Anne Dambricourt-Malassé facts for kids

Dr. Anne Dambricourt-Malassé (born 1959) is a scientist who studies ancient humans. She is a paleoanthropologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). She has some interesting and debated ideas about how humans evolved. She believes that evolution might happen in sudden bursts, not just slowly over time. Her ideas suggest that natural selection might not be the only way species change over long periods.

Life and Career

Early Studies

Anne Dambricourt-Malassé studied geology at the Paris-Sud 11 University in Orsay, France. She earned her PhD in 1987. Her research focused on how humans first started walking on two legs. This is called permanent bipedalism. She looked at how this ability developed from human embryos.

New Ideas on Evolution

As a paleontologist, Dr. Dambricourt-Malassé has controversial views on human origins. She thinks that certain genes, called homeobox genes, play a big role. She also believes in "punctuated equilibrium." This idea suggests that evolution happens in quick bursts, not always slowly. Many scientists believe that walking upright happened slowly. They think it was a gradual change as humans moved from trees to open grasslands. But Dr. Dambricourt-Malassé's work suggests it might have happened differently.

Research and Discoveries

She joined the CNRS in 1990. Since 1988, she has worked with orthodontists. These are dentists who fix teeth and jaw problems. They studied why many children have misaligned teeth. She also looked at changes in the sphenoid bone. This is a bone in the skull. It is closely linked to how the brain and nervous system develop in an embryo.

In 2005, a TV documentary series featured her ideas. The show was called Homo sapiens: the Inside Story. It explored how humans evolved. Her ideas about evolution come from comparing fossils and studying how living things develop from embryos.