Biological Anthropology Flashcards

Flashcards based on Biological Anthropology lecture notes.

Cultural Anthropology

Study of human societies, especially cross-culturally.

Archaeology

Study of the material culture of past peoples.

Linguistic Anthropology

Study of language, history, and use.

Biological Anthropology

Study of human biological evolution and biocultural variation.

Paleoanthropology

Study of the fossil records of ancestral humans and primate kin.

Skeletal Biology and Osteology

Study of skeletons, patterns, and processes of human growth, physiology, and development.

Paleopathology and Bioarchaeology

Study of disease in ancient human populations, bones, and nutrition.

Forensic Anthropology

Study of human remains.

Primatology

Study of non-human primates and their anatomy, genetics, behavior, and ecology.

Primates

Group of mammals with complex behavior and varied forms of locomotion, including lemurs, monkeys, and apes.

Culture

Learned behavior transmitted from person to person.

Language

Set of written/spoken symbols used by humans to refer to things, enabling knowledge transfer.

Hominins

Humans and humanlike ancestors, including extinct bipedal relatives.

Bipedalism

Walking on two feet, a key characteristic differentiating hominins.

Loss of Honing Canine

Reduction in canine size and function, related to dietary changes and tool use.

Material Culture and Stone Tools

The creation and use of tools, indicating cognitive complexity.

Speech

Complex communication, possibly indicated by behaviors such as burying dead and hunting in groups.

Domestication of Plants and Animals

The process of selectively breeding plants and animals for human use.

Human Genome

The complete set of genes (20,000-25,000) representing all inheritable traits.

Empirical Data

Data based on observation and experiment.

Theory

Set of hypotheses rigorously tested/validated, leads to generally accepted explanation for specific phenomena

Scientific Law

Irrefutable truth of natural phenomena.

Species

Group of closely related organisms having potential to interbreed/produce offspring

Uniformitarianism

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

Genus

Can include one or more species (basis for Taxonomy)

Catastrophism

The natural disasters (eg, earthquake, volcanic eruption) are responsible for geological changes throughout Earth’s history, rather than evolutionary processes

Lamarckism

Evolution is marked by the inheritance of acquired characteristics

Natural Selection

Organisms with specific features are able to adapt to their environment, survive and reproduce, increasing the frequency of the features in the population.

Fitness

Being better at producing offspring

Population

Mate in general vicinity (~25 miles)

Adaptive Radiation

Diversification of an ancestral group into new forms that are adapted to specific environmental niches

Gemmules

His units of inheritance, representative gemmules for body parts in reproductive organs

Blending Inheritance

Phenotype of an offspring is a uniform blend of parents’ phenotypes (false)

Mendelian Inheritance

The transmission of genetic material/traits from parents to offspring

Law of Segregation

During gamete formation, the paired unit factors segregate randomly so each sex cell receives one or the other (equal likelihood)

Law of Independent Assortment

During gamete formation, segregating pairs of unit factors assort independently of each other

Gene

Basic unit of inheritance; a sequence of DNA on a chromosome.

Chromosome

Made of DNA; contain hundreds or thousands of genes.

Allele

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

Genotype

Genetic makeup of a trait made of 2 alleles.

Phenotype

Physical appearance of genes.

Mutation

Primary cause for genetic diversity/new genes, can be advantageous or not

Genetic Drift

Random change in frequency of different forms of a gene

Founder Effect

When a small group (fewer than several hundred members) of a large parent population migrates to a new region and is reproductively isolated

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

Population’s features; birth rate, death rate, size and density

Prokaryotes

single-celled, no nuclear membranes/organelles, genetic material is a single strand in the cytoplasm, cell walls

Eukaryotes

multi-celled, membrane-bound nucleus containing genetic material and specialized organelles

Cytoplasm

Surrounds nucleus, suspends organelles

Somatic Cells

Body cells; organs, tissues, etc.

Gametes

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

Meiosis

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

Recombination

gene variants on maternal chromosome now on paternal and vice versa

Translocations

nonhomologous chromosomes exchange segments; relatively rare but can cause numerous diseases and infertility

Nondisjunctions

failure of chromosomes segregating, creating some gametes with abnormal numbers of chromosomes

Mitochondria

ATP/energy-producing organelles (use oxygen to turn food molecules (especially sugar and fat) into ATP)

DNA

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

Epigenetics

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

Microsatellites

sequences of repeated base pairs of DNA, usually no more than 2-6

Karyotype

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

Autosomes

Nonsex chromosomes

Structural Genes

coded to produce body structures (eg, hair, blood, other tissues), enzymes, and hormones