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Chapter 7
The First Bipeds
MULTIPLE CHOICE
W 1. The “southern ape of Africa” discovered by Raymond Dart in 1924 was
_______________.
a. Aegyptopithecus
b. Australopithecus
c. Homo erectus
d. Homo habilis
e. Proconsul
W 2. The position of the foramen magnum on Australopithecus discovered by Raymond Dart
convinced him that the creature was _______________.
a. an ape
b. quadrupedal
c. bipedal
d. native to China
e. at least 65 million years old
W 3. The genus Australopithecus is divided into as many as _______________ species.
a. two
b. ten
c. four
d. eight
e. six
Chapter 7
W 4. These ancient hominines were between 3.5 and 5 feet tall and weighed between 29 and
45 kilograms. They were fully bipedal. Their forearms were longer than those of modern
man but shorter than those of modern apes. The shoulder girdle and finger bones indicate
that they climbed a lot of trees. The brain varied in size from 310 to 510 ccs. They are
_______________.
a. the ramamorphs
b. early Homo
c. australopithecines
d. early pongids
e. none of the above
5. Some researchers believe that ancestors of the hominines might have begun to use their
hands to wield weapons against the predators of the open savanna because their canines
had gotten smaller. They speculate that their canines got smaller because
_______________.
a. their brains had enlarged enough so that they could outwit predators without needing
to fight them directly with their teeth
b. the savanna had expanded during the dry climatic conditions, providing tough foods
that had to be ground by the molars
c. the forest had expanded during the end of the Miocene, providing the ancestors of the
hominines with abundant soft fruit to eat
d. both a and c
e. none of the above
6. The earliest tools were probably used _______________.
a. as weapons
b. to protect territory
c. to dig roots
d. to butcher and prepare meat
e. both a and d
7. A major disadvantage of bipedalism is _______________.
a. greater visibility to predators
b. the soft underbelly is exposed to attack
c. bipedal creatures run more slowly than quadrupeds
d. bipeds have difficulty changing direction while running
e. all of the above
The First Bipeds
8. The pair-bonding theory refers to the idea that _______________ enabled a particular
male to bring back food to a female with whom he had a special bond, and this special
relationship led to a greater likelihood of their offspring surviving.
a. brachiation
b. sex
c. law of competitive exclusion
d. bipedalism
e. estrus
9. Which of the following statements is not able to be said about bipedalism?
a. Bipedal posture reduces the amount of heat to which humans are exposed.
b. Bipedalism made the human body hair pattern possible.
c. The presence of bipedalism in the fossil record without a savannah environment
indicates that bipedalism was not adaptive to these conditions.
d. Bipedalism appeared without any particular adaptive benefits at first.
e. Bipedalism preceded the evolution of larger brains.
10. If you were living on the savanna, _______________ would improve your ability to
transport food, spot food and predators at a distance, and throw things to protect yourself.
a. pair-bonding
b. scavenging
c. bipedalism
d. enlarged canines
e. pentadactylism
11. Like the chimpanzee, _______________ had relatively small molars, large canines, and
the same sort of first lower premolar, but was unlike the chimpanzee in locomotion.
a. anamensis
b. Homo erectus
c. Homo habilus
d. Ardipithecus
e. A. robustus
12. Lately, a new theory is gaining ground concerning the evolution of bipedalism among our
forebears: It holds that our forbears utilized bipedal posture to _______________.
a. escape from predators
b. search for food
c. better observe the terrain
d. escape the heat
e. keep from becoming lost
13. _______________ has been studying just how stressful the savanna would have been for
the first primates to venture out of the shade of the forest.
a. Pete Wheeler
b. Raymond Dart
c. Don Johanson
d. Louis Leakey
e. Jennifer Thompson
14. _______________ is a 3-million-year-old australopithecine that is known from the
structure of her pelvis and legs to have been at least a part-time biped.
a. Nancy
b. A. robustus
c. Neandertal
d. Lucy
e. Suzy
15. Fossil flora and fauna found with _______________ support a closed, wooded habitat.
a. Homo habilis
b. Ardipithecus
c. Neandertal
d. H. erectus
e. Homo sapiens
The First Bipeds
16. Besides making food transport possible, bipedalism could have facilitated the quest for
food in which of the following ways?
a. With their hands free and body upright, the animals could reach otherwise
unobtainable food on thorn trees too flimsy to climb.
b. With both hands free they could gather food twice as fast.
c. In times of scarcity, their ability to travel far without tiring would help get them
between widely distributed sources of food.
d. With the head positioned higher than in a quadrupedal stance, sources of food and
water could be spotted from afar, thereby facilitating their location.
e. all of the above
17. Besides facilitating the quest for food, in which of the following ways would bipedalism
enhance survivability?
a. They would be more visible to predators.
b. Manipulative and dexterous hands freed from locomotion provided hominines with a
means of protecting themselves by brandishing and throwing objects at their
attackers.
c. An upright stance would enable them to clean their bodies more easily.
d. With their heads well up above the ground, bipeds are able to spot predators before
they get too close for safety.
e. b and d
18. The differences between gracile and robust australopithecines are related primarily to the
a. leg bones.
b. hip angle.
c. placement of foramen magnum.
d. chewing apparatus.
e. none of the above
19. Robust species of australopithecines have which of the following characteristic traits that
differ from gracile species.
a. extremely large cheek teeth
b. large chewing muscles
c. a bony ridge on the top of the skull
d. front and back teeth balanced in size
e. all except d
20. Preliminary indications are that _______________, about the size of a modern
chimpanzee, was more apelike than any Australopithecine.
a. Homo erectus
b. Ardipithecus
c. A. robustus
d. Homo habilis
e. A. africanus
21. _______________ is a shared derived characteristic used in analyses to establish whether
a fossilized hominoid is part of the evolutionary line leading to humans.
a. Manual dexterity
b. Brachiation
c. Bipedalism
d. Visual predation
e. Visual acuity
22. In 1998 and 1999 an almost complete cranium, along with parts of two upper jaws and
assorted teeth, were recovered from a site in northern Kenya by Maeve Leakey, daughter
in-law of Louis and Mary Leakey. It could be another australopithecine, or as she
interprets, the remains as belonging to a different species named ________________.
a. Orrorin tugenensi
b. Piltdown man
c. Kenyanthropus platyops
d. Ardipithecus
e. A. robustus
23. _______________’s theory is that “there were incredible selective pressures on early
hominids favoring adaptations that would reduce thermal stress-pressures that may have
favored bipedalism.”
a. Mauve Leakey
b. Louise Leakey
c. Raymond Dart
d. Don Johanson
e. Peter Wheeler
The First Bipeds
24. As mentioned in the textbook, the brain is the most metabolically active tissues in the
body. Bipedal stance reduced exposure to solar radiation by _____________ percent.
a. 50
b. 100
c. 60
d. 25
e. 75
25. This perpetrator of the infamous Piltdown hoax was an amateur archaeologist,
paleontologist, and practicing lawyer named _______________.
a. Charles Dawson
b. Raymond Dart
c. Louis Leakey
d. Charles Darwin
e. Niles Eldred
26. Australopithecus appeared in Africa some time during the early _______________
during a period of tremendous geological change.
a. Miocene
b. Cenozoic
c. Triassic
d. Pliocene
e. Eocene
27. Robust australopithecines and the earliest members of genus Homo inhabited the earth at
the same time. The fossil remains recovered from Lake Turkana in Kenya include the
familiar rounded skulls characteristic of H. Habilis and a skull with a bony ridge along
the top that is characteristic of robust australopithecines. The remains are dated
to______________.
a. 1.5 to 2.5 mya
b. 1.7 to 1.9 mya
c. the remains have not been dated
d. 2.75 mya
e. less than 1.5 mya
28. _______________ is now thought to represent an intermediate form between the
Miocene apes and Australopithecus.
a. Homo habilis
b. Ardipithecus ramidus
c. A. robustus
d. Neandertal
e. Homo sapiens
29. The climate of the _______________ was cooler and drier, causing an expansion of the
grassy savannah.
a. Miocene
b. Cenozoic
c. Triassic
d. Pliocene
e. Eocene
30. The oldest robust Australopithecus finds date back to about _______________ million
years ago.
a. 10
b. 35
c. 2.5
d. 100
e. 12
31. The hip and leg bones of this fossil hominid reveal that the individual walked in a
distinctively human manner.
a. Neandertal
b. macaques
c. Lucy
d. lemurs
e. siamangs
The First Bipeds
32. _______________ is a term applied to the space between the canines and other teeth
allowing the large projecting canines to fit within the jaw.
a. Sagittal crest
b. Platyops
c. Diastema
d. Abduction
e. Adduction
33. Examinations of the upper hip bone and lower limbs can be used to determine means of
locomotion. The similarities between the human and the _______________ bones are
striking and are indicative of bipedal locomotion.
a. Australopithecus
b. Ardipithecus ramidus
c. Kenyanthropus platyops
d. Homo habilis
e. Homo erectus
34. The oldest australopithecine species known so far consists of some jaw and limb bones
from Kenya that date to between 4.2 and 3.9 million years ago. Its name is
_______________.
a. A. anamensis
b. Ardipithecus ramidus
c. Homo erectus
d. Neandertal
e. Lucy
35. The _______________ is a bone ridge running from front to back on top of the skull
along the midline to provide a surface for the attachment of the large temporal muscles
for chewing and absent in some fossil remains of early Homo.
a. sectorial
b. diastema
c. saggittal crest
d. dental arch
e. dental arcade
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36. The Olduvai Gorge, where australopithecine remains have been found, is located in the
country of _______________.
a. Kenya
b. South Africa
c. Tanzania
d. Ethiopia
e. Somalia
37. Jeremy DeSilva’s interesting hypothesis on the climbing capabilities of fossil hominid
was based on studies of which part of the anatomy?
a. Toe
b. Rib cage
c. Ankle bone (talus)
d. Skull
e. Arm
38. The upper jaws of an ape, Australopithecus, and modern human show important
differences in the shape of the dental arch and the spacing between the canines and
adjoining teeth. Only in _________________ is a diastema seen.
a. Ape
b. Human
c. Australopithecus
d. a and b
e. b and c
39. Insects, such as ants and termites, eggs, and small vertebrate animals are not only easily
digestible, they provide high-quality proteins that contain all the necessary amino acids,
which are the building blocks of proteins. It is possible for chimps to spend _______ of
their time on the savannah foraging for these food stuffs and a reason to suggest
australopithecines and the genus early Homo were scavengers.
a. one-fourth
b. one-third
c. one-half
d. half
e. three-fourths
W 40. Which of the following is not one of the advantages of bipedalism?
The First Bipeds
a. protects brain from overheating
b. slows animal down
c. allows them to defend themselves
d. allows them to hold objects while running
e. allows them to see distance
TRUE/FALSE
W 1. Quadrupeds run faster than bipeds.
W 2. The nonterritorial scavenging of meat theorized as the origins of bipedalism is supported
by the fact that no evidence for scavenging by a biped appears before 2.5 million years
ago and the heavy wear seen on australopithecine teeth is indicative of a diet high in
tough, fibrous plant foods.
W 3. The most widely accepted theory on the origins of bipedalism relates it to pair-bonding
characteristic of terrestrial primates.
W 4. The first Australopithecus discovered by Raymond Dart was called “southern ape”
because it was quadrupedal.
W 5. After Raymond Dart’s discovery of the first Australopithecus, very few other
australopithecine fossils were found in southern and eastern Africa.
6. Early Homo coexisted with the late australopithecines for over a million years.
7. According to your textbook, the course of human evolution has been directly related to
the development of bipedalism.
8. The differences between abducted and adducted positions of the big toe have allowed
paleoanthropologists to “diagnose” bipedal locomotion even in fragmentary remains such
as the top of the shin bone or the base of the skull.
9. Now that the spectacular Ardi specimen has been sufficiently analyzed by the team who
discovered her, paleoanthropologists are debating her exact place on the human line.
10. Although there has been some overlap, the East African fossils seem for the most part to
be earlier than those of South Africa.
11. The curvature of the fingers and toes and the somewhat elevated position of the shoulder
join seen in adult specimens indicate that A. afarensis was more adapted to tree climbing
compared to more recent human ancestors.
12. Maeve Leakey sees her fossil remains from Kenya as ancestral to the genus Homo, and
she has convinced others that it falls within the range of variation for early gracile
Australopithecus.
The First Bipeds
MATCHING
Match the early biped to its description.
a. the first fossil hominin discovered
b. hominin contemporary with early Australopithecines; not certainly a separate species
c. a larger and more robust member of genus Australopithecus
d. probable early hominin; lived about 5.8 to 4.4 million years ago
e. smaller, more lightly built members of the genus Australopithecus
1. ______ gracile Australopithecines
2. ______ Ardipithecus ramidus
3. ______ robust Australopithecines
4. ______ Kenyanthropus platyops
5. ______ A. africanus
SHORT ANSWER
1. What effect did changes that occurred at the end of the Miocene and the beginning of the
Pliiocene have on human evolutionary development ?
2. What was the first discovery of Australopithecus? How was this find interpreted?
3. Why was “Lucy” considered to be such a significant find?
4. Describe the dentition of the australopithecines and compare it with that of the
chimpanzee and human.
5. What is the law of competitive exclusion and why is it relevant to hominine evolution?
6. Were the australopithecines tool users? Substantiate your answer.
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7. What gender differences in food-getting strategies may have existed in australopithecine
times?
8. Olduvai Gorge is a particularly important site for a number of reasons. Explain why.
9. What physical changes did the opening of the savanna and the reduction of forest lands
cause in early hominines?
10. Why is the pair-bonding theory of bipedalism now rejected?
11. What are some of the disadvantages of bipedalism?
12. What evidence has Peter Wheeler compiled to support the idea that bipedalism was
primarily a result of heat stress?
13. What were the contributions of Louis and Mary Leakey to anthropology?
14. Explain why it would be hard to imagine bipedalism becoming a viable adaptation in the
absence of strong selective pressure in its favor.
15. Describe how the capability to carry out bipedal locomotion is inferred from skeletal
remains.
ESSAY
1. Describe the relationship between environment, diet, physical structure, and behavior in
the emergence of the australopithecines.
The First Bipeds
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2. How is bipedalism inferred from the fossil record? What was the significance of
bipedalism for the early hominines?
3. Describe the differences in Australopithecus remains. Are the differences related, in part,
to the environmental conditions? Explain.
4. Identify and describe the fossil evidence of the predecessors of Australopithecines. What
can be concluded from analyses of these fossils?
5. How can the differences in sex be inferred from fossilized skeletal remains? How can our
present ideas about gender affect the interpretations?
6. What evidence would be necessary to suggest that the early bipeds were tool users? Can
their suggested tool use be compared with that of nonhuman primates discussed in
Chapter 5?
7. Discuss the reasons for the widespread acceptance of Dawson’s “dawn man” or Piltdown
hoax.
8. Discuss how bipedalism allowed early hominins to adapt to their environment.
9. What benefit does the knowledge of our early bipeds have on our understanding of our
present human lives and capabilities? Would knowing the capabilities of early bipeds
enable you to survive if you were chosen for a “Survivor” episode that takes place on a
savannah?
10. A team of researchers led by paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey sparked a controversy
among evolutionary scientists and the press alike in 2001, when they announced the
discovery of a new genus and species of ape-man. They named their find Kenyanthropus
platyops. Discuss why did this particular find sparked an ongoing debate within the
scientific community over the adoption of a new system for naming, ranking, and
classifying organisms.
Chapter 7
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