中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所（简称“中科院古脊椎所”）最早前身是农矿部地质调查所新生代研究室，1929年4月成立于北京，主要从事周口店北京猿人遗址的发掘及化石研究。1951年归入在南京创建的中国科学院古生物研究所，改称新生代与脊椎古生物研究组。1953年从古生物研究所分出，在北京建立中国科学院古脊椎动物研究室。1957年升格为古脊椎动物研究所。1960年改称为中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所至今，现位于北京市西城区西直门外大街142号。 

研究所面向国际学术前沿和国家战略需求，充分发挥化石资源优势，以建设国家古脊椎动物与古人类学基础研究领域的科研和学术思想中心、科技人才培养中心、化石标本和现代骨骼标本收藏中心和科学普及中心为发展定位，力争率先进入世界著名研究所行列，保持我国古脊椎动物与古人类学基础研究在国际上的先进地位，在提高人类对生命与地球演化规律认识等方面做出重大创新贡献。 

研究所是中国目前唯一专门从事古脊椎动物学、古人类学、古环境学及相关生物地层学研究的学术机构，现设有四个研究室、一个研究中心和一个重点实验室，即古鱼类与爬行类研究室、古哺乳动物研究室、古人类与旧石器研究室、古环境演化研究室、周口店国际古人类研究中心和中国科学院脊椎动物演化与人类起源重点实验室。设有古生物学与地层学、地球生物学、科技考古专业的博士、硕士研究生培养点和博士后科研流动站。

The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was founded in April 1929 in Beijing, formerly the Cenozoic Division of the Geological Survey Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture and Mineral Resources. The Institute is mainly engaged in the excavation and fossil research of Peking Man site in Zhoukoudian. In 1951, it was incorporated into the Institute of Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, and renamed the Cenozoic and Vertebrate Paleontology Research Group. In 1953, it was separated from the Institute of Paleontology and established the Laboratory of Vertebrate Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. In 1957, it was upgraded to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology. In 1960, it was renamed the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is now located at No.142, Xizhimenwai Street, Xicheng District, Beijing.

Facing the international academic frontier and national strategic needs, the Institute gives full play to its advantages in fossil resources, and aims to become a national research and academic thought center in the field of vertebrate paleontology and paleoanthropology, a center for training scientific and technological personnel, a center for collecting fossil specimens and modern skeletal specimens, and a center for scientific popularization. To maintain the advanced status of the basic research of vertebrate paleontology and paleoanthropology in the world, and to improve human understanding of the law of life and the evolution of the earth and make significant innovative contributions.

The Institute is the only academic institution in China specializing in vertebrate paleontology, paleoanthropology, paleoenvironment and related biostratigraphy. At present, it has four research rooms, one research center and one key laboratory. They are the Department of Ancient Fishes and Reptiles, the Department of Ancient Mammals, the Department of Paleoanthropology and Paleolithic, the Department of Paleoenvironmental Evolution, the Zhoukoudian International Center for Paleoanthropology and the Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It also has a doctoral and master's degree training center and a post-doctoral research mobile station in paleontology and stratigraphy, geobiology, and science and technology archaeology.