Discuss the six key attributes that make humans unique relative to other species.
Discuss the origins of racism. Include early scientists and their views on human
variation.
The core of the adaptive success characterized by population explosion was the result
of:
a. a decreased food supply.
b. an increased food supply.
c. agriculture.
d. a sedentary lifestyle.
The original continent that existed about 200 mya, from which the modern continents
ultimately emerged, is called:
a. Eurasia.
b. Afrinesia.
c. Australasia.
d. Pangaea.
Anatomical evidence from fossilized hand bones suggests that the precision grip needed
to make and use stone tools was present:
a. only in Homo erectus.
b. only in Homo habilis.
c. in Homo habilis and some australopithecines.
d. in all australopithecine and Homo species.
One of the most important adaptive transitions in hominin evolution is:
a. the shift from foraging to farming.
b. having color depth perception.
c. a larger brain.
d. a change in the arm-to-leg ratio.
Familial hypercholesterolemia, an autosomal dominant disease, is five times more
frequent in the Afrikaner population of South Africa than in the population of Europe or
the United States. This represents an example of:
a. natural selection.
b. bottleneck.
c. founder effect.
d. kin selection.
The rhinarium is present in:
a. baboons.
b. gorillas.
c. ring-tail lemurs.
d. howler monkeys.
Modern humans have:
a. traits like large browridges, large nasal sinuses, and a large masticatory complex.
b. a high vertical forehead, a round and tall skull, and small browridges.
c. a small face, small teeth, and a projecting chin.
d. both b. and c.
Male reproductive strategies emphasize:
a. competition between males for access to reproductive-age females.
b. risk-taking behavior.
c. violence against competitors for female access.
d. care of young.
Which species of early primates had the most biological diversity?
a. Eosimias
b. Proconsul
c. Dryopithecus
d. Oreopithecus
Sub-Saharan Africans show the largest genetic diversity of any human population. This
is likely to have resulted from:
a. the accumulation of genetic mutations over the last ten years.
b. the group’s small breeding population, maintaining genetic diversity.
c. the accumulations of genetic mutations over time.
d. random chance.
A wooden tomb is discovered with a well-preserved mummy inside. What method
could be used to date the tomb?
a. superposition
b. electron spin resonance
c. thermoluminescence
d. dendrochronology
Vocalizations enable primates to:
a. communicate as humans do.
b. solve distressing situations among primate groups.
c. name resources and monitor the social group.
d. communicate, but only between members of the same hierarchy.
Just before the arrival of the Spanish on Saint Catherines Island, people there:
a. were primarily fishermen.
b. were hunter-gatherers.
c. became the first farmers of the region.
d. were vegetarians by choice.
Human life expectancy in the United States has:
a. increased since 1900, due largely to improvements in medicine and in sanitation.
b. decreased since 1900, because of fast food and sedentary lifestyles.
c. not been affected by nutrition.
d. decreased since 1900, due to a rise in infectious disease.
How do modern-day lemurs of Madagascar demonstrate the concept of adaptive
radiation?
a. They are closely related species that have branched from one species.
b. They are no different from ancient species of lemurs.
c. They have radiated from ancient species of monkeys.
d. They show great cultural flexibility.
An archaeological field school is announced in your anthropology course. The
description says that you will be able to travel to Belize to learn about the lives of the
ancient Mayans. What do you expect to learn during this field school?
a. what species of nonhuman primate occupies this region
b. how current populations of immigrants have changed local dialects
c. how to excavate and study material culture
d. how to socially navigate life in a Central American setting
As towns and cities began to compete for increasingly limited resources:
a. organized warfare developed.
b. cooperation among neighbors developed.
c. agriculture increased as well.
d. violence decreased.
How did Lamarck contribute to the theory of evolution?
a. He discovered genetic mutation through experiments with pea plants.
b. He proposed the concept of natural selection after his voyage to the Galapagos
Islands and his study of finches.
c. He did not but instead proposed an erroneous evolutionary mechanism known today
as inheritance of acquired characteristics.
d. He did not but instead proposed a concept known today as gene flow.
Based on the archaeological record from various areas, what was the initial effect of
agriculture on height?
a. Height decreased.
b. Height increased.
c. Height became more variable within the population.
d. Height stayed the same.
What was the cause for the biological change in the indigenous people of Saint
Catherines Island after AD 1000?
a. They became sedentary and had less food to eat because they stayed in the same area.
b. They became sedentary and consumed more corn, which caused dental disease due to
its high sugar content.
c. They became sedentary and did not have enough exercise to keep their bodies fit and
healthy.
d. They continued as nomads, but loss of animals due to climate change created a
decline in their food source.
Why are primates social in the short term?
a. to increase female fecundity in dominant females only
b. to increase interaction between sexually mature males and females
c. to establish social relationships to prevent attacks from predators
d. to share food sources
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach:
a. discovered the existence of three races.
b. categorized skulls into five racial types.
c. used blood types and skin colors to create a racial taxonomy for humans.
d. showed that skull shape changed over time.
Igneous rock can be dated with which of the following methods?
a. radiopotassium dating
b. dendrochronology
c. radiocarbon dating
d. flourine dating
Without the work of x-ray crystallographer _________, DNA might not have been
discovered for some time longer.
a. James Watson
b. Francis Crick
c. Thomas Malthus
d. Rosalind Franklin
The ABO and MN blood-type frequencies of the Dunkers differ significantly from those
of current American and German populations due to:
a. genetic drift.
b. natural selection.
c. gene flow.
d. mutation.
Down syndrome can occur:
a. as a result of translocation during mitosis.
b. because of nondisjunction, which yields an extra chromosome.
c. most frequently in the offspring of women under the age of 40.
d. most frequently in the offspring of men under the age of 40.
Some Homo erectus specimens had very large and robust bones while others:
a. were small with robust bones.
b. were tall with robust bones.
c. were gracile.
d. were small with thin bones.
According to John Relethford, the most likely reasons for modern humans to have
migrated out of Africa during the late Pleistocene include:
a. disease.
b. loss of food supply.
c. climate change.
d. both b. and c.
At a site in the American Southwest, you find only a single ceramic pot in association
with an individual within a burial. You can use the pot to date the burial based on:
a. biostratigraphic dating, because there may be animal remains inside the pot.
b. cultural dating, since the pot must be specific to a known culture and time period.
c. radiopotassium dating of the material used to make the pot.
d. fission track dating of the pot itself.
Compare the causes and effects of global warming during the Eocene with those
occurring today. Consider specific species and their habitats.
How does human life history (prenatal stage, infancy, childhood, juvenile stage,
adolescence, adulthood, old age) determine the interaction between genes and
environment?
Discuss how the process of globalization affects human biocultural variation today.
Discuss the value of the scientific method in our society.
Discuss Allen’s and Bergmann’s rules and how they affect human variation. Include the
forces of evolution discussed in previous chapters to support your essay.
What “symbolic” behavior is evident in the archeological record and associated with
Neandertals and anatomically modern humans in Europe beginning around 35,000 yBP
(during the Upper Paleolithic)?
What is the significance for evolutionary theory of Darwin’s analysis of the Galpagos
finches? Provide at least one example in your answer.
Discuss the Ardipithecus ramidusfossil and its implications for understanding human
evolution.
Explain how the founder effect can lead to a descendent population that differs greatly
from its parent population over a relatively short period of time.
What have scientists learned about the function of primate vocalizations and how they
relate to the evolution of human language?
Discuss the obesity pandemic. Include current studies that demonstrate likely causes.
Describe the arboreal adaptation of primates and include specific anatomical
characteristics.
Compare and contrast male and female primates in terms of reproductive strategies and
competition.
Discuss the anatomical changes that occurred in the bipedal hominin and how they
reflect certain habitat adaptations, and then discuss the hypotheses that propose why the
change occurred.
What kinds of environmental pressures contributed to the dispersal of modern Homo
sapiens around the world? What do the migrations of modern humans into Australia tell
us about the range of human variation and adaptability in the past compared to the
diversity we see in human populations today?
Discuss the anatomical differences of the skeleton between (bipedal) humans and
(quadrupedal) apes.
Describe Homo erectus‘s cranial and postcranial anatomical characteristics. How is this
species significantly different from earlier hominids and how did these characteristics
increase the success of this species over that of their ancestors?
Describe the range of primate residence patterns. Relate social grouping to food and
reproduction.
Use what you know about meiosis to explain Mendel’s law of segregation and law of
independent assortment.