Hugues-Alexandre Blain

I began my academic formation in the University of Basse-Normandy (Caen, France) as a geologist and after I made my PhD Thesis entitled “Contribution of the paleoherpetofauna (Amphibia & Squamata) to the knowledge of the evolution of climate and landscape from the Late Pliocene to the Middle Pleistocene of Spain”, in the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle of Paris in 2005 with the idea to become paleontologist.
I discovered the universe of paleontology and past Epochs of the Earth when I was a child on the beaches of Normandy, where it is possible to find numerous fossils, mainly marine fossils, like ammonites, bivalves, sponges, marine crocodiles, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs etc. But also sometimes some remains of terrestrial animals like dinosaurs. My vocation for human evolution came much latter when I continue my studies in Paris in the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine (IPH) under the direction of Professor Henry de Lumley and Salvador Bailon and begin the preparation of my PhD on fossil amphibians and reptiles from Atapuerca, Guadix-Baza and many others archeological sites bearing the oldest hominin presence in Western Europe ...
I currently work (since 2007) in the Institut catalá de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolucio Social in Tarragona on the reconstruction of the climatic context of the first hominin dispersals out of Africa. Since then I became involved in all the excavations and research projects of the IPHES, trying each time to reach the major advantages to these small bone remains.
Thank to this discipline I am able to recognize which animals lived at the same time than the hominins and above all, because such ectothermic animals have precise requirements for temperature and humidity, to reconstruct the climate and landscapes where early humans once thrived.
Today, my main research deals with the climatic and environmental context of the early human dispersals in Western Europe, and if hominins were conditioned by environmental or climatic parameters. I also actively participate in other thematic in Spanish archeological sites like the ProyectOrce (Granada), Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos), Pinilla del Valle (Madrid) and also in the whole Mediterranean basin and Caucasus.