Relative to other primates, prosimian adaptations include
a. an enlarged olfactory bulb and enlarged scent glands.
b. larger brains.
c. reduced number of teeth.
d. smaller eye orbits.
Which of the following is not one of the main methods for reconstructing ancient
environments?
a. stable carbon isotope analysis of fossils and of soils
b. 40K/40Ar analysis of lava flows and of ash layers
c. oxygen isotope analysis of marine microorganisms
d. faunal analysis of habitat-specific species
The absolute dating technique that emerged as a result of research into constructing the
atomic bomb during World War II is
a. fission track dating.
b. 14C dating.
c. 40K/40Ar dating.
d. thermoluminescence dating.
It is now a desert, but ________ the Fayum region of Egypt was a wet tropical forest.
a. 10 mya
b. 15 mya
c. 30 mya
d. 45 mya
An individual that is homozygous at the locus that determines ABO blood type may
have any of the following except
a. type AB blood.
b. type O blood.
c. type A blood.
d. type B blood.
The first logical step in a sequence of events that leads to the discovery and analysis of
primate fossils is the
a. naming of the fossils.
b. recovery of the fossils.
c. comparison with other fossils.
d. selection and surveying of potential sites.
In the late 1960s, who proposed that South African food-foraging people actually had
more leisure time than early farmers?
a. Louis Leakey
b. Tim White
c. Dart and Broom
d. Lee and DeVore
A feature unique only to human teeth and human ancestors’ teeth is
a. the presence of a canine-premolar honing complex.
b. a canine that shows no wear on any surface.
c. the Y-5 cusp pattern.
d. a canine that shows wear on the tip.
The average heights of European-American males in the United States fluctuated
between 1710 and 1970 and
a. were not affected by improvements in sanitation.
b. were positively affected by increasing population density.
c. were mostly influenced by shifts in immigrants’ geographic origins.
d. were positively affected by access to medical care.
Gigantopithecus, the largest primate that ever lived, weighed approximately
a. 3 kg
b. 30 kg
c. 300 kg
d. 3,000 kg
The higher the rank of a female primate, the
a. lower her access to resources and the lower the survival rate of her offspring.
b. lower her access to resources and the greater the survival rate of her offspring.
c. greater her access to resources, which results in lower birth rates.
d. greater her access to resources, which results in higher birth rates.
The distinctive fluted spear points used by early Native Americans (Paleoindians) to
hunt large-bodied Ice Age mammals are
a. Mousterian points.
b. Solutrean blades.
c. Levallois flakes.
d. Folsom points.
Chimpanzee tool use challenges the assumption
a. that humans are fundamentally different from chimpanzees.
b. that chimpanzees are capable of any type of behavior.
c. that chimpanzees are not likely to use tools.
d. that material culture is unique to humans.
How many separate centers of domestication exist, according to archaeologists?
a. three
b. five
c. seven
d. eleven
Which Eocene primate from China has recently been proposed as an extremely
primitive, and tiny, anthropoid?
a. Eosimias
b. Khoratopithecus
c. Adapis
d. Notharctus
Mutation
a. works most effectively on small populations.
b. is the only source of new alleles.
c. is one of many sources of new alleles.
d. works to decrease variation between populations.
In which of the following species would you expect to find a large projecting canine
tooth with a sharp edge on its back?
a. modern human
b. Australopithecus afarensis
c. Australopithecus boisei
d. gorilla
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.
By the mid-twentieth century, the causes of evolution were seen as all of the following
except
a. natural selection.
b. macromutation.
c. gene flow.
d. genetic drift.
Dmanisi hominids from the Republic of Georgia are dated to
a. 1.0 mya.
b. 800,000 yBP.
c. 1.8 mya.
d. 2.5 mya.
Based on the fossil record, scientists agree that which of the following is true?
a. Primates were much less geographically widespread in the past than they are today.
b. Primates first evolved on the ground.
c. Primates’ most special feature is their adaptive versatility.
d. Primates are most similar to tree dwelling rodents.
________ is most powerful as an evolutionary cause when operating on small
populations.
a. Genetic flow
b. Mutation
c. Genetic drift
d. Natural selection
The great genetic diversity documented in individuals from sub-Saharan Africa is
thought to have resulted from
a. the accumulation of genetic mutations over the last 10 years.
b. the small breeding population maintaining genetic diversity.
c. the accumulations of genetic mutations over time.
d. random chance.
The Neolithic Demographic Transition
a. was a drop in the death rate.
b. was a shift from low birth rates to high birth rates.
c. brought about large population increases.
d. both b and c.
Puberty is marked by
a. menarche in girls.
b. similar body size in boys and girls.
c. completion of brain growth.
d. adult social roles.
Grooming, an affiliative or cooperative behavior, serves all of the following functions
except
a. removing insects or other foreign objects.
b. helping to cement social bonds between the individuals who are grooming.
c. preventing diseases from spreading within a social group.
d. maintaining the dominance hierarchies present within groups.
Klinefelter’s syndrome results
a. from males passing on an extra copy of chromosome #21.
b. from females passing on an extra copy of chromosome #21.
c. from females passing on an extra copy of the Y chromosome (resulting in a
47-chromosome, XXY karyotype).
d. from males passing on an extra copy of the X chromosome (resulting in a
47-chromosome, XXY karyotype).
You and your friend are reading a scientific article about cheetahs that have stripes
instead of spots. The article refers to this as a genetic mutation. Your friend wonders
why the striped cheetahs are not referred to as a new species. You respond:
a. The article is mistaken. Striped cheetahs are clearly a new species.
b. Genetic mutations only cause superficial changes that do not result in evolutionary
advantages.
c. When the frequency of striped individuals in the population reaches 50%, they will
be categorized as a new species.
d. The stripes are caused by an individual mutation, and have not evolved in a
reproductively isolated population.
In your primate anatomy lab you are shown the mandible (lower jaw bone) of a species
of primate. While looking at the teeth, you notice a large space between the canine and
first premolar. In your lab book you note
a. that this is likely the lower jaw of a human due to the potential presence of a
canine-premolar honing complex.
b. that this may be a species of Old World monkey or ape, as the space in the teeth of
the mandible suggests the presence of a canine-premolar honing complex.
c. that this is likely the lower jaw of a human, given the presence of a nonhoning
chewing complex.
d. that this may be a species of Old World monkey or ape, as the space in the teeth
suggests the presence of a nonhoning chewing complex.
Recent studies in human origins have
a. supported Darwin’s hypothesis that the earliest hominids originated in the woodlands.
b. supported Darwin’s hypothesis that the earliest hominids originated in the desert.
c. refuted Darwin’s hypothesis that the earliest hominids originated in the grasslands.
d. refuted Darwin’s hypothesis that the earliest hominids originated in the trees.
James Hutton is associated with
a. adaptation.
b. catastrophism.
c. uniformitarianism.
d. principles of heredity.
________ DNA is heteroplasmic, meaning it can differ among different parts of a
person’s body.
a. Nuclear
b. All
c. Ribosomal
d. Mitochondrial
When individuals of the same species are reproductively isolated, genetic differences
may accumulate in sufficient number so that new species could emerge. Such an event
would be an example of
a. microevolution.
b. founder effect.
c. equilibrium.
d. macroevolution.