Anthro Midterm 2 Study Guide

Diastema

Gap between teeth between canines and incison to allow large canines to sit when teeth are specilization

Sagittal crest

Bony projection on top of the cranium for attachment of chewing muscles

Extractive foraging

Natural selection has favored enhanced cognitive capacities in primates that rely heavily on extracted foods, which require complex processing techniques to access

Intentionality

Do monkeys know what they themselves or other monkeys are thinking

Bunodonty

Molar cusps are low and rounded (characteristic of hominoids)

Metabolic rate

The rate at which the body uses energy

Isometry

One to one relationship or constant across body parts or species; body weight and metabillotic rate is not this

Handling time manioc

Yucca takes long time to handle due to removing the acid out of the bitter root

Juvenile mortality

Death rate of young individuals in a population

Forebrain

High-level cognitive functions, sensory processing, voluntary motor actions, language, and emotional regulation; cerebrum four lobes (occipital, frontal, temporal and parietal)

Deception

Knowingly mislead others

Temporalis muscle

Muscle of the side of the head that moves the mandible upward and backward. Largely seen in earlier apes not humans.

Folivore

Feeding predominantly on leaves

Neocortex

The folded out layer of the cerebrum is most associated with problem-solving and behavioral flexibility. Ratio of neocortex to entire brain volume appears to support both hypotheses

Juvenility

After childhood until adolescence phase; 7-10 girls or 12 boys

Heterodont

Having different kinds of teeth; characteristic of mammals, whose teeth consist of incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.

Energetic expenditure

Larger-bodied animals have lower energetic needs per gram than smaller-bodied forms. Consume more absolute energy than smaller-bodied forms, but metabolic expenditure is allometric

Kay’s Threshold

Considered 500g upper limit for primates that subsist on insects

Planning depth

Ability to mentally think of future scenarios and prepare to achieve specific goals

Central place foraging

Delayed consumption; Food sharing (a form of cooperation)

Hindbrain

Regulates essential life-support functions, including breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep, and motor coordination; Brain stem, Cerebellum; Medulla, Pons

Cerebrum

Area of the brain responsible for all voluntary activities of the body; Forebrain, Four lobes (occipital, frontal, temporal, parietal)

Social cognition

The mental processes that people use to make sense of the social world around them, human children have higher social cognition than adult apes

Division of labor

Division of work into a number of separate tasks to be performed by different workers

Masseter muscle

The muscle that closes the mouth and is the major muscle involved in mastication (chewing)

Frugivore

Primates feeding predominantly on fruit

Omnivore

An animal that eats both plants and animals

Neocortex ratio

The ratio of the volume of the neocortex to the volume of the rest of the brain, which is used as a proxy measure of intelligence

Bilophodonty

The molar cusp pattern of Old World monkeys, featuring four cusps arranged in front and rear pairs

Forestomach fermentation

Colobus monkeys have this which allows them to eat leaves and unripe food

Allometry

Differential growth of body parts that results in a change of shape or proportion with size.

Search time

Reducing search time by going out with multiple individuals and cooperating with other individuals who might know the area better than you

Senescence

The natural physical decline brought about by aging

Midbrain

Controls critical eye movements, auditory/visual processing, motor coordination, pain modulation, and alertness; 4 parts: ectum (roof), tegmentum (floor), cerebral peduncles (ventral pillars), and the cerebral aqueduct

Associative learning

Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning).

Dominance matrix

Within primates is a data tool used by researchers to organize and analyze the win/loss outcomes of agonistic (aggressive or submissive) interactions between individuals in a social group

Cursoriality

Anatomical and behavioral adaptations for running

Carnivore guild

Hunted small prey and scavenged from carnivore kills. Unique human technique and utilized prime age adults and larger body size

Kyphosis

A rounding of the spine in the upper back

Lordosis

An increased curve toward the front of your body in your lower back or neck area.

Direct observational learning

Seen in chimps, especially w/ respect to learning how to engage in tool-using behaviors- some type of reward, i.e., a food item

Hands on learning but without direct instruction

Consider how we learn a task from someone, especially when we do not speak their language; hand on hand application

Direct instructional learning

Benefits from direct verbal instruction as to how to perform a task as well as direct observation by the learner

Indirect instructional learning

Seen when we learn how to do something without the benefit of actually being there but can visualize it with the proper instructions

Social intelligence hypothesis

Predicts a link between social complexity and cognitive complexity

Behavioral flexibility hypothesis

Predicts that innovations and social learning will be linked to brain size

Significance of juvenile mortality and its relationship to longevity in primates

Juveniles have to choose between continued growth or cease to grow and start a reproductive phase. This effects longevity because the longer the development the higher the mortality rate. Significant because it impacts the allocation of energy into growth and reproduction

Be sure you understand trade-offs between offspring quality versus quantity

Females must make a trade-off between the number of offspring they produce and the amount of care they provide to each offspring . If a mother invests great effort in one infant, she must reduce her investment in others. If a mother produces many offspring, she will be unable to invest very much in any of them.

Inter-related traits within primates that may lead to long lives and big brains

• long juvenile periods

• learned behaviors

• get behavioral flexibility

• long period to maturity

• longevity via selection on brains

• Aging is partly a consequence of selection favoring genes that increase fitness of an individual early in life (reproduction) at the expense of their fitness (body maintenance) later in life

• late reproducers invest in growth and maintenance (to a point)- get larger bodies; larger brains; longer lives

• small litters

• long interbirth period

Non-paleo foods that were more recently introduced into human diets

• cows milk

• cereal grains

• table salt

• powdered white sugar

• potatoes

• industrially processed and refined grains

What is meant by Central Place Foraging and its impact on human food sharing, division of labor, task specialization, and delayed consumption

Central place foraging is the use of a home base and the food sharing consist of the division of labor (informal or formal) by sex, age, or skill

Fast life history

• Reproduce early

• Small body

• Small brain

• Short gestation

• Large litters

• Early high mortality rate

• Short life span

Slow life history

• Reproduce late

• Larger body

• Larger brain

• Longer gestation

• Smaller litters

• Long interbirth interval [IBI]

• Low mortality rate

• Longer life span

Know how understandings of life history theory is used to better understand how numerous biological variables can co-vary

• Body size and life history traits covary

• e.g., larger species have longer lifespans, Gestations, and juvenile periods than smaller species.

  • Teasing apart the invariants to find true adaptations can be difficult.

Know what is meant by time allocation and how feeding demands can place pressure on time allocation.

• Feeding does not take place in isolation

• Predators need to be avoided

• competitors dealt with

• weather coped with

• reproduction pursued

• All these demands place conflicting pressures on time allocation

• Humans are limited in the amount of time they can devotes to alternative activities

• Producing breast milk is energetically expensive, females make up for this by feeding on foods with higher energy content

What is bipedalism adaptations and components that makes bipedalism efficient?

• Theories:

  • Bipedalism came about because of adaptions to more efficiently

    • Move food to one place to another

    • 2 legged walking is favored when using tools 

    • Makes long distance travel efficient 

    • Reduced heat stress during walking

• Basic components of efficient bipedalism:

  • Iliac blades are shorter and broader than apes 

  • Gluteal surface face laterally, not dorsally 

  • Gluteus medius acts as abductors in humans, extensor in apes 

  • Femoral Bicondylar angle in association with knee joints 

Know what is meant by a patchy food distribution

Food that has areas of high concentration separated by areas of low concentration

Know the distinctions between the posterior and anterior dentition.

• Posterior teeth are in the back of the mouth, consisting of molars and premolars

• Anterior teeth are in the front of your mouth and has the central incisors, lateral incisors and canines

Be familiar with how morphological aspects of the dentition and the cranial morphological complexes associated with chewing can give information regarding primate diet and the quality of their foods.

• Lorisdae- Small primates-Insect eaters: Sharp pointed incisors, 3 cusped triangular molars, short simple gut

• Old world monkeys-Medium primates-Fruit eaters: Large incisors and canine, parallel ridged low rounded molar cusps, long small intestine

• Large primates-Leaf eaters: Shearing blade on premolars, slicing crests on molars, large cecum, complex stomach, enlarged large intestine 

Be familiar with the core concepts associated with Social Brain (Intelligence) Hypothesis as well as the ‘behavioral flexibility’ hypothesis

• Social Brain/Intelligence Hypothesis: Driven by interactions with others in large groups. The social intelligence hypothesis is not supported for apes

• Behavioral Flexibility Hypothesis: Driven by ecological challenges, mental mapping of fruit, extractive foraging, and learning new solutions to problems from others 

• Will have proportionally large brains for each of these hypothesis to work

Be sure that you understand how primate social dominance is determined

Determined through the ratio of wins to losses, approach to avoidance, and who gives and who receives grooming, and then number them from 1-x(# of males or females; Top priority for females is food and for males is access to females

Dental formulae for the various Haplorrhines, particularly OWM and apes (including humans).

• Tarsiers: 2.1.3.3 upper and 1.1.3.3.

• New World Monkeys: 2.1.3.3 upper and lower

• Marmosets, tamarins: 2.1.3.2

• Old World Monkeys, Apes, and Humans: 2.1.2.3 upper and lower

Be aware of how diet composition and patchy food distribution can influence aspects of extractive foraging

Patchy, unpredictable resources and what types the food they eat (shells or fruit) encourage the evolution of extractive foraging and it contributed to building memory, cognitive skills, and time spent.