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Chapter 3
Living Primates
MULTIPLE CHOICE
W 1. “Habituation” refers to acceptance by wild animals of a human observer as a neutral
element in their environment. It affects the gorilla groups discussed in the text in the
following ways, all except _______________.
a. changes in daily ranging behavior
b. decreased movement overall
c. artificial increase in group size
d. exposure to disease
e. vulnerability to poachers
2. Among primates, humans are least related to which of the following?
a. monkeys
b. chimpanzees
c. gorillas
d. bonobos
e. orangutans
W 3. African hominoid family includes humans and their ancestors. Some scientists,
recognizing the close relationship of humans, chimps, bonobos, and gorillas, use the term
hominid to refer to all African hominoids. They then divide the hominid family
into two subfamilies:
a. Platyrrhini and Catarrhini
b. Strepsirhini and Haplorhini
c. New World and Old World
d. Paninae and Homininae
e. Hominid and hominin
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4. A structure unique to lemurs is _______________.
a. a dental comb made up of the lower incisors and canines that projects forward from
the jaw
b. their flat noses
c. their outward flaring nostrils
d. a 2-1-3-3 dental formula
e. the prehensile tail
5. The orangutans found in Borneo tend to lead a solitary existence because they have to
forage far and wide for sufficient food. In contrast, fruits and insects are sufficiently
abundant in the swamps of Sumatra to sustain groups of adult orangs and permit
coordinated group travel. Thus, _______________.
a. orangutans in Sumatra tend to be heavier because they don’t have to search so hard
for food
b. a solitary existence is a function of habitat productivity
c. habitat productivity promotes harmony
d. gregariousness is a function of habitat productivity
e. coordinated group travel is a function of lack of habitat productivity
6. A general level of biological organization seen among a group of species is called a
__________________. A taxonomic grouping that contains a single common ancestor
and all of its descendants is called a _____________.
a. Prosimii/Anthropoidae
b. hominin/hominid
c. grade/clade
d. clade/grade
e. the level and grouping are not important and therefore have no names
W 7. Primates are mammals. Evidence from ancient skeletons indicates the first mammals
appeared over ____________ years ago.
a. 100
b. 50
c. 75
d. 200
e. 500
Living Primates
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W 8. The earliest primate-like creatures came into being about _____________ years ago.
a. 50
b. 20
c. 25
d. 10
e. 65
9. Mammals contrast with reptiles in which of the following ways?
a. less intelligent
b. periods of slow, sluggish activity because of variable body temperature
c. fewer bones
d. unlimited number of teeth
e. limbs at the side of the body
10. Lemurs are normally found on the island of ________________.
a. Sri Lanka
b. Taiwan
c. Madagascar
d. Tahiti
e. Jamaica
11. In _______________, canine tooth size is relatively small, although it has an oversized
root, suggestive of larger canines some time back in their ancestry.
a. baboons
b. gibbons
c. gorillas
d. humans
e. chimpanzees
Chapter 3
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W 12. Humans belong to which of the following classifications within the primate order?
a. Family Pongidae
b. Family Hominidae
c. Suborder Strepsirhini
d. Infraorder Lemuriformes
e. Infraorder Catarrhinii
13. Among many species, males possess larger canine teeth than females. This is an example
of sexual _______________.
a. prowess
b. dominance
c. incompatibility
d. dimorphism
e. potency
14. The word “arboreal” means _______________.
a. having the characteristics of arboreals
b. living on the savanna
c. living in trees
d. preferring to live in caves
e. marine-dwelling
15. Primate characteristics are thought to have evolved in a(n) _______________.
a. terrestrial environment
b. arboreal environment
c. context in which manipulative hands and good vision would have enabled primates to
catch a lot of insects
d. food-gathering context involving the nests of birds on the ground
e. both b and c
Living Primates
W 16. Primates have a fovea centralis, leading to which of the following consequences?
a. They can focus clearly on a particular object.
b. They can hear sounds from two different directions.
c. Their fingers are better at feeling.
d. They are less likely to lose their teeth.
e. Their brains have a larger emphasis on smell.
17. The area of the brain that has enlarged dramatically in primates is the _______________.
a. cerebellum
b. cerebral hemispheres
c. medulla
d. notochord
e. smell brain
18. The evolution of larger brains in primates may be due to _______________.
a. the shift from nocturnal to diurnal activity after the extinction of the dinosaurs
b. greater involvement of the brain in organizing visual experience
c. the need to integrate sensory and motor information to survive more effectively in
trees
d. increased emphasis on the hand in place of teeth and jaws
e. all of the above
19. The teeth of primates are _______________.
a. more specialized in comparison with other mammals
b. all canines
c. less specialized in comparison with other mammals
d. larger in number than the primate ancestor from which they evolved
e. all premolars
20. Most humans today have a total of ________ teeth.
a. 44
b. 32
c. 8
d. 29
e. 21
21. The type of teeth that humans have may be described as follows for one side of the jaw
(or one fourth of the total number of teeth): two _______________, one
_______________, two _______________, and three _______________.
a. incisors/molar/premolars/canines
b. canines/premolar/incisor/molars
c. premolars/incisor/molars/canines
d. incisors/canine/premolars/molars
e. molars/incisor/canines/premolars
22. The primate skeleton reflects the importance in primate evolution of most of the
following characteristics. Which of the following does it not reflect?
a. a large brain
b. upright posture
c. increased significance of smell
d. flexible limbs and hands
e. none of the above (that is, it reflects all of the above)
23. The flexible, unspecialized primate hand was especially important in human evolution
because it _______________.
a. enabled early humans to brachiate
b. enabled early humans to manufacture and use tools
c. enabled humans to be arboreal
d. enabled humans to increase the size of the cerebellum
e. led to an increase in the size of the pentadactyl
24. Nearly _________ percent of the known primate species and subspecies face extinction
in the next decade.
a. 25
b. 10
c. 50
d. 75
e. zero, since primate species and subspecies are not threatened with extinction
25. The male orangutan photographed on the island of Kaja, Borneo was “fishing” with a
spear. He acquired this behavior by which of the following ways?
a. inherited the capability for enhanced hand-eye coordination
b. were taught by anthropologists
c. learned from lemurs
d. by watching humans spear fish along the same river
e. none of the above
26. Gorillas are mostly ground dwellers, but some may sleep in trees in carefully constructed
nests. Which of the following have been observed doing the latter?
a. A female with fewer infants than another female.
b. A baby more helpless at birth.
c. Babies are born with undeveloped nervous systems and having to spend more time
learning behavioral repertoire suitable to a wide variety of conditions.
d. babies more attached to their mothers
e. lighter females and young
27. Based on a comparison of blood proteins, the nonhuman primate to which humans are
most closely related is the _______________.
a. chimpanzee
b. baboon
c. lemur
d. orangutan
e. tarsier
28. Based on comparisons of the biochemistry of humans and other primates, which of the
following statements is correct?
a. The primates to whom humans are most distantly related are the chimpanzees.
b. Humans are more closely related to the orangutan than to the gorilla.
c. Humans are more closely related to the New World monkeys than to the Old World
monkeys.
d. Humans and chimpanzees share 45% of the same genes.
e. The primates to whom humans are most distantly related are the strepsirhines.
29. Below the primate skull and neck is the _______________, a bone found in ancestral
mammals though lost in mammals such as cats.
a. clavicle
b. cranium
c. foramen magnum
d. vertebrate
e. fovea centralis
30. _______________ evidence has confirmed the close relationship between humans and
other primates while also contributing new evidence for refining evolutionary
relationships inferred from visible appearance alone.
a. Dental
b. Skeletal
c. Linguistic
d. Archaeological
e. Molecular
31. _________ is a term used to describe the capability to use the arms to move from branch
to branch, with the body hanging suspended beneath the arms.
a. Suspensory hanging apparatus
b. Foramen magnum
c. Clavicle
d. Brachiation
e. Scapula
Living Primates
32. Tarsiers resemble monkeys in their noses and lips, and in that part of the brain that
governs _______________.
a. smell
b. hearing
c. touch
d. taste
e. vision
33. Old World monkeys _______________.
a. live in a wide area ranging from Gibraltar to Japan
b. do not have prehensile tails
c. are of special interest to primatologists because some of them live in terrestrial
environments similar to those in which humans evolved
d. have closely spaced, downward-pointing nostrils
e. all of the above
34. The smallest of the apes living today are found in _______________.
a. Africa
b. South America
c. Southeast Asia and Malaya
d. Australia
e. North America
35. The gorilla and chimpanzee both practice a distinctive form of locomotion called
_______________.
a. brachiation
b. knuckle-walking
c. bipedalism
d. quadrupedalism
e. slithering
36. In Asia, the statistics of known primate species and subspecies that face extinction in the
next decade are that more than __________ percent of species threatened with at least
________ percent at risk in Indonesia and Vietnam.
a. 60/70
b. 70/80
c. 50/75
d. 70/80
e. The species are not threatened.
W 37. Threatening the rhesus macaques and all of the great apes in Asia are which of the
following human practices?
a. farming and cattle ranching
b. lumbering and rubber tapping
c. hunting for food and trophies
d. hunting for research and pets
e/ all of the above
38. Primatologists work to protect primates by
a. looking for alternative economic strategies for local peoples
b. establishing preserves or moving populations to suitable habitats
c. returning recovered pets and research animals to natural habitats
d. maintain breeding colonies in captivity
e. all of the above
39. The Congo Heartland Project
a. supports the survival of bonobos and mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic
of Congo.
b. has involved local communities in agricultural practices
c. met with locals authorities to reestablish management policies
d. encourages a variety of alternative economic practices in communities bordering
existing wildlife preserves.
e. all of the above
40. Golden lion tamarin monkeys (gold marmosets) have been kept as pets since colonial
time. They reside in
a. Democratic Republic of Congo.
b. Uganda.
c. the forests around Rio de Janeiro.
d. sub-Saharan Africa.
e. most islands in the South Pacific.
41. Researchers have found that the color red is impressive to humans and suggests that this
a. means humans are like butterflies that see into the ultraviolet end of the rainbow and
see their own colors more easily.
b. are like foxes that are color-blind.
c. derives from our tree-living past.
d. derives from our knuckle-walking past.
e. the need to derive symbolic meanings to environments.
42. Binocular vision refers to
a. a high degree of sexual dimorphism in primate visual acuity.
b. distinctions between seeing and the vocalizations of primates that almost always
express ideas rather than emotion.
c. overlapping visual field due to the use of binoculars.
d. overlapping visual fields due to forward-facing eyes.
e. none of the above
43. Which of the following have no tails?
a. earliest fossil primates
b. prosimians
c. anthropoids
d. Old World Monkeys
e. Apes