Which of the following is a derived trait of Sahelanthropus tchandensis?
a. big toe opposability
b. larger body size
c. length of the calcaneus
d. nonhoning chewing complex
Somatic cells are characterized by all of the following EXCEPT:
a. each includes a nucleus at some stage of its development.
b. they are used in multiple tissues throughout the body.
c. each contains half a copy of an organism’s DNA.
d. each contains a complete copy of all of an organism’s DNA.
What makes us human?
a. physiology, culture, and planning
b. biology, culture, and religion
c. physiology, behavior, and religion
d. biology, culture, and behavior
Physical anthropologists:
a. travel around the world to investigate human populations.
b. study living populations.
c. study primates like lemurs, monkeys, and apes.
d. travel around the world to investigate human populations; study living populations,
and study primates like lemurs, monkeys, and apes.
Primates are characterized by:
a. forward-facing eyes, varied diet, and nonviolent behavior.
b. arboreal adaptation, dietary plasticity, and male dominance.
c. docility, toolmaking, and parental investment.
d. arboreal adaptation, dietary plasticity, and parental investment.
What is the basic difference between relative and absolute dating?
a. the use of species
b. the use of bones and teeth
c. the use of years to express the age
d. the use of wood
A strepsirhine has a:
a. wet nose, a snout, downward-facing nostrils, and longer hind limbs than forelimbs.
b. snout, downward-facing nostrils, and longer forelimbs than hind limbs.
c. wet nose, a snout, a tooth comb, and a grooming claw.
d. tooth comb, a grooming claw, and ischial callosities.
Homeostasis may be studied directly 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.
Which two fossil species lived at the same time around 2.5″1 mya?
a. Australopithecus and Homo sapiens
b. Homo erectus and Homo rudolfensis
c. Homo habilis and Homo erectus
d. Pithecathropus and Homo rudolfensis
Sexual maturation or puberty is marked by:
a. menarche in girls.
b. similar body size in boys and girls.
c. a short-term rapid increase in brain growth.
d. adult social roles.
Like that of Dryopithecus, a modern gorilla mandible has:
a. sharp, high crests on the teeth.
b. large canines and no diastema.
c. a Y-5 molar pattern and Sinodonty.
d. a Y-5 molar pattern; low, rounded cusps; large canines; and a diastema.
The Oldowan Complex includes tools like:
a. hand axes, flakes, and cores.
b. cobbles, flakes, and side scrapers.
c. choppers, cobbles, flakes, and bone tools.
d. choppers, hand axes, and side scrapers.
Allen’s and Bergmann’s rules are perfect examples of natural selection’s effects on
anatomical adaptations to environments in mammals. These include the limb and trunk
proportions of:
a. Neandertals.
b. modern human populations.
c. most mammals.
d. Neandertals, modern human populations, and most mammals.
Analyses of modern human genetic variation indicate that Homo sapiens may have
evolved approximately:
a. 50,000 yBP.
b. 200,000 yBP.
c. 750,000 yBP.
d. 1 million yBP.
The continent that existed about 200 mya, from which the modern continents ultimately
emerged, is called:
a. Eurasia.
b. Afrinesia.
c. Australasia.
d. Pangaea.
The southern migration of which African people may have led to a significant increase
in the incidence of malaria?
a. Masai
b. Turkana
c. Efe
d. Bantu
Altruistic behavior benefits others while being a disadvantage to the altruistic
individual. Which of the following reasons does NOT explain why it exists in primate
societies?
a. Altruistic behavior is not directed randomly but toward related individuals.
b. Altruistic behavior is an example of kin selection.
c. Altruistic behavior is likely to be observed in groups where there is high genetic
relatedness among individuals.
d. Altruistic behavior is the random effect of living in a complex social species.
What are the differences between Homo habilis and Homo erectus?
a. Homo habilis shows a reduction in the size of the face relative to the brain case.
b. Homo erectus shows a reduction in the size of the face relative to the brain case.
c. Homo habilis generally has a greater brain capacity than Homo erectus.
d. Homo erectus generally has a smaller brain capacity than Homo habilis.
Stressors during the prenatal stage include:
a. a vegetarian diet of greens, fruits, and dairy products.
b. smoking, alcohol, and drugs.
c. heavy exercise like running and swimming.
d. lack of exercise.
Why are Darwin’s finches considered good examples of natural selection?
a. They are found on every continent.
b. They originated in North America, according to fossil evidence.
c. They embody the idea of descent with modification.
d. They did not differ between populations.
The Y-5 molar morphology is present in:
a. colobus monkeys.
b. chimpanzees.
c. lemurs.
d. howler monkeys.
Before AD 1000, what did the people of St. Catherines Island eat?
a. They ate wild animals, fish, and wild plants.
b. They ate bison and salmon.
c. They were vegetarians and ate wild plants exclusively.
d. They ate mostly fruit.
The English surveyor who developed the technique of stratigraphic correlation between
regions was:
a. William Smith.
b. Charles Lyell.
c. Alfred Wallace.
d. Richard Owen.
The expression of polygenic traits is:
a. never determined by the influence of environmental factors.
b. determined by genes at several loci.
c. determined by multiple genes at one locus.
d. determined solely by the influence of environmental factors.
The first hominid to migrate beyond Africa was:
a. Australopithecus.
b. Homo habilis.
c. Homo erectus.
d. Homo neanderthalensis.
The scientist who coined the name Homo sapiens for human beings and placed them in
a higher taxonomic group (primates) was:
a. Charles Darwin.
b. Georges Cuvier.
c. Carolus Linnaeus.
d. Robert Hooke.
DNA replication produces:
a. four identical daughter cells.
b. two identical copies of itself.
c. two single strands of DNA.
d. four single strands of DNA.
Based on genetic analysis of living primates calibrated by the fossil record, it is
estimated that apes and Old World monkeys diverged into separate lineages around:
a. 5 mya.
b. 10 mya.
c. 15 mya.
d. 25 mya.
Which of the following is NOT an ideal environment for fossilization?
a. mud
b. acidic soil (as in a jungle)
c. sand
d. rock
The cladistic approach to primate classification is:
a. based on the use of anatomical and genetic evidence to establish ancestral
relationships.
b. based on direct observation of phenotypes only.
c. also called the gradistic method of classification.
d. based on levels of anatomical complexity, without consideration of
ancestor-descendent relationships.
All fossils of archaic Homo sapiens and earlier Homo erectus show:
a. continued reduction in skeletal robusticity and tooth size.
b. expansion of the brain and increased cultural complexity.
c. a large cranial capacity.
d. both a. and b.
Which of the evolutionary forces is most likely to decrease variation between
populations?
a. gene flow
b. the founder effect
c. mutation
d. natural selection
Why are primates social?
Discuss the six key attributes that make humans unique relative to other species.
Discuss the origin of the Neandertals in terms of biological adaptation and other forces
of evolution.
What are some of the important scientific discoveries that laid the groundwork for
Darwin’s theory of evolution?
Discuss four key individuals who helped Darwin formulate the theory of natural
selection.
Discuss the difference between a hypothesis and a theory. Why is the distinction
important?
Discuss the two obligate traits, including specific anatomical features, that first emerge
in the preaustralopithecines to eventually become firmly established in
australopithecines.
What is a polymorphic trait? Provide two examples of polymorphic traits in modern
humans, and give one example of a monomorphic trait.
Discuss the fossil evidence of Homo habilis, and describe the anatomical and
behavioral traits of Homo habilis that introduce the evolution of Homo sapiens.
How does human life history (prenatal stage, infancy, childhood, juvenile stage,
adolescence, adulthood, old age) determine the interaction between genes and
environment?
Discuss how the process of globalization affects human biocultural variation today.
Discuss the anatomical differences of the skeleton between (bipedal) humans and
(quadrupedal) apes.
Discuss how morphologic changes to modern humans’ faces, mandibles, and teeth
changed after the shift to agriculture and consumption of softer foods.
What is the evolutionary significance of meiosis?
Why is the Fayum depression in Egypt such an important site for understanding the
origin and diversification of anthropoid primates?
Discuss the diversity of the dentition among primates. Pay particular attention to how
form follows function with regard to dental morphology and diet.
Define polygenic and pleiotropic traits and explain their significance for researchers’
efforts to link human genotypes to phenotypes.
Why is the peppered moth an excellent example of directional selection?