...)

The label by this skeleton describes it as Homo Tesco, and there is a completely nutty description of its history - including a comparison with its close species 'Homo Asda'. It explains the waering of the blue plastic bag as an attempt at a 'shirt'.

The art project, which runs at the museum until December 9th, is called 'Neo Dawsonism' - though a quick search on Google only turned up references to the late great Les Dawson's jokes, also known as Dawsonisms.  Hmm.

I must admit that I thought it very funny - and, somehow, very brave of the museum to allow it!

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