The seed of 'La Evolución': The development of human palaeontology in Spain in recent decades

Authors

  • Antonio Rosas National Museum of Natural Sciences (Spanish National Research Council, CSIC).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.8.10182

Keywords:

paleontology, La evolución, paleoanthropology, Atapuerca, excavation sites

Abstract

Human palaeontology in Spain has experienced extraordinary growth in recent decades. In this work we investigate the influence that the book La evolución (1966) and its editors, Miquel Crusafont, Bermudo Meléndez, and Emiliano Aguirre, exerted on this explosion. Two areas have developed significantly: the study of the Miocene hominoids, originally linked to Crusafont and the Vallès-Penedès basin sites (Barcelona), and the study of the first human occupations in Europe, closely related to Aguirre and the Atapuerca excavations (Burgos). Different factors have contributed to this progress, but the research inertia of La evolución and its conceptual foundations have been key to the development of the discipline.

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Author Biography

Antonio Rosas, National Museum of Natural Sciences (Spanish National Research Council, CSIC).

Director of the palaeoanthropology group at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC). He is responsible for the anthropological study of Neanderthals in El Sidrón, Asturias (Spain), participated in the Neanderthal Genome Project, and is the author of several books including Los primeros homininos, Paleontología humana (CSIC-Catarata, 2015), and Los neandertales (CSIC-Catarata, 2010). He has published more than a hundred papers in international scientific journals.

References

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Crusafont, M., Meléndez, B., & Aguirre, E. (Eds.). (1966). La evolución. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos.

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Pelayo, F. (2013). Antes de Atapuerca. La paleontología humana en España durante la dictadura de Franco. In L. Calvo, A. Giron & M. A. Puig-Samper (Eds.), Naturaleza y laboratorio(pp. 323–349). Barcelona: Residència d’investigadors CSIC-Generalitat de Catalunya.

Rosas, A. (2015). Los primeros homininos. Paleontología humana. Madrid: Catarata-CSIC.

Soria, D., & Morales, J. (2002). Emiliano Aguirre Enríquez: Notas biográficas. Zona Arqueológica, 2, 12–45. 

Tattersall, I. (1995). The fossil trail: How we know what we think we know about human evolution. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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Published

2018-06-05

How to Cite

Rosas, A. (2018). The seed of ’La Evolución’: The development of human palaeontology in Spain in recent decades. Metode Science Studies Journal, (8), 114–121. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.8.10182
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Issue

Making science: A multitude of perspectives (2018)

Section

Sapiens. In the path of the human being

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