Dr Anne Dambricourt-Malassé (born 1959) is a paleoanthropologist at the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

(CNRS). She has advocated a highly controversial non-Darwinian view of

human evolution ''Homo sapiens'' is a distinct species of the hominid family of primates, which also includes all the great apes. Over their evolutionary history, humans gradually developed traits such as Human skeletal changes due to bipedalism, bipedalism, de ...

with theories similar to

punctuated equilibrium In evolutionary biology, punctuated equilibrium (also called punctuated equilibria) is a Scientific theory, theory that proposes that once a species appears in the fossil record, the population will become stable, showing little evolution, evol ...

, auto-organization and

dissipative structures A dissipative system is a thermodynamically open system which is operating out of, and often far from, thermodynamic equilibrium in an environment with which it exchanges energy and matter. A tornado may be thought of as a dissipative system. Dis ...

, with

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...

not being the exclusive method of evolution.

Life and career

She studied geology at the

Paris-Sud 11 University Paris-Sud University (), also known as the University of Paris — XI (or as the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, University of Paris before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, ...

Orsay Orsay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. A fortifie ...

, in the south of Paris. She took a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1987 at the Institute of Human Paleontology, a Foundation Prince Albert 1er of Monaco, associated with the

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

(National Museum of Natural History) in Paris. Her PhD thesis was on human embryonic origins of permanent

bipedalism Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an animal moves by means of its two rear (or lower) Limb (anatomy), limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning 'two feet' (from ...

, she is accredited to Direct Research Cum Magna Laude since 2011. As paleontologist, her controversial views on human origins come from homeobox genes and punctated equilibria included in her work, whereas paradigm explains permanent bipedalism as the result of gradual post-natal adaptations from arboreal environment to open savanna. She joined CNRS in 1990, working with Henry de Lumley. Since 1988 she has worked with

orthodontist Orthodontics (also referred to as orthodontia) is a dentistry specialty that addresses the diagnosis, prevention, management, and correction of mal-positioned teeth and jaws, as well as misaligned bite patterns. It may also address the modificati ...

s to study unexpected prevalences of

malocclusion In orthodontics, a malocclusion is a misalignment or incorrect relation between the teeth of the upper and lower dental arches when they approach each other as the jaws close. The English-language term dates from 1864; Edward Angle (1855–1 ...

in children. She has studied changes in the

sphenoid bone The sphenoid bone is an unpaired bone of the neurocranium. It is situated in the middle of the skull towards the front, in front of the basilar part of occipital bone, basilar part of the occipital bone. The sphenoid bone is one of the seven bon ...

in the skull closely linked to the embryonic process of neurulation and neural crest migration. In 2005, the documentary series with the scientific direction of eminent paleoanthropologist Phillip Tobias, featured her ideas on how man evolved. Her ideas on how evolution took place have come from comparative studies of fossils and embryology.

References

* http://www.fundacion-soliris.eu/laconciencia.html#concienciaevolucion

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dambricourt-Malasse, Anne 1959 births French paleontologists French paleoanthropologists University of Paris alumni Living people