La révolution paléobiologique a-t-elle eu lieu en paléoanthropologie ?

Abstract

Paleontology underwent a “paleobiological revolution” during the twentieth century (Sepkoski and Ruse, 2009), by becoming a theoretical science and a part of evolutionary biology. Although the history of paleoanthropology reflects a similar change, the paleobiological revolution is still incomplete in this field. This article explains why the change is only partial. We identify empirical limits, pertaining to the distinctive features of the fossil record in paleoanthropology, as well as epistemological limits, linked with several different understandings of what paleobiology means. Finally, we demonstrate that there is a need to consider paleoanthropology as being not only a branch of paleobiology, but also an anthropology. By doing so, it is possible to assess properly the paleobiological change in the field of human evolution.