What is the origin of humanity? What did our earliest ancestors look like? When did human beings take their first steps? In a series of short essays, Yves Coppens illustrates the significance of the study of palaeoanthropology, a science whose spectacular advances have cast a new light both on the origins of civilisation and on some of the more urgent issues facing humanity today. In this collection of short essays, Y. Coppens demonstrates the actuality of paleontology. The spectacular progress in this discipline sheds new light both on the origins of our civilization and the most acute problems facing man today. (©Odile Jacob)