Over the last two million years, representatives of the Homo genus have gradually colonized much of the Old World. During this period, their brains underwent spectacular development, involving numerous adaptations both biologically and behaviorally. Man differs from his close relatives in his diet, his reproductive strategies, his growth patterns, his way of exploiting the environment... His remarkable adaptability and unparalleled demographic expansion are linked to the mastery of increasingly complex technologies, but also to the establishment of extensive social systems and elaborate verbal communication. In the end, a single species, which appeared in Africa, supplanted all others and extended its habitat to the whole planet. At the crossroads of disciplines as diverse as human paleontology, prehistoric archaeology, genetics and climatology, understanding human evolution means understanding the ongoing interaction between biology and culture.
The first cycle of this lecture (2014-2015) focused on the emergence of the genus Homo within African hominins and the first colonization of the low latitudes of Eurasia from Africa. The lectures were complemented by a series of seminars presented by guest speakers. Lectures and seminars explored the historical development of this first transcontinental expansion of hominins, and the variety of biological and behavioral adaptations that characterized the first representatives of the Homo genus.