28 Prospects and Pitfalls Jean-Jacques Hublin Abstract Paleoanthropology is primarily rooted in the study of fossils and the analysis of sites. Dependence on these resources leads to challenges resulting from the difficulty in gaining access to scarce, precious, and sometimes overprotected materials, and from issues of control over field sites. The development of virtual paleoanthropology can sometimes be a way to partially solve the first problem. However on some occasions, the access to and utilization of numerical data has also become an issue of dispute. In parallel, recent advances in studies focusing on microstructures, isotopic composition, and paleogenetics require direct sampling of the fossils. The trend in paleoanthropology is to integrate approaches from different scientific fields, and this is especially visible in developmental sciences, genetics, and environmental studies. In the meantime, dealing with human evolution remains a sensitive topic, subject to clear ideological and religious biases. The interest of the media and of the public in this science does not always contribute to an objective approach to the questions. Finally, among other issues, the expansion of paleoanthropology studies in developing countries must con- tend with the decline of a colonial mode of thinking. 28.1 Introduction In many respects, paleoanthropology is a paradoxical science. Although it ad- dresses the oldest origins of humans, the discipline itself developed quite recently in the history of science. The first fossil hominid specimen on record, an immature Neandertal skull, was discovered in 1830 in Engis (Belgium). However, it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that certain fossil specimens were truly accepted by the majority of the scientific community as evidence for the evolutionary process that gave birth to our species. Although very significant discoveries occurred during the first half of the twentieth century and provided the basic framework for paleoanthropological studies, the last three decades of that century witnessed a spectacular increase in the available fossil record as well as in major advances in the knowledge of past environments and the chronolog- ical background of human evolution. Moreover, the birth of paleogenetics added # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007