National Museum of Kenya
The National Museum of Kenya is a museum in Nairobi. It appears in Mario is Missing! as one of the city's three landmarks. In the game, it has been closed due to a three million year-old human skull being stolen by Koopa Troopas, and it is Luigi's task to find and return it, proving its authenticity by answering questions about the museum and the skull. According to citizens of Nairobi, it is a homo habilis skull, discovered by Richard Leakey. Before Luigi returns it to the National Museum (for which he is rewarded $2800, plus $3200 bonus if he returns it first), a tourist in the city also states that the museum's director is "out of his head with worry over that skull's whereabouts".
Pamphlet Information from Mario is Missing!
Anthropologists believe Kenya to be the birthplace of all mankind. Scientists working there have dug up some of the oldest human fossils ever found. One skull found near Lake Turkana is said to be almost 3 million years old! The plains of East Africa -- Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia -- are being eagerly excavated to try and solve the mystery of where human beings first lived.
Trivia
- Although the game describes the human skull as being "almost 3 million years old", this information is based on an incorrect estimation; the actual skull found by Leakey is estimated to be roughly 1.9 million years old, and furthermore assumed to have belonged to a species known as homo rudolfensis, not homo habilis.
