The presence of repressors and activators in regulatory genes means that there is
________ of gene expression.
a. translation
b. combinatorial control
c. a biochemical pathway
d. primary structure
Neanderthals are known to have used
a. only Oldowan tools.
b. mostly Acheulean tools.
c. a wide range of Mousterian tools.
d. only wood and bamboo tools.
Sympatric speciation involves
a. natural selection.
b. lack of gene flow.
c. a mother population divided into two physically separated populations.
d. genetic drift.
Organisms that reproduce early tend to have
a. large body size and small brains.
b. short gestation times and large litters.
c. high rates of mortality and long life spans.
d. low rates of mortality and short life spans.
The biological species concept emphasizes
a. genetic drift within populations.
b. gene flow between populations.
c. the importance of mutations.
d. that the amount of genetic information that is exchanged within a population rarely
changes.
Paleontologists state that Homo ergaster was fully committed to terrestrial life because
a. the teeth of Homo ergaster show evidence of meat eating.
b. sexual dimorphism is reduced in this species.
c. Homo ergaster had the same body proportions as people who live in tropical
savannas today.
d. their brain size is larger than the brains of other hominins.
Male reproduction is limited by
a. the number of sex cells a male produces.
b. parental investment and infant care.
c. the number of fertile females.
d. food availability.
Genetic data indicate that the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees lived
between
a. 2 and 1 mya.
b. 4 and 2 mya.
c. 5 and 3 mya.
d. 7 and 5 mya.
During 1976 on the Galpagos Island of Daphne Major, Peter and Rosemary Grant found
evidence of natural selection by adaptation when they observed that
a. finches with shallow beaks were less likely to survive and reproduce than finches
with deep beaks.
b. finch beak size had no effect on survival rates.
c. many more small seeds were available for the finches to eat.
d. more finches with deep beaks died than finches with shallow beaks.
The average brain size of Homo heidelbergensis was about
a. 700 cc.
b. 1,000 cc.
c. 1,300 cc.
d. 1,500 cc.
Which of the following statements is true?
a. Phenotypic traits result from either an individual’s genes or from the impact of the
environment, but not from both factors.
b. Bill Lambeer is tall because his genes specified that he”d be tall.
c. The expression of any genotype depends on the environment.
d. Genes are like blueprints specifying an individual’s phenotype.
Male soapberry bugs adjust their mate-guarding behavior
a. in places where the environment is stable.
b. in places where the environment is variable.
c. in colder climates.
d. in wetter climates.
The oldest hominin is
a. Australopithecus.
b. Sahelanthropus.
c. Zinjanthropus.
d. Pithecanthropus.
Intrasexual selection favors traits that
a. enhance direct competition among individuals of the same sex.
b. are attractive to the opposite sex.
c. increase survival.
d. are easily adapted to change.
Most primates rely more on visual stimuli and less on olfactory stimuli than do other
mammals. Which of the following is one line of evidence for this?
a. Primates have more complex eyes than do other mammals.
b. Primate olfactory apparatuses are highly specialized, especially in diurnal primates.
c. Primates have more optic nerves than do other mammals.
d. The primate visual sense is highly developed while the olfactory apparatus is
reduced, especially in diurnal primates.
Why are biologists uncertain about how a species should be defined?
a. Biologists have not incorporated behavior into species’ definitions.
b. Biologists do not know how reproductive isolation happens.
c. Biologists are uncertain of how new species arise and how established species are
maintained.
d. Biologists have not figured out how to use DNA data to determine species’ status.
Imagine you are an archaeologist working in the Czech Republic. You have found
remains of a hearth within a large structure that appears to have been constructed with
the bones of a woolly mammoth. Which hominin species is responsible for this site?
a. Homo erectus.
b. Neanderthals.
c. Denisovans.
d. Homo sapiens.
The Dmanisi hominins had the same ________ as modern humans.
a. brain size
b. body size
c. limb proportions
d. growth patterns
A correlated response to selection occurs when selection
a. indirectly increases a trait that has no effect on survival.
b. directly increases a trait that has a negative effect on survival.
c. is disruptive.
d. is stabilizing.
The viewpoint that modern humans evolved in Africa proposes that
a. all modern humans evolved in Europe or the Near East.
b. Neanderthals became extinct.
c. Asian Homo erectus evolved into anatomically modern Asians.
d. Neanderthals evolved into modern humans.
Homo ergaster was the first hominin known to have
a. evolved in Africa.
b. used Oldowan tools.
c. lived in Europe.
d. eaten meat.
Non-insulin-dependent diabetes
a. was a maladaptive trait in the past.
b. causes iron levels to rise above normal because the cells of the body do not respond
properly to hemoglobin.
c. has a genetic basis.
d. does not have a genetic basis.
The cortical bone on the femur of ________ has a humanlike pattern of thickness.
a. Sahelanthropus tchadensis
b. Ardipithecus kadabba
c. Orrorin tugenensis
d. None of the above.
The cooperative breeding system of primates such as marmosets and tamarins can be
explained by
a. chimerism, which increases fraternal twins’ inclusive fitness when they help raise one
another’s offspring.
b. helpers who care for the offspring of the breeding pair, although the helpers are
usually not related to them.
c. the fact that mothers sometimes allow their daughters to breed.
d. mutualism between the nonbreeding helpers.
Australopithecines were
a. prehominin apes from the Miocene from which hominins evolved.
b. toothless wonders from the late Cretaceous.
c. bipedal primates.
d. primates with brains larger than hominoids.
Imagine a population where there are 20 aa individuals, 50 Aa individuals, and 30 AA
individuals. Imagine that selection acts against both homozygotes such that neither
homozygote survives to adulthood. What is the frequency of each genotype in the next
generation of zygotes?
a. aa = 0, Aa = 1.0, and AA = 0
b. aa = .20, Aa = .60, and AA = .20
c. aa = .20, Aa = .50, and AA = .30
d. aa = .25, Aa = .50, and AA = .25
Among the differences between Upper Paleolithic peoples and Neanderthals are that
Upper Paleolithic peoples
a. had shorter life spans than Neanderthals.
b. lived at higher densities than Neanderthals.
c. were more likely to suffer injuries than Neanderthals.
d. lived over a much smaller geographical region than Neanderthals.
Evolutionary taxonomy uses
a. only morphological similarity to classify organisms.
b. only descent to classify organisms.
c. both similarity and descent to classify organisms.
d. neither similarity nor descent to classify organisms.
Recent studies on kin recognition have found that age may provide a good proxy
measure of paternal kinship in
a. monogamous species.
b. species where one male dominates mating activity in a group.
c. groups with polygynous mating strategies.
d. polyandrous groups.
The neocortex ratio
a. includes the entire hindbrain.
b. is the neocortex volume compared to brain volume.
c. is the comparison of brain to body size.
d. is the comparison of neocortex size to body size.
The fact that Upper Paleolithic people lived at higher population densities than
Neanderthals is evidence of which of the following statements?
a. Upper Paleolithic people were able to obtain more food from their environment than
Neanderthals.
b. Upper Paleolithic people lived in larger social groups than Neanderthals.
c. Upper Paleolithic people lived longer than Neanderthals.
d. Upper Paleolithic people ate better food than Neanderthals.
What is the difference between relative and absolute dating?
Why do anthropologists think hard-to-acquire food resources had such an effect on
human evolution?
What is the evidence for maternal and paternal kin recognition? Illustrate your answer
with examples.
Explain the changes in the structural or protein-coding genes of humans and
chimpanzees.
)What are the phenotypes and phenotypic ratios of the F2 generation and why?
List the four main lobes of the cerebrum and briefly describe what the cerebral cortex is
and why anthropologists are interested in it.
What evidence exists for reciprocal altruism in primates? Why would reciprocal
altruism be common for primates but not for other animals?
Explain how reasoning from homology and reasoning from analogy can help us to
understand our own species better.
What is Hamilton’s rule? What are the two fundamental predictions of Hamilton’s rule?
Devise a primate scenario in which these two predictions of Hamilton’s rule would be
satisfied.
As an evolutionary biologist, how would you explain the relationship between animal
behavior and strategy, cost, and benefit to a layperson? Make sure to define what you
mean by “strategy.”
Interpret the following inequality as it pertains to parent”offspring conflict. Apply
Hamilton’s rule, from the current infant’s perspective, assuming a gene expressed by the
current infant increases maternal investment by a small amount.
1.0 x (increase in fitness of current fetus)
0.5 x (decrease in fitness of future offspring)
How does alternative splicing allow the same DNA sequence to code for more than one
protein? Why is alternative splicing important in eukaryotes?
Discuss three hypotheses concerning the evolution of bipedalism.
How does natural selection produce complex, functionally integrated adaptations like
the human eye?
Were early hominins hunters or scavengers? Explain your answer.
Give a hypothetical example of parapatric speciation.