Biological Anthropology Vocabulary

Flashcards for reviewing key vocabulary terms from Biological Anthropology lecture notes.

Biological Anthropology

The study of human biological evolution and biocultural variation.

Cultural Anthropology

The study of human societies, especially cross-culturally.

Archaeology

The study of material culture of past peoples including artifacts.

Linguistic Anthropology

The study of language, its history, and its use.

Paleoanthropology

The study of the fossil records of ancestral humans and primate kin.

Primatology

The study of non-human primates including their anatomy, genetics, behavior, and ecology.

Culture

Learned behavior transmitted from person to person.

Language

A set of written/spoken symbols used by humans to refer to things, facilitating knowledge transfer to future generations.

Hominins

Humans and humanlike ancestors, including extinct bipedal relatives.

Bipedalism

Walking on two feet, a defining characteristic that appeared in hominins around 6 mya.

Empirical Data

Data based on observation and experiment.

Theory

A set of hypotheses rigorously tested and validated, leading to a generally accepted explanation for specific phenomena.

Scientific Law

Irrefutable truth of natural phenomena (e.g., laws of gravity, thermodynamics, and motion).

Species

A group of closely related organisms having the potential to interbreed and produce offspring.

Uniformitarianism

The principle that the natural processes of today are the same as those in the past.

Catastrophism

The idea that natural disasters are responsible for geological changes throughout Earth’s history.

Natural Selection

Organisms with specific features that enable them to adapt to their environment, survive, and reproduce, increasing the frequency of those features in the population.

Fitness

The ability to produce offspring.

Adaptive Radiation

The diversification of an ancestral group into new forms that are adapted to specific environmental niches.

Gene

The basic unit of inheritance; a sequence of DNA on a chromosome.

Allele

One or more alternative forms of a gene; can be dominant or recessive.

Genotype

The genetic makeup of a trait, consisting of two alleles (e.g., GG, Gg, gg).

Phenotype

The physical appearance of genes (e.g., yellow or green).

Mutation

A primary cause for genetic diversity; can be advantageous or not.

Genetic Drift

Random change in frequency of different forms of a gene.

Gene Flow

The diffusion/spread/exchange of new genetic material from one population to another.

Taxonomy

A system of organizing/classifying/naming past and modern life forms; reflects degree of relatedness.

Systematics

Classification of living organisms to determine their evolutionary relationships with one another.

Demography

The study of a population’s features; birth rate, death rate, size, and density.

Paleontology

The study of extinct life forms through fossils.

Prokaryotes

Single-celled organisms with no nuclear membranes or organelles; genetic material is a single strand in the cytoplasm.

Eukaryotes

Multi-celled organisms with a membrane-bound nucleus containing genetic material and specialized organelles.

Somatic Cells

Body cells, including organs and tissues.

Gametes

Sex cells; sperm in males, ova/eggs in females.

Mitosis

Single cell copies nuclear DNA (replication), divides into 2 identical diploid daughter cells containing the same number of chromosomes as its parent.

Meiosis

One DNA replication and two cell (and nuclear) divisions, creating 4 haploid gametic cells (each with 23 chromosomes but no pairs).

DNA

Made of nucleotides (sugar, a phosphate group, and one of four nitrogen bases).

Transcription

One parental strand of DNA unzips, exposing 2 daughter strands of DNA; free-floating RNA nucleotides match daughter strand, and mRNA moves out of nucleus into cytoplasm.

Translation

mRNA enters cytoplasm, attaches to a ribosome; tRNA recognize and bind with complementary base pairs of mRNA; amino acids form a chain (polypeptide)

Epigenetics

How the environment can result in heritable changes without alteration in the genome throughout the genome; represses the expression of certain genes.

Karyotype

Complete set of chromosomes for an individual organism/species (typically 23 pairs, 46 chromosomes).

Structural Genes

Coded to produce body structures (e.g., hair, blood, other tissues), enzymes, and hormones.

Regulatory Genes

Determine when structural genes are turned on and off for protein synthesis.

Antigens

Proteins on the surfaces of cells that stimulate the immune system’s antibody production.

Antibodies

Part of primary immune system, respond to foreign substances and attach to foreign antigens.

Pleiotropic

One gene has multiple biological effects.

Polygenic

One phenotypic trait affected by 2 or more genes.

Phenomes

The total set of phenotypic traits in an organism, influenced by genes and environmental factors.

Deme

Local population of organisms with similar genes, interbreed, and produce offspring.

Microevolution

Small-scale evolution occurring from one generation to the next (e.g., changes in allele frequency).

Macroevolution

Large-scale evolution occurring after hundreds/thousands of generations (e.g., a speciation event).

Directional Selection

Favoring one extreme form of a trait/allele over others, causing allele frequencies to shift in one direction.

Stabilizing Selection

Favoring the average version of a trait, decreasing genetic diversity for a trait in a population (against extremes).

Disruptive Selection

Individuals at both extreme ends of the range produce more offspring, which may lead to a speciation event (and those in the middle fail to survive).

Frameshift Mutation

Change in a gene due to insertion or deletion of one or more nitrogen bases; causes triplets to be rearranged and codons to be read incorrectly during translation.

Nutritional Adaptations

Includes processes related to energy requirements.

Acclimatory Adaptation

Refers to short-term or reversible physiological adjustments in response to environmental changes.

Cultural Adaptations

Learned behaviors to help us adapt.

Sexual Dimorphism

A difference in a physical attribute between the males and females of a species.

Vasodilation

Increase in blood vessels’ diameter, able to move more blood away from body’s core to surface.

Vasoconstriction

Decrease in blood vessels’ diameter, reduces blood flow and heat loss from body’s core to the skin.