exam 2 sustainability

Around 100,000 years ago archaic humans (the Homo species before modern humans) first left Africa.

False

What traits may have allowed early human ancestors to first leave Africa?

Diet with more meat, tools, striding gait, intelligence

Why is the Levant (a historic area in the Eastern Mediterranean) important?

It is where humans first originated, it is the cross roads of Western Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Northeast Africa.It was intermittently occupied by early humans during the waves of migration out of Africa.

Homo erectus was in the same genus as Homo sapiens, but had different skull morphology.

True

Which statement is false?

Homo erectus was much larger than Homo sapiens and was extinct when Homo sapiens emerged.

What is meant by human dispersal?

The spread of human populations into new geographic areas

Imagine archaeological evidence showing Homo sapiens in the Levant during one wet period and in southern Arabia during another. Which interpretation is most consistent with this lesson?

Different dispersal events may have used different routes when environmental conditions were favorable.

Which statement best describes the relationship between climate and human migration?

Favorable climate conditions could facilitate migration by creating more habitable landscapes.

Since carbon dating is only accurate to 50,000 years ago, scientist Sophie Verheyden measured uranium levels of broken stalagmites to date the presence of Neanderthals in the Bruniquel Cave in France (approximately 175,000 years ago!).

True

Why do scientists study Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis)?

Neanderthals are distant cousins and their behaviors and evolutionary history hold clues to our own identity as Homo sapiens.

Archaeologists discover a series of early Homo sapiens sites distributed along a major river valley extending from southeastern Europe into central Europe. Which interpretation is most consistent with the concepts discussed in this lesson?

The river may have served as a migration corridor by providing water, resources, and an easier route through the landscape.

Neanderthals were better adapted to the colder climate in Eurasia because of their tall and slim body shape which helped them conserve heat.

False

What evidence did archeologists use to determine where, when, and how humans migrated through the Arabian Peninsula?

Nubian point tools made from chert along inland river beds.

Migration through Arabia towards Asia likely occurred along the Oman coast where there were plentiful resources.

False

Which statement is false?

The Arabian Peninsula was a vast desert 125,000 years ago.

What strategy helped early humans migrate from Africa into Asia?

They followed rivers and lakes that provided water, food, and natural travel routes.

Monsoons lead to more rainfall when there is strong solar radiation on land (strong summers) creating a low pressure system which pulls in ocean winds.

True

During a period of stronger summer heating, monsoon winds carried more moisture from the ocean into the Arabian Peninsula. Based on what you learned in this lesson, how would this most likely have affected early human migration?

Increased rainfall would have created more rivers, lakes, and vegetation that could support inland migration.

Which archaeological discovery provides evidence that early humans traveled through inland areas of southern Arabia?

Approximately 100,000-year-old Nubian stone-tool technology near ancient riverbeds

The evidence suggests that humans co-existed with large animals for 20,000 to 25,000 years, which means that humans didn’t immediately wipe these animals out upon discovering Australia.

True

The most recent dates from the Medjedbebe rock shelter indicate that humans were in Australia 10,000 to 20,000 years earlier than previously thought, which also suggests that modern humans left Africa earlier than estimated.

True

Recent evidence suggest that humans co-existed with large Australian animals (megafauna) such as:

Giant wombats, wallabies, giant pigs

The first Americans (Paleo-Americans) had distinctly different facial features and behavioral characteristics than modern Native Americans, so they were probably not the ancestors of modern Native Americans.

False

The kelp highway -- a continuous kelp ecosystem flush with fish and marine mammals that goes all the way from Asia to the Americas -- was a coastal resource the first peoples of the Americas could have used to migrate from Beringia to the Americas before continental glaciers began to melt in the interior of the American continent.

True

According to the best information, the Coastal (Kelp Highway) route opened up along the Pacific coast of North America before the inland corridor route (from Alaska through Canada and into the interior of North America) opened up.

True

An interior corridor opens between two Canadian ice sheets allowing further migration across the continent. Early hunters likely followed big game prey.

14,000-13,000 years ago

Deglaciation along the Northwest Pacific coast opens a migration route into the Americas along the coast. Fewer than 5,000 individuals take this path south, but they reach the southern tip of South America in just a few hundred years.

16,000-15,000 years ago

A population with ⅔ East Asian and ⅓ Eurasian DNA became isolated in Beringia during the last glacial maximum. Isolation resulted in genetic differences with Asian peoples that got passed down to modern Native Americans.

25,000-15,000 years ago

Humans from Eurasia and East Asia first populated western Beringia. Sea level was 120 m lower than today.

32,000 years ago

Clovis point technology (very sharp, fluted spearheads used to hunt mammoths, giant bison, and other large prey) have only been found in Clovis, New Mexico.

False

Suppose new evidence showed that people were living south of the North American continental ice sheets 15,000 years ago. Based on the migration timeline presented in this lesson, which interpretation would be most consistent with this evidence?

A Pacific coastal route is more consistent with the timing because the interior route had not yet opened.