Yves Coppens is among the most eminent scholars of a quite young discipline - paleoanthropology, the study of the origins of man. Former Professor of Anthropology at the Musée national d’Histoire naturelle and Director of the Musée de l’Homme, Paris, he taught from 1983 to 2007 Paleoanthropology and Prehistory at the Collège de France and is now member of the Académie des Science.