Yves Coppens, Evolution and Mozart Colloque In Memoriam Y. Coppens de l’Association des Géologues du Sancerrois, 14-16 avril 2023, 18300 Crézancy-en-Sancerre, France

Abstract

Yves Coppens (1934-2022), the most well-known faces of French research, passed on his knowledge as a paleoanthropologist to us after discovering the great prehistoric sites which provided him with the necessary evidence to question the mechanisms of change in characteristics of hominids. He hypothesized evolutionary drivers that include environmental, dietary and tool use factors. In 1976, his rise to the higher levels of education became historic with the exhibition “Origines de l’Homme” at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris.

At the time, the (H)Omo event had already made his reputation with the demonstration of the emergence of the genera Paranthropus and Homo which strided the same climatic phenomenon which shares the tall grass savannah with the short grass steppe. But none, except Donald Johanson, made so much noise with the description of Australopithecus afarensis and especially with the skeleton of Lucy found in 1974 and described in 1978. He has evoked in 2022, through his last work “A Memory of Mammoth”, a certain number of scientists who met within the “Association of Geologists of Sancerrois” in France. This article covers some of our discussions about teeth and skulls from over 4 million years ago up to Mozart.