Paläoanthropologie – Standortbestimmung einer innovativen Disziplin

Abstract

Palaeoanthropology is as a publicity-oriented biological science one of the most fascinating disciplines which has to deal simultaneously with the discrediting allegation of a low credibility of her results. This paper aims to invalidate this prejudice as a singleedged exterior view and to characterise palaeoanthropological research as an innovative science which aims to explain the process of hominisation as evolutionary adaptations within the order Primates. The principles and methods of theory-guided studies of fossil remains
are exemplarily explained. Palaeoanthropological approaches meticulously try to decode the information hidden in hominid fossils, to reconstruct the process and the phylogenetical steps of hominisation and to conceptualize a substantiated – but always hypothetical – pedigree of our origin. We are just modelling.