Biological Anthropology Final Exam Flashcards (chapters 8-15)

Arboreal

Related to trees or woodland.

Aridification

Becoming increasingly arid or dry, as related to the climate or environment.

Aridity Hypothesis

The hypothesis that long-term aridification and expansion of savannah biomes were drivers in diversification in early hominin

evolution.

Assemblage

A collection demonstrating a pattern. Often pertaining to a site or region.

Bipedalism

The locomotor ability to walk on two legs.

Breccia

Hard, calcareous sedimentary rock.

Canines

The pointy teeth just next to the incisors, in the front of the mouth.

Cheek teeth

Or hind dentition (molars and premolars).

Chronospecies

Species that are said to evolve into another species, in a linear fashion, over time.

Clade

A group of species or taxa with a shared common ancestor.

Cladistics

The field of grouping organisms into those with shared ancestry.

Context

As pertaining to palaeoanthropology, this term refers to the place where an artifact or fossil is found.

Cores

The remains of a rock that has been flaked or knapped.

Cusps

The ridges or “bumps” on the teeth.

Dental formula

A technique to describe the number of incisors, canines, premolars, and molars in each quadrant of the mouth.

Derived traits

Newly evolved traits that differ from those seen in the ancestor.

Diastema

A tooth gap between the incisors and canines.

Early Stone Age (ESA)

The earliest-described archaeological period in which we start seeing stone-tool technology.

East African Rift System (EARS)

This term is often used to refer to the Rift Valley, expanding from Malawi to Ethiopia. This active geological

structure is responsible for much of the visibility of the paleoanthropological record in East Africa.

Enamel

The highly mineralized outer layer of the tooth.

Encephalization

Expansion of the brain.

Extant

Currently living—i.e., not extinct.

Fallback foods

Foods that may not be preferred by an animal (e.g., foods that are not nutritionally dense) but that are essential for survival in times

of stress or scarcity.

Fauna

The animals of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.

Faunal assemblages

Collections of fossils of the animals found at a site.

Faunal turnover

The rate at which species go extinct and are replaced with new species.

Flake

The piece knocked off of a stone core during the manufacture of a tool, which may be used as a stone tool.

Flora

The plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.

Folivorous

Foliage-eating.

Foramen magnum

The large hole (foramen) at the base of the cranium, through which the spinal cord enters the skull.

Fossil

The remains or impression of an organism from the past.

Frugivorous

Fruit-eating.

Generalist

A species that can thrive in a wide variety of habitats and can have a varied diet.

Glacial

Colder, drier periods during an ice age when there is more ice trapped at the poles.

Gracile

Slender, less rugged, or pronounced features.

Hallux

The big toe.

Holotype

A single specimen from which a species or taxon is described or named.

Hominin

A primate category that includes humans and our fossil relatives since our divergence from extant great apes.

Honing P3

The mandibular premolar alongside the canine (in primates, the P3), which is angled to give space for (and sharpen) the upper canines.

Hyper-robust

Even more robust than considered normal in the Paranthropus genus.

Hypodigm

A sample (here, fossil) from which researchers extrapolate features of a population.

Incisiform

An adjective referring to a canine that appears more incisor-like in morphology.

Incisors

The teeth in the front of the mouth, used to bite off food.

Interglacial

A period of milder climate in between two glacial periods.

Isotopes

Two or more forms of the same element that contain equal numbers of protons but different numbers of neutrons, giving them the same

chemical properties but different atomic masses.

Knappers

The people who fractured rocks in order to manufacture tools.

Knapping

The fracturing of rocks for the manufacture of tools.

Large Cutting Tool (LCT)

A tool that is shaped to have functional edges.

Last Common Ancestor (LCA)

The hypothetical final ancestor (or ancestral population) of two or more taxa before their divergence.

Lithic

Relating to stone (here to stone tools).

Lumbar lordosis

The inward curving of the lower (lumbar) parts of the spine. The lower curve in the human S-shaped spine.

Lumpers

Researchers who prefer to lump variable specimens into a single species or taxon and who feel high levels of variation is biologically real.

Megadont

An organism with extremely large dentition compared with body size.

Metacarpals

The long bones of the hand that connect to the phalanges (finger bones).

Molars

The largest, most posterior of the hind dentition.

Monophyletic

A taxon or group of taxa descended from a common ancestor that is not shared with another taxon or group.

Morphology

The study of the form or size and shape of things; in this case, skeletal parts.

Mosaic evolution

The concept that evolutionary change does not occur homogeneously throughout the body in organisms.

Obligate bipedalism

Where the primary form of locomotion for an organism is bipedal.

Occlude

When the teeth from the maxilla come into contact with the teeth in the mandible.

Oldowan

Lower Paleolithic, the earliest stone tool culture.

Orthognathic

The face below the eyes is relatively flat and does not jut out anteriorly.

Paleoanthropologists

Researchers that study human evolution.

Paleoenvironment

An environment from a period in the Earth’s geological past.

Parabolic

Like a parabola (parabola-shaped).

Phalanges

Long bones in the hand and fingers.

Phylogenetics

The study of phylogeny.

Phylogeny

The study of the evolutionary relationships between groups of organisms.

Pliocene

A geological epoch between the Miocene and Pleistocene.

Polytypic

In reference to taxonomy, having two or more group variants capable of interacting and breeding biologically but having morphological

population differences.

Postcranium

The skeleton below the cranium (head).

Premolars

The smallest of the hind teeth, behind the canines.

Procumbent

In reference to incisors, tilting forward.

Prognathic

In reference to the face, the area below the eyes juts anteriorly.

Quaternary Ice Age

The most recent geological time period, which includes the Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs and which is defined by the

cyclicity of increasing and decreasing ice sheets at the poles.

Relative dating

Dating techniques that refer to a temporal sequence (i.e., older or younger than others in the reference) and do not estimate actual

or absolute dates.

Robust

Rugged or exaggerated features.

Site

A place in which evidence of past societies/species/activities may be observed through archaeological or paleontological practice.

Specialist

A specialist species can thrive only in a narrow range of environmental conditions or has a limited diet.

Splitters

Researchers who prefer to split a highly variable taxon into multiple groups or species.

Taxa

Plural of taxon, a taxonomic group such as species, genus, or family.

Taxonomy

The science of grouping and classifying organisms.

Techno-complex

A term encompassing multiple assemblages that share similar traits in terms of artifact production and morphology.

Thermoregulation

Maintaining body temperature through physiologically cooling or warming the body.

Ungulates

Hoofed mammals—e.g., cows and kudu.

Volcanic tufts

Rock made from ash from volcanic eruptions in the past.

Valgus knee

The angle of the knee between the femur and tibia, which allows for weight distribution to be angled closer to the point above the

center of gravity (i.e., between the feet) in bipeds.

Acheulean

Tool industry characterized by teardrop-shaped stone handaxes flaked on both sides.

Developmental plasticity

The capability of an organism to modify its phenotype during development in response to environmental cues.

Human behavioral ecology

The study of human behavior from an evolutionary and ecological perspective.

Life history

The broad pattern of a species’ life cycle, including development, reproduction, and longevity.

Mosaic evolution

Different characteristics evolve at different rates and appear at different stages.