ANTH 1145 Human Origins FINAL

i'm cooked

The earliest hominin species (such as Australopithecus) evolved during the late ____ epoch, while species of the genus Homo evolved during the ____ epoch approximately ____ mya.

Pliocene; Pleistocene; 2.5

Homo naledi fossils show combination of primitive and derived traits including ___, ___, and _____. (Select 3 that apply)

Small cheek teeth and thin enamel
Gracile face with large browridge
Cranial capacity of 460–560

There is general agreement that species classified as Homo should share all of these characteristics EXCEPT ____.

Large, protruding face

Hominins most likely used the earliest stone tools to ____.

Butcher animals scavenged from other carnivores.

True or False? Homo habilis, rudolphensis and naledi fossil evidence indicates discontinuation of arboreal activities in the beginning of the Pleistocene.

False

During the Pleistocene epoch, the climate ____ and the environment in Africa shows shrinking and expanding ____ that parallel this climate pattern.

fluctuated between glacial and interglacial periods; grasslands

Unlike the hand bones of Australopithecines, the hand bones of Homo habilis featured ___ and ____. (Select 2 that apply)

stronger flexor pollicis longus muscle

Precision grip

The ___ industry may have earlier use, but is securely associated with the ____ timeframe and Homo ____? (Select 2 that apply, partial credit for correct)

Oldowan; 2.5-2.0mya

Habilis

Homo habilis lived approximately ____ mya with a brain size of approximately ____ cc that was ____ than Pliocene hominin species.

2.5-1.7; 630-650; larger

True or false? Early Homo fossils are very similar to one another in terms of brain size and body size during the Early Pleistocene.

False

Two main derived traits emerge with apes and early human ancestors. What are they?

Bipedalism

Encephalization

Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species are the basic subdivisions for ___.

Taxonomy

In Systema Naturae, Linnaeus classified all plants and animals he could observe under the first formalized naming system known as

Binomial nomenclature

Primates include many species. Those with the phenotypic trait of wet noses are ____ (choose two).

Lemurs and lorisi

Our closest genetic cousins (chimpanzees and bonobos) share some behavioral similarities with modern Homo sapiens such as ____ evident at different life stages for different people (choose four)

Maximizing resources for self and offspring

Fission-fusion aggregation

Polygynandry mating

Male philopatric communities

Cladistics group organisms into ___ according to their last common ancestors based on shared derived traits. Current convention _____ both taxonomy and cladistics.

Grades, combines

There are two parts of the brain that deal with language. The ___ area evolved in the genus Homo allowing for ____.

Wernicke's area, broader interconnections and comprehension

A derived trait that is not found in the ancestor but is present in descendent species is a _____.

Apomorphy

There are numerous traits marking primate evolution including ____. (select three that apply)

Less dependance on smell

Prehensile hand

Larger brain complex

Some 23mya, apes emerged and differed from monkeys how? (Select two that apply)

Elongated upper limbs

Mobile shoulder and wrist joints

More upright and shallower trunk

Which trait evolved first in our lineage?

Bipedalism

“Morphology” refers to the ____ of organisms.

Physical features

Orrorin tugenesis is the first species that indicates adaptations for ___.

facultative/functional bipedalism.

True or false? In bipedal hominins, the foramen magnum is positioned to the back of the cranium.

False

True or false? The Savannah (Aridity) Hypothesis is supported by environmental data collected from the earliest hominin sites of Sahelanthropus tchadensis.

False

The Savannah (Aridity) Hypothesis argues that the expansion of ____ drove early hominin evolution and diversification. 

Grasslands

Modern hominins have ____ compared to earlier hominins suggesting changes in ___.

Smaller molars, diet

One clue to bipedalism in the fossil record is the ____ of the hallux seen in _____.

push-off (toe-off) ability

The ____ hypothesis states that long term environmental unpredictability led to morphological and behavioral adaptations.

Variability selection

The term “hominin” refers to

modern-day humans and extinct human ancestors.

The fossil record illustrates that the earth is ancient (Select 3)

Life on earth originated with simple forms

Earth was once covered in a primordial sea where life began

Some species became more complex over time

The study of extinct primates including human ancestors is called.

Paleoanthropology

A set of beliefs associated with human origins _____.

Creation myths

True or false? Species change or go extinct in response to environmental change.

True

Uniformitarianism is an important concept that guides our understanding of past processes. This concept can be best described as … EXCEPT

All species uniformly go extinct in response to environmental change

True or false? Species change or go extinct in response to environmental change and new species are the result of a portion of a population adapting to new or changed environmental conditions.

True

According to Darwin’s natural selection, a portion of a population adapts to new or changed environmental conditions through ___ (select two that apply)

Natural selection

Evidence of early hominin activities via the study of the archaeological record and extinct animals indicate that _____.

Stones and bones were artifacts used by early humans

The theory of evolution by means of natural selection combines ____ (select two that apply)

Biology, genetics

What paleontolgist(s) defined Africa as the birthplace of humanity?

Louis and Mary Leakey

The first species with a more human like nose is ____.

Australopithecus sediba

The robust Australopithecines (genus Paranthropus) feature distinctive large ____.

Chewing muscles

It is hypothesized that ____ is the ancestor to the genus Homo indicating our genus first evolved in ____ Africa . (Select 2 that apply)

South

Australopithecus sediba

Teeth are significant in our understanding of human origins because they (Select 3 that apply)

Reflect dietary patterns

Better preserved and more often discovered

Reflect evolutionary changes

What evolutionary changes are consistent with the cultural adaptation of increasingly skilled tool manufacture? (Select 3 that apply)

Dexterity

digit opposition

Gripping power

True or false? Reorganization of cerebral cortex proceeded any significant encephalization in hominins.

True

_____ and  ____ species may have temporal and regional overlap and supports the hypothesis of _____.

Australopithecus garhi

Paranthropus boisei

niche partitioning

The Oldowan techno-complex involves ____ compared to the Lomekwian and is first associated with ____ of ____ Africa.

More skill

Boisei

East

Paranthropus robustus was discovered in ____ Africa and is considered a descendant of ____. (Select 2 that apply, partial credit for correct)

South

africanus

The oldest known stone tools from the _____ techno-complex dated to approximately ____ and involved crude flakes produced by the process of knapping. (Select 2 that apply, partial credit for correct)

Lomekwian

3.3mya

Compared to Homo habilis, Homo erectus had____, ___, and ____. (Select 3 that apply, partial credit for correct)

Complex culture

Greater encephalization

Projecting nose

True or false? There is very little diversity among early and "erectus grade" Homo fossils from 2.5 to 1.5 mya.

False

Homo ergaster is well-known as the first hominin species to ____, but many researchers hypothesize that this happened ____.

Migrate out of Africa; earlier

Fossils found in ____ suggest that "erectus grade" Homo may have made it into Europe about one million years ago and are called ____.

Spain; Homo antecessor

The Acheulean tool industry started about ____ million years ago and is characterized by ____ stone modification.

1.5; bifacial

Archaic Homo sapiens appear in the fossil record during the ___ Pleistocene epoch, an epoch marked by great climatic ____.

Mid; Instability

When analyzing the transition between Homo erectus and Archaic Homo sapiens, which of the following traits is the most defining of Archaic Homo sapiens?

Increased cranial capacity

True or false? The use of fire for cooking is correlated with a reduction in dentition size.

True

The earliest discoveries of "Erectus grade" fossils were of ____ from ___, but ____ was the first species (evolutionarily) in _____.

Homo erectus; Java; Homo ergaster; Africa

Acheulian tools are significant because they reveal that ____ was able to use advanced planning and taught these skills to others, but this technology did not  _____.

Ergaster, Movius line

Our closest genetic cousins practice the mating pattern called ____.

Polygynandry and polyandry

Old World monkeys and apes, particularly gorillas, live in groups where ___. (select all that apply)

One male mates with multiple females (polygyny)

Infanticide occurs during takeovers

Diet made up of grass/leaves and other patchy resources

True or false? Some species of non-human primates show a form of monogamy called territorial pairs.

True

Harsh environments may encourage some Old World Monkey, one male groups to congregate into larger and larger groupings, in a multi-tiered or nested fashion called ____.

One male units

Some primate groups practice polyandry with social organization in ____.

One female groups

Primates group themselves based on diet type and the defensibility of resources, then organize based on age/sex, dominance hierarchy, ___. (Select all that apply)

Natal group, member permanence, number of mates

True or false? Within OMUs, male or female philopatry is practiced. This refers to the sex that remains in their natal group.

True

Many Old and New World monkeys organize into large groups of males and females with offspring. These groups practice ____ mating pattern.

Polygynandry

Female non-human primates show power through their choices to ____, but this does not equate with Homo sapiens behavior. (select all that apply)

Maximize resources for themselves

Their offspring

Their reproductive success

These solitary, small, nocturnal, insectivore/frugivore animals of the Strepsirrhini are ____ as is true for the solitary, large foraging ____.

Polygynous, orangutan

True or false? The Lomekwian industry is the first stone tool complex in hominin evolution as proven through substantial excavations in South Africa..

False

Gracile Australopthocenes were adapted to exploit resources in _____. (Select 2 that apply, partial credit for correct)

Open grasslands

Forested areas

Which species is associated with the Laetoli footprints and why are the footprints important? (Select 2 that apply, partial credit for correct)

Proved adaptation to bipedalism

Showed evidence for a big toe

Au. anamensis had which of the following list of traits?

Small brain

Large canines

Projecting face

Australopithecines lived ____ million years ago.

1-3

According to "Lucy: Prehistoric Autopsy", there is evidence that ____ which is evidence of ____ of a derived trait. (Select 2 that apply, partial credit for correct)

Moved like a humans when climbing

Evolution

There is substantial evidence that the hominin evolutionary tree split between 2.9-3.9mya. This is referred to as a ____ and many paleoanthropologist currently think _____. (Select 2 that apply, partial credit for correct)

Two lineages emerged

Evolutionary divergence

The most famous fossil finds of Au. afarensis are known as ____ because ______. 

Lucy and Dikika

Fossils are more complete and show evidence of encephalization

The dentition of A. anamensis shows derived traits such as ____. (Select 2 that apply, partial credit for correct)

Thick enamel

Large, expanded molars with low cusps

True or false? The female A. afarensis has a wider pelvic shape for ease in childbirth as seen in the Lucy fossil and supported by the head circumfrence of the Dikaka child fossil.

False

The evolutionary split between chimpanzees and humans was ____mya during the Late Miocene.

11-5mya

The first primates evolved during the Paleocene when _____. (Select all that apply)

Predation was relaxed

Warmer climate

Terrestrial niches available

Our branch, dry nosed primates, evolved in the Eocene (~56-34 mya) when ___, then went through adaptive radiation during the ____.

Tropical animals move into northern latitudes; Oligocene

Primates with wet rhinaria went through adaptive radiation during the ____.

Eocene

The concept of adaptive radiation includes what characteristics? (Select all that apply)

Expanding into over a broad geographic area

Rapid speciation due to an environmental change

Globally spread

What is the amount of time that it took our specific species to evolve from the first anthropoid primates?

30-50mya

During the Early Miocene ______ went through adaptive radiation. During the Mid Miocene ______ went through adaptive radiation. During the Pliocene ______ went through adaptive radiation.

apes or hominoids, Old World monkeys, hominins

It is hard to believe that Homo sapiens (our species) did not appear until ____ kya!

200kya

The Visual Predation Theory posits that _____.

asserts that characteristics that were well-suited to scurrying around in trees and visual features in particular, such as convergent orbits, are adaptations to insect predation. 

Old World monkeys and apes adapted to changing environments in Africa during the Oligocene, but by the Late Miocene ___ while the newly emerged hominins thrived. (Select all that apply)

Extinction of all apes in northern latitudes

Global cooling

Forest cover decreased in Africa

During excavation, you find shellfish remains from a past meal shared between earliest Homo sapiens approximately 200kya. What technique would you use to date the remains of their meal?

Uranium series dating

Dendrochronology is used to discover the age of

Trees

True or false? Relative dating methods are primarily based on measurement not observation.

False

If floral or faunal materials were recovered during excavation of an early human ancestor, what kind of dating method could you use to test these materials?

Absolute

Types of dating methods used for measuring exposure of material to the natural elements include ____. (select all that apply)

Surface or cosmogenic

Obsidian hydration

There is evidence for the use of fire by early human ancestors some 74-12kya. What would be the best dating methods for organic materials used for the fire?

Radiometric dating

As you go deeper into the earth, undisturbed layers of sediment/soil get older

Law of superposition

There are two main dating techniques. What are they?

Relative

Absolute

Thermoluminescence dating measures _____. (Select three that apply)

Radioactive clock set to zero, less than 300kya, radioactive decay particles exposed to intense heat.

An early human ancestor burial is discovered in deposits estimated at 1mya. It is fortunate that the environment and climate (temperature) are known from the floral and faunal remains elsewhere in surrounding deposits, but how would we date the burial remains?

Amino acid racemization