In the opinion of the textbook authors, race is
a. a meaningful biological concept.
b. a biological reality only when the distribution of many genetic traits is considered.
c. a culturally constructed category.
d. an important tool for understanding human variation.
The expression of ________ traits is most sensitive to environmental conditions.
a. hormonal
b. behavioral
c. morphological
d. physiological
Which of the following statements about race is true?
a. The human species can be naturally divided into a small number of distinct races.
b. Members of different races are different in important ways, so that knowing a
person’s race gives you important information about what he or she is like.
c. Members of each race are genetically similar to each other, and genetically different
from members of other races.
d. We cannot determine a discrete number of racial categories.
Examples of redirected aggression in vervet monkeys demonstrate that they understand
a. dominance rank.
b. theory of mind.
c. social intelligence.
d. third-party relationships.
Monkeys and apes may be able to predict another’s behavior. If they haven”t acquired
this skill by having a theory of mind, they likely have acquired it by
a. natural selection.
b. associative learning.
c. imitation.
d. deception.
Most genetic variation exists
a. within local groups.
b. among local groups within races.
c. between races.
d. between local groups.
Classifying humans into races is not possible because
a. genetic variation is continuous.
b. the placement of individuals within any single category is clear and obvious.
c. classifications based on different characters lead to consistent groupings.
d. race is not culturally relevant.
Average Homo ergaster brain size was
a. 500 cc.
b. 800 cc.
c. 1,500 cc.
d. 2,000 cc.
Primate researchers have found a positive correlation between female dominance rank
and
a. number of births per year.
b. length of interbirth interval.
c. infant mortality.
d. rank of associates.
Large mammalian carnivores in Africa
a. never scavenge for meat.
b. scavenge only when they are sick or old.
c. often scavenge for meat rather than hunting.
d. almost always scavenge for meat and vary rarely hunt.
Primiparous females
a. reproduce at faster rates than multiparous females.
b. give birth to only one infant in their lifetime.
c. experience greater infant mortality than multiparous females.
d. have shorter interbirth intervals than multiparous females.
Closely related species are similar to each other because they
a. share a recent common ancestor.
b. have converged on some functional characteristic, such as flight.
c. live in close proximity to one another.
d. live in similar environments all over the world.
A feature that distinguishes primates from other mammals is
a. longer pregnancies.
b. arboreal lives.
c. shorter periods of dependence on parents.
d. living in social groups.
The neocortex ratio in primates is positively correlated with
a. tool use.
b. activity pattern.
c. the extent of leaves in the diet.
d. group size.
The association of hominin tools and animal bones is more likely to mean that early
hominins were responsible for these bone accumulations if
a. the bones and stone tools are found at the same archaeological site.
b. the bones have carnivore gnaw marks on them.
c. the bones have possible stone-tool cut marks on them.
d. the bones show evidence of having been moved by water.
Kin selection predicts
a. that group selection is more likely in families.
b. that altruism is more likely among relatives.
c. that altruism should occur only in higher animals.
d. that only 50% of related individuals are altruistic.
Diversity in closely related organisms living under different ecological conditions can
help in the understanding of
a. convergent evolution.
b. homologies.
c. how natural selection shapes behavior and morphology.
d. how behaviors remain the same through time.
The first use of tools
a. was by australopithecine ancestors of humans.
b. probably precedes the divergence of humans and apes.
c. occurred after the evolution of bipedalism.
d. involved distinctly human abilities.
The key to the evolution of altruism is that
a. recipients have to be more likely to carry the altruistic allele than nonrecipients.
b. actors have to be more likely to carry the altruistic allele than nonactors.
c. recipients have to be unrelated to the actors.
d. nonrecipients have to be more likely to carry the altruistic allele than recipients.
Studies of tooth enamel tell us that
a. C4 plants are woody plants while C3 plants are grasses and sedges.
b. Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus shared a variable diet that
may have included animals that fed on C4 plants.
c. chimpanzees feed mainly on C4 plants.
d. Paranthropus boisei ate mostly C3 plants.
Consider a population of 20 aa, 32 Aa, and 48 AA individuals. Selection acts against the
lethal recessive homozygote (aa) before adulthood. After selection, survivors mate
randomly. What are the genotypic frequencies of the next generation?
a. 25% aa, 50% Aa, and 25% AA
b. All AA
c. 4% aa, 16% Aa, and 64% AA
d. None of the above.
During which era did the first primates with modern features evolve?
a. The Paleocene
b. The Eocene
c. The Oligocene
d. The Miocene
Direct male”male competition is most intense in
a. pair-bonded groups.
b. one-male, multifemale groups.
c. multimale, multifemale groups.
d. bachelor groups.
Oldowan flakes
a. may have been made to make other tools that were then used to extract resources.
b. were primarily the waste product from making the “cores.”
c. were used to dig up tubers.
d. were used to crack open bones to extract marrow.
In Buss’s cross-cultural survey of mate preferences, he found that males and females
cared most about
a. chastity.
b. good health.
c. mutual attraction and love.
d. good sex.
In Buss’s cross-cultural survey, which of the following traits did females value more
than males?
a. Ambition and industriousness
b. Good looks
c. Virginity
d. Youth
A link between social complexity and cognitive ability is predicted using
a. a standardized measurement of cognition.
b. absolute forebrain size.
c. absolute neocortex size.
d. a standardized measure of group size.
Incest prohibitions
a. exist in 50% of societies for brothers and sisters.
b. do not exist for distant kin.
c. conform to genetic categories.
d. do not always conform to genetic categories.
Primates who understand the nature of third-party relationships may
a. have a good idea about who will support them in a conflict.
b. enlist aid from the most dominant male in the group.
c. follow basic social rules, including supporting subordinates against dominants.
d. recruit allies who are close to their opponents.
The size and composition of primate social groups are a compromise between
a. competition for mates and competition for food.
b. body size and home range size.
c. costs and benefits of sociality.
d. competition for food and benefits of sociality.
Bone, antler, and teeth are known to have been used to construct which types of tools?
a. Acheulean
b. Mousterian
c. Oldowan
d. Upper Paleolithic
Because of the finds in Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia, paleoanthropologists know that
hominins left Africa by
a. 2.8 mya.
b. 1.8 mya.
c. 1.8 kya.
d. 2,800 ya.
Homo ergaster disappeared from the African fossil record about
a. 1.6 million years ago.
b. 60,000 years ago.
c. 6,000 years ago.
d. 600,000 years ago.
A balanced polymorphism is
a. a balance between mutation and selection.
b. a balance between selection and drift.
c. a state in which two alleles remain in a population because of heterozygote
advantage.
d. either a or b.
Natural selection should favor behaviors that
a. reduce mating with relatives.
b. increase mating with relatives.
c. increase mating with siblings but not parents.
d. decrease the chances of outbred matings.
Explain the difference between ancestral and derived characters.
Briefly describe five reasons that evolution does not always lead to the best possible
phenotype.
How were the Oldowan tools manufactured? Why are they referred to as “Mode 1”
tools? What does the manufacturing process tell us about the hominins who made
them?
Why is it important to consider continental drift when studying primate evolution?
Discuss the main factors contributing to the endangerment and extinction of primates.
Explain why offspring are usually intermediate between their parents even though
blending inheritance is not true.
Give two examples of the experimental evidence that some primates have the ability to
recognize the nature of kin relationships among other conspecifics.
How could infanticide be seen as a male reproductive strategy? Why is infanticide more
prevalent in species that form one-male, multifemale groups than in multimale,
multifemale groups? Is there evidence that this is an adaptive strategy? Explain your
answer.
What kind of environment did the earliest primates evolve in?
Discuss the different hypotheses that the chapter presents for how the first primates
adapted to share the same suite of diagnostic characteristics.
In what ways does H. ergaster differ from H. sapiens physically and developmentally?
What does this evidence suggest about H. ergaster versus human behavior?
Explain how natural selection can move a population beyond its initial range of
variation.
Which known member of the genus Australopithecus is most like an ancestor to later
australopiths and even of our genus, Homo? Support your suggestion with information
about features of the hominins noted in the chapter.
Compare and contrast cladistic and evolutionary systematics. Illustrate your answer by
discussing the phylogeny of apes and humans.
Compare and contrast the two main hypotheses accounting for the evolution of
intelligence in monkeys and apes.
Explain the experimental evidence suggesting that our minds have been designed by
natural selection specifically to solve social exchange problems.
How does the fossil evidence support the hypothesis that modern humans arose in
Africa?
Do adaptations always benefit the group, population, or species? Why or why not? Use
real or hypothetical examples to illustrate your answer.
Explain why natural selection cannot evolve a camera-type eye from a compound eye.