Death of French paleontologist Yves Coppens

French paleontologist Yves Coppens, May 19, 2015, in Paris.

AFP - PATRICK KOVARIK,-

Text by: Lou Roméo Follow

5 mins

Lucy's father is no more.

The eminent French paleontologist Yves Coppens died on June 22, 2022 at the age of 87.

We owe him, with the American Donald Joganson and the Frenchman Maurice Taieb, the discovery in 1974 of the fossil of Australopithecus Lucy in Ethiopia.  

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The story went around the world: on November 30, 1974, in Hadar, in the lower Awash Valley, in Ethiopia, the international team of researchers co-directed by Yves Coppens discovered a complete Australopithecus fossil at 40%. 

Arboreal and bipedal, its 3.2 million years make it the oldest fossil ever discovered at the time.

In homage to the famous Beatles song, which punctuates the team's research, he is nicknamed Lucy.

Better than AL-288, its first name.

Films, books, shows take over the discovery, and Lucy and her discoverer become famous. 

But the career of Yves Coppens neither begins nor stops with this fundamental discovery for paleontology.

It is measured in kilos, even in tons of exhumed fossils, whether they are those of mammoths or hominids. 

From Brittany to Ethiopia, via Siberia 

Born in Vannes in 1934, this son of a professor of nuclear physics and a pianist took an early interest in the mysteries of prehistory and archeology.

The proximity of the archaeological site of Carnac, where row after row of menhirs and megaliths are exposed, fascinates the young Breton. 

At barely 10 years old, just after the war, he joined a learned society of archeology, and began what would remain the passion of his life: excavations and prospecting.

He will say it himself, in a book published in 2020,

, from the lab to the palaces: “ 

.

» 

Reconstruction of the face of an Australopithecus “anamensis” by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, thanks to the discovery of a skull dating back 3.8 million years in Ethiopia.

HO / CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY / AFP

A fluid and fast course, which ticks all the stages of the cursus honorum of French scientific research.

After a baccalaureate in experimental sciences at Vannes and a license in natural sciences at the University of Rennes, followed by a doctorate at the Sorbonne, he joined the CNRS at the age of 22 as a research associate.

No glory in this faultless journey, he tempers with humor: at the time, “ 

 ”. 

At the National Museum of Natural History, paleontologist René Lavocat commissioned him in 1959 to determine the teeth of proboscians, the prehistoric elephants on which his thesis is based.

They come from fossils discovered by geologists in Africa.

The young Coppens took the bait of what he would call his " 

  ", and joined them there in January 1960.  

In an Africa in the midst of a struggle for independence, he sets up expeditions and searches the soils of different countries.

Chad, Ethiopia, South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Indonesia, Philippines, Mongolia Siberia… These trips led him to take an interest in hominids, our ancient “parents”, and to stay away from elephants for a while.  

►Also listen again:  

Yves Coppens: “First, humanity spread across the African continent” 

What are the links between fossils and the greats of this world?

A “scholar in the city”  

While Lucy is the most famous, the researcher dates his greatest discovery to 1975, when he associated environmental change with the birth of humans.

Indefatigably curious, he developed theories throughout his career, even if it meant sometimes making mistakes and admitting his mistakes.

He thus admits in 2014 that Homo Sapiens did indeed come out of Africa around 100,000 years ago, and that he was not born " 

".  

Ambitious research and academic success in shambles - he is a member of 11 academies, including the prestigious Academy of Sciences - which do not cut him off from the world and its news.

Yves Coppens appreciates the figure of the "

", and thus chairs in 2002, at the request of Jacques Chirac, the preparatory commission for the Environmental Charter, which will serve as a basis for the Grenelle and the COP21. 

Mischievous, he will offer this president with whom he gets on well, while " 

", a tuft of mammoth hair, 20,000 years old.  

Tireless and mischievous popularizer  

He is also a researcher who likes to transmit, beyond the benches of the Musée de l'Homme, of which he was appointed director in 1980, or those of the Collège de France, where he runs the chair of paleo-anthropology from 1983. 

Coppens draws lessons for the present from his research on prehistory.

Of the approximately 600 radio chronicles he produced for France Info, he wrote three books for the general public, entitled “

”.

" 

," he explained from the Paris Book Fair in 2014, surrounded by his books displaying different profiles of Australopithecines.

 »  

A taste for popularization and sharing, which this science smuggler cultivates in many ways.

" 

," he says many times.

“ 

…”.  

Humanist and optimist 

As a good paleontologist, he asserts that this humanity is unique and has a common origin: “

 “, he had fun repeating.

“ 

 ”.

The human person thus embodies above all for him "

 " known to date. 

An openness to the world under the sign of science, which pushes him to remain optimistic, even faced with the prospect of climate change.

“The

 ”, put the person who spoke out against cremation into perspective, so as not to “ 

 ”.

He has also promised to bequeath his skeleton to the Musée de l'Homme.  

Coppens still expresses his taste for life and research in the message he leaves to future generations: “ 

» 

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