See also: Coppens

Yves Coppens , born with Valves on August 9th 1934, is a Paléontologiste and paleoanthropologist French.

He currently calls into question one of the aspects of the neo-darwinist theory, the Hasard, affirming that he “makes the things too well to be credible. ”

He supports the thesis according to which “the technical and cultural development exceeds the biological development”, i.e. the biological evolution preceded the cultural evolution, the latter being more determining transformations our species will live.

Biography

Impassioned by the Prehistory since its childhood, it started very early to take part in work of excavation and prospection in Brittany, during its years of college, college and university.

• 1956 : It enters to CNRS at 22 years. It moves towards the study of the times tertiary Quaternaire and .

• 1960 : It starts to assemble forwardings to the Chad, in Ethiopia, then in Algérie, Tunisia, Mauritania, Indonesia and with the Filipino .
• 1965 : He discovers a cranium of hominidé in Yaho (Angamma) named Tchadanthropus uxoris . Perhaps old of a million years, this one would be close to Homo erectus .
• 1969: University lecturer with the national Natural history museum of natural history, is with the subdirectorate of the Musée of the Man.
• 1974 : Discovered Australopithecus afarensis , named Lucy (in reference to the song of the Beatles that its Co-discoverers Donald Johansson and Maurice Taïeb listened: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds )
• 1980: It is named director and professor with the Museum during 3 years.
• 1981 : He proposes an environmental explanation of separation Hominidae Panidae in his theory of " the East Side Story " .
• 1983 : Elected official with the pulpit of paleontology and prehistory to the Collège de France.
• 1988 : Yves Coppens developed and showed how the asset had taken the step on the innate one, which in particular slowed down the human evolution since several tens of thousands of years.
• 2002 : Under its scientific control (with the collaboration of Anne-Marie Bacon and Sandrine Prat of CNRS), Jacques Malaterre carries out for France 3 a documentary-fiction on the evolution of the man, the Odyssey of the species , which meets a great success in France and even abroad. This documentary, comprising a certain error count on crucial questions, causes a sharp polemic.
• 2003 : Following discovered Toumaï and of Abel by the free-Chadian team of Brownish Michel, Yves Coppens gives itself causes of it its theory of the East Side Story.
• 2004 : Under its scientific control, Jacques Malaterre carries out Homo sapiens for France 3.
• 2006 : Nomination with the High council of science and technology ().
• 2007 : Scientific guarantee with Jean Guilaine for the documentary-fiction the Sacring of the Man .

Today, Yves Coppens is present in many national authorities and international managing the disciplines of his competence. He directs moreover a laboratory associated with CNRS: the Research center Anthropological - Museum of the Man, and two collections of works of CNRS, Books of Paléoanthropologie and Work of Paléoanthropologie East-African. He is member of the Academy of Science and the Académie of medicine, , but Academy of Science of Overseas also Academia Europaea, associated royal Académie of sciences, letters and fine arts of Belgium, correspondent of the royal Académie of Medicine of Belgium, Honorary fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute off Great Britain and Ireland, Foreign associate of the Royal Society of South Africa and Doctor honoris causa of the Universities of Bologna, of Liege, Mons and Chicago….