I asked a professor of mine about this story. She's Director of
Conservation in the Anthropology department of the Smithsonian's National
Museum of Natural History. (Carolyn, are you on this list too?) She says
it's not true.

Actually she kind of rolled her eyes and said she was tired of hearing
about it. This thing has been floating around as an email "fwd" for a while
now.... So next time it comes around we can all say that we have it from
the horse's mouth--it's completely made up.

It's still funny though.

-Christen Runge
Grad student, George Washington University
Washington DC