Imagine a scenario where a lake dries up enough to become two separate lakes, dividing
a population of fish into two daughter populations. This is an example of
a. allopatric speciation.
b. sympatric speciation.
c. both allopatric and sympatric speciation.
d. neither allopatric or sympatric speciation.
Oldowan tools found in East Africa and dated to 2.5 mya could have been made by
a. Australopithecus afarensis.
b. Proconsul africanus.
c. Homo sapiens.
d. Homo neanderthalensis.
Nonhuman primates avoid close inbreeding
a. by actively avoiding matings with offspring.
b. by the transfer of one sex at sexual maturity to distant groups.
c. only in times of famine.
d. Both a and b.
If the frequency of an allele is .01, what are the chances of observing a homozygote in
the next generation (if the population is in Hardy”Weinberg equilibrium)?
a. .10
b. .01
c. .001
d. .0001
Cultural group selection differs from natural selection in that
a. differences in cultural adaptations can be established between groups.
b. there is a struggle for existence.
c. there is variation in traits.
d. traits are heritable.
Which of the following characteristics would you expect to find in a species in which
there is extreme competition among males for access to females?
a. Drab pelage
b. Equal body size
c. Small canine teeth
d. Specialized weaponry
The difference between a stone-tool mark and a tooth mark is that
a. stone-tool marks are crooked because hominins were not skilled at using stone tools.
b. tooth marks leave smooth grooves, and stone-tool marks leave many parallel
grooves.
c. stone-tool marks contain stone flake residue.
d. tooth marks occur along the entire shaft of the bone but stone-tool marks occur only
at the end of the bone.
Laurasia was a landmass that consisted of
a. all present-day continents.
b. all present-day continents except for Asia.
c. none of the continents that are present today.
d. North America, Europe, and Asia.
Which of the following can be used to determine whether a character is ancestral or
derived?
a. The molecular clock
b. In-group comparison
c. The fossil record
d. Convergent characters
mtDNA extracted from several Neanderthals indicates that the last common ancestor of
Neanderthals and modern humans lived about
a. 400″800 kya.
b. 1.2 mya.
c. 90″200 kya.
d. 20 kya.
When Mendel crossed true-breeding plants bearing yellow seeds with true-breeding
plants bearing green seeds, what was the genotypic ratio among the offspring?
a. 100% aa individuals
b. 100% AA individuals
c. 100% Aa individuals
d. 3 to 1 yellow to green individuals
If the coefficient of relatedness between two individuals is 0.5, then
a. altruism can evolve if c> 2b.
b. altruism can evolve if c< 2b.
c. altruism cannot evolve via kin selection.
d. altruism will sometimes evolve regardless of the values of cand b.
One model of the evolution of intelligence proposes that the primate brain was selected
to facilitate behavioral flexibility. This model relates to
a. social challenges.
b. foraging challenges.
c. mating challenges.
d. ranging challenges.
Although alarm calling benefits the whole group, it cannot be explained by group
selection because
a. callers make themselves conspicuous to the predators, but calling costs little in terms
of individual fitness.
b. calling reduces the risk of mortality for everyone who hears the call, changing the
frequency of callers and noncallers in the population, because everyone benefits.
c. noncallers benefit from the alarm call and will have higher fitness than the callers, so
selection will suppress alarm calling.
d. callers and noncallers have the same relative fitness.
Bridewealth payment among the Kipsigis is dependent on
a. the wealth of the groom.
b. the distance of the groom’s house from the bride’s house.
c. the age of menarche of the bride.
d. both b and c.
Within a few thousand generations, wolves were transformed into a variety of domestic
dogs; this transformation was due to
a. genetic drift.
b. disequilibrium.
c. mutation.
d. hidden variation.
In mitosis
a. a haploid cell divides into two diploid cells.
b. a diploid cell divides into two haploid cells.
c. a haploid cell divides into two diploid cells.
d. a diploid cell divides into two diploid cells.
Primate altruism includes
a. grooming conspecifics.
b. sibling rivalry.
c. autogrooming.
d. sharing home ranges.
In one study of capuchin monkeys, researchers found that capuchins follow basic rules
when they form coalitions. The rules include which of the following?
a. Males support each other against females.
b. Dominants are supported against subordinates.
c. Individuals intervene only when the ally outwits both individuals.
d. Individuals support members of the same matriline.
Plesiadapiforms had several primitive features, including
a. nails instead of claws.
b. eyes that were placed on the sides of their heads.
c. the presence of a postorbital bar.
d. habitual terrestrial behavior.
If the coefficient of relatedness between mates is 50%, and both are heterozygous for a
lethal recessive, Mendel’s laws predict that ________ of their offspring will be
homozygous recessive and die.
a. 25%
b. 50%
c. 75%
d. 100%
Mendel crossed true-breeding plants bearing yellow seeds with true-breeding plants
bearing green seeds. He then crossed the offspring from that mating with each other (F1
generation). What was the phenotypic ratio among the offspring?
a. All yellow
b. 1/2 green and 1/2 yellow
c. 3/4 yellow and 1/4 green
d. 3/4 green and 1/4 yellow
Humans and chimpanzees differ in about ________% of their total nucleotides.
a. 1.0
b. 2.5
c. 3.0
d. 0.75
Species are best described as populations of organisms that
a. are best adapted to their environment.
b. assume some fixed characteristics.
c. are dynamic.
d. cannot be modified or go extinct.
The law of independent segregation states that
a. the fact that a gamete has an A rather than an a allele does not influence the
probability that it will have a B rather than a b allele.
b. alleles on different chromosomes do not influence each other as they assort into
gametes.
c. dominant alleles act independently of recessive alleles.
d. both a and b are correct.
Which of the following statements is true of a group with a female dominance
hierarchy?
a. Low-ranking howler females stay in their natal groups when dispersal is difficult.
b. There is no survival difference between the offspring of high- and low-ranking
female long-tailed macaques.
c. When subordinate marmoset or tamarin females breed, their infants may be killed by
dominant females that have infants of their own.
d. high-ranking females maintain low levels of body fat.
The large browridges and the ridge at the back of the skull of Homo ergaster are
a. larger in females than in males.
b. needed to buttress the skull against novel stresses created by an increased emphasis
on tearing and biting.
c. characteristic of australopithecines as well.
d. smaller than those seen in australopithecines.
Which early hominin had molarized premolars and megadont molars for extremely
heavy chewing?
a. Paranthropus robustus.
b. Australopithecus afarensis.
c. Paranthropus boisei.
d. Australopithecus africanus.
The fossil evidence suggests that modern humans evolved in
a. Africa.
b. Northern Asia.
c. Southern Asia.
d. Europe.
Large-scale cooperation among humans may have been favored when
a. relatedness among members of the group was high.
b. relatedness among members of the group was low.
c. predation was high.
d. predation was low.
Why are there many lethal recessives found at low frequencies in human populations?
What major difficulty did Darwin have with his theory of natural selection?
How does life history theory explain the trade-offs regarding reproduction and
offspring? Illustrate your answer with animal examples.
Why do anatomists think that Homo ergaster did not have spoken language?
Summarize the changes in manual dexterity and sensory reorganization that
accompanied the evolution of primates.
What is the anatomical evidence that early australopithecines were bipedal?
How are modern humans genetically different from the chimpanzee?
What is the role of regulatory genes? What is meant by the combinational control of
gene expression? Illustrate your answer with an example.
Explain why it is important that we study and understand reproductive strategies of
animals, and primates specifically.
The evidence is compelling for either Sahelanthropus or Orrorin to have been most like
the first hominin. Pick one, and make your case for why you think so.
How does the threat of infanticide influence male”female relationships in baboons?
Include in your answer a discussion of mating effort and parenting effort.
Explain the conflict over great ape cognitive abilities. Given the evidence, what do you
think about great ape versus monkey cognitive abilities?
What is the ecological species concept? Is it applicable to asexual species?
What is the evidence that led paleoanthropologists to separate African and Asian
hominins of the Lower Pleistocene into two separate species, H. ergaster and H.
erectus, respectively? Can the same case be made for African and European H.
heidelbergensis in contrast to their eastern representatives?
How do the results of Mendel’s experiments affect our understanding of how variation
is preserved?
Imagine you discover a new species of primate. It has a large body size (about 35 lbs.),
is sexually dimorphic, appears to spend much of its time in the trees, lives in dense
tropical forest, and has longer arms than legs. Based on this information only, what can
you hypothesize about this new species’ behavior and ecology?
What are the elements of Mode 1, or Oldowan, stone industries, and what do we know
about their use?
Consider the following population: 40 aa, 30 Aa, and 30 AA individuals. What is the
frequency of the a allele? Imagine that all of the recessive homozygotes die before
reproductive age and that all other genotypes survive and produce equal numbers of
offspring. What is the frequency of the a allele in the next generation? Explain your
answers.