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Video conference on Monday, February 15, 2021, with paleontologist Yves Coppens. Research into the origins of Man dates back to the 19th century; remains of fossil humans were discovered in Europe, then in Asia and finally in Africa. The origin of Man was thus moved from one continent to another until his settlement in tropical Africa. Sixty years of international research in this region have made it possible to draw a phylogenetic tree of Man for about 10 million years, with a large number of its branches. With --- Yves Coppens, paleontologist who spent his entire career in Paris, successively at the Sorbonne (Laboratory of Vertebrate Paleontology and Human Paleontology, 1956), at the National Museum of Natural History (Institute of Paleontology, 1957), at the Musée de l'Homme (Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, 1969), and at the Collège de France (Chair of Paleoanthropology and Prehistory, 1983). He held two Chairs, one at the Museum and one at the Collège de France. He also joined the French Academy of Sciences of the Institut de France (1983) and the National Academy of Medicine (1991). A field paleontologist, he set up, alone or in collaboration, major international expeditions from 1960, in Africa (Chad, Ethiopia) and Asia (China, Mongolia, Russia). He brought back tons of vertebrate fossils, including a number of new species of crocodiles, hippopotamuses, proboscideans, and hominids. He described and signed or co-signed 3 new genera and 6 new species of the latter. It is the environmental significance of all these vertebrates that allowed him to discover and describe the correlation between climate change and the emergence of the human race (1975); Man would have been born from the need to adapt to a drought. To go further --- All conferences: • Public conferences and courses On biological anthropology: • Biological anthropology On evolution: • Evolution Credits --- © MNHN, 2021 Miniature visual: Cast of the skeleton of Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis © MNHN - A. Iatzoura With the support of the Société des Amis du Musée de l'Homme.