Microsatellites are:
a. small satellite transmitters used in genetic research.
b. useful for determining group but not individual identification.
c. highly individualized repetitive stretches of nuclear DNA.
d. known from Watson and Crick’s 1950’s research.
Which of the following is a rare primate residence pattern found only in orangutans and
a few strepsirhines?
a. one-male, multifemale
b. one-female, multimale
c. multimale, multifemale
d. solitary
Homeostasis may be studied indirectly by:
a. observing living populations as they engage in various activities in various settings.
b. experimentally manipulating or replicating environmental conditions and observing
human responses.
c. identifying the genome of a given population of humans.
d. observing differences in such measures as body temperature across human groups.
A rapid temperature increase about 55 mya created tropical conditions around the
world, resulting in the:
a. adaptive radiation of Euprimates.
b. development of Dryopithecus.
c. spread of Sivapithecus.
d. extinction of many primate species.
A genetic study conducted over two generations found that the frequencies of genotypes
in the first generation were AA: 0.36, Aa: 0.48, aa: 0.16. In the second generation,
genotype frequencies remained the same. According to the Hardy-Weinberg
equilibrium, we can assume:
a. negative assortative mating has maintained gene frequencies.
b. mutations have likely occurred, resulting in the same frequency.
c. mating in this population is random.
d. the population is small and we cannot detect change.
Many primate societies are complexly organized, enabling their members to form
alliances,
including by:
a. rank.
b. age.
c. kinship.
d. all of the above
DNA is important for protein synthesis because it:
a. is the biological code for the production of hormones and enzymes.
b. serves as a template to which amino acids are attached in protein production.
c. provides the code to produce proteins.
d. transfers information from RNA to proteins.
A hominin is defined as having the following two obligate behaviors:
a. speech and advanced cognition.
b. bipedal locomotion and nonhoning chewing complex.
c. bipedal locomotion and speech.
d. nonhoning chewing complex and advanced cognition.
The hypothesis that the origin of human bipedalism was linked to a shift from life in the
trees to life on the ground in the grasslands of Africa:
a. has been upheld by subsequent scientific data on human origins.
b. was developed in consultation with genetic and fossil evidence.
c. has been rejected recently subsequent to new fossil evidence.
d. has become a scientific law.
Functional adaptations:
a. are important population-level genetic changes.
b. occur at the individual level only during childhood.
c. involve using material culture to make living possible in certain settings.
d. are biological adjustments within an individual’s lifetime, including developmental
adaptations and acclimatization.
Genetic analysis of haplotypes and variants among living and precontact Native
Americans indicates that Native Americans:
a. underwent a huge decline in genetic diversity after Columbus’s arrival in the New
World.
b. living today appear to be as diverse genetically as their ancient ancestors thousands
of years ago.
c. have a genetic structure and haplogroups that are quite recent.
d. living today appear to be more diverse genetically than their ancient ancestors.
The cladistic classification of apes and humans:
a. includes three subfamilies within hominids: pongines, gorillines, and hominines.
b. uses the term hominid to describe only humans and their ancestors.
c. divides hominoids into hylobatids, pongids, and hominids.
d. includes tarsiers, lemurs, and lorises.
Which fossil group is characterized by an eye orbit fully enclosed by bone?
a. adapids
b. plesiadapiforms
c. anthropoids
d. omomyids
The four branches of anthropology are:
a. archaeological, geological, geographical, and biological.
b. physical, biological, cultural, and linguistic.
c. cultural, linguistic, geological, and physical.
d. physical, archaeological, cultural, and linguistic.
An individual who displays the disease sickle-cell anemia must have inherited the
deleterious allele from both phenotypically normal parents. This individual is therefore:
a. homozygous, with two dominant alleles.
b. homozygous, with two recessive alleles.
c. heterozygous, with one dominant and one recessive allele.
d. haplozygous.
The Homo floresiensis specimen:
a. had a small brain due to a pathology.
b. lived about 20,000 yBP.
c. is the result of genetic drift.
d. fits Allen’s rule in body proportions.
The only preaustralopithecine found outside the East African Rift Valley is:
a. Orrorin tugenensis.
b. Ardipithecus kadabba.
c. Sahelanthropus tchadensis.
d. Ardipithecus ramidus.
Ecological evidence from the site where Ardi was found shows that early hominins:
a. lived in a lush jungle.
b. lived in a savanna.
c. lived in a forest.
d. migrated out of the area due to drought.
A trait’s heritability is the proportion of its variation that:
a. is genetic.
b. cannot be explained.
c. is the product of genes and environment.
d. results from the environment alone.
Domestication produced more food per unit area of land than had hunting and
gathering, meaning:
a. more people were needed to produce more food.
b. more people could be fed from the same amount of land.
c. more storage was necessary for the extra food provided by domestication.
d. fewer people were available for labor.
R. C. Lewontin found that human “races” have no taxonomic significance. He
demonstrated this through:
a. research indicating that most genetic variation is found among human races.
b. research indicating that race categories accounted for a very small percentage of
variation found across human populations.
c. the examination of variation in multiple human skull characteristics.
d. research that examined genetic diversity across different species of mammals.
Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium assumes:
a. strong selection pressure on the trait(s) being studied.
b. a significant mutation rate from generation to generation.
c. gene flow that is equal both into and out of the population.
d. no gene flow, mutation, or natural selection.
Altruistic behavior:
a. is behavior that benefits others while causing a disadvantage to the individual.
b. occurs only between primates that are not relatives.
c. is not a beneficial evolutionary adaptation.
d. is not an advantage of cooperation within a society.
Hox genes:
a. appear to function in similar ways across diverse groups of organisms.
b. function only in fruit flies.
c. control which amino acids get plugged into polypeptide chains.
d. control the development of language in humans.
The archaeological record suggests that farming began in southeastern Turkey by:
a. 6,000 yBP.
b. 4,000 yBP.
c. 1,500 yBP.
d. 10,500 yBP.
The English scientist who independently co-discovered the theory of natural selection
was:
a. Charles Lyell.
b. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck.
c. Alfred Russell Wallace.
d. Carolus Linnaeus.
The out-of-Africa model asserts:
a. a single origin of modern people and eventual replacement of archaic Homo sapiens
throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe.
b. the importance of gene flow across population boundaries.
c. migrations of australopithecines out of Africa.
d. migrations of Homo habilis out of Africa.
Chororapithecus is considered the:
a. oldest fossil in Africa.
b. ancestor to Gigantopithecus.
c. common ancestor of African apes and hominins.
d. ancestor to Aegyptopithecus.
The Middle Paleolithic is associated with _______ tools, which Neandertals produced.
a. blade
b. Acheulean
c. flake
d. Mousterian
Melanin:
a. is advantageous because it provides protection from solar radiation.
b. is a chemical that decreases the possibility of a tan.
c. occurs at high rates in individuals with light skin tone.
d. develops more with age.
The increased brain size observed in the order Primates:
a. results in extended periods of nursing and development to accommodate increasing
behavioral complexity.
b. results in shorter developmental periods to accommodate the necessary energy
expenditures of larger brain size.
c. demonstrates the importance of intelligence in primate evolution.
d. both a. and c.
_______ DNA is heteroplasmic, meaning it can differ among different parts of a
person’s body.
a. Nuclear
b. All
c. Ribosomal
d. Mitochondrial
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.
Why is the incidence of sickle-cell anemia an excellent example of a “balanced
polymorphism,” in which two or more alleles are maintained by natural selection in a
population?
Is race a valid, biologically meaningful concept? Why or why not?
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?
How does Steno’s law of superposition support relative and absolute dating methods?
Discuss the steps of the scientific method.
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?
Describe the steps involved in protein synthesis.
Differentiate between absolute and relative dating techniques, giving one example of
each.
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.