Human Origins Exam Questions
Course Introduction
This course explores the evolutionary journey of the human species, tracing our origins from early primate ancestors to the emergence of modern Homo sapiens. Students will examine fossil evidence, genetic data, and archaeological discoveries to understand the major milestones in human evolution, including bipedalism, tool use, and the development of language and culture. By integrating perspectives from anthropology, biology, and geology, the course provides a comprehensive understanding of how environmental changes and adaptive strategies shaped the unique characteristics of humans. Emphasis will also be placed on the ongoing scientific debates and new discoveries that continue to reshape our understanding of where we come from.
Recommended Textbook
Essentials of Physical Anthropology 9th Edition by Robert Jurmain
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Physical Anthropology
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Sample Questions
Q1) What strategy is unique to humans develop that allows them to adapt to the natural environment?
A) evolution
B) culture
C) biological adaptation
D) walking on two legs
E) genetic change
Answer: B
Q2) Ethnographies
A) are studies of only Western European societies
B) are studies of nonhuman primates
C) emphasize, among other topics, religion, ritual, myth, diet, gender roles, and child-rearing practices
D) are studies done by archaeologists
E) are the practical application of anthropological theories
Answer: C
Q3) Anthropology can be applied to practical issues outside the university setting.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: The Development of Evolutionary Theory
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Q1) Several events had combined to alter Western Europeans' ideas about the earth by the 18<sup>th</sup> century. These did not include
A) the circumnavigation of the globe
B) the discovery of the New World
C) the notion of a sun-centered universe
D) a less than rigid feudal class system
E) "arguments from design", meaning structures were engineered to meet purposes for which they were designed
Answer: D
Q2) Regarding the example of the peppered moth, which of the following is not true
A) the two color patterns resulted from genetic variation in the species
B) it has recently come under criticism
C) natural selection acted upon pre-existing variation in the population
D) the dark is more visible on the trees darkened by pollution
E) the most common variety of the peppered moth in England, prior to the 19<sup>th</sup> century, was a mottled gray color.
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: The Biological Basis of Life Connections
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Q1) A eukaryotic cell is composed of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins but lacks nucleic acids.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) A zygote
A) is formed by the union of two somatic cells
B) has only half the full complement of genetic material
C) is part of a nucleotide
D) undergoes meiosis
E) has the potential to develop into a new individual
Answer: E
Q3) Which of the following statements is false?
A) Nondisjunction occurs when homologous chromosomes fail to separate.
B) Nondisjunction occurs when strands of the same chromosome fail to separate.
C) Nondisjunction can result in a daughter cell with an extra chromosome.
D) Nondisjunction can result in a daughter cell completely lacking a chromosome.
E) Nondisjunction occurs only in mitosis.
Answer: E
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Chapter 4: Heredity and Evolution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Melanin production is the result of interactions between several different loci.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Explain the concepts of dominance, co-dominance, and recessiveness as used in modern genetics.
Q3) Using the Hb<sup>S</sup> allele to illustrate, describe why fitness levels are a function of the environment.
Q4) The relationship between malaria and the Hb<sup>S</sup> allele is an example of natural selection as a factor that can cause directional change in allele frequencies.
A)True
B)False
Q5) At a hypothetical locus, a man's genotype is Aa. What proportion of his gametes would be expected to receive the A allele?
A) All
B) ½
C) ¾
D) ¼
E) None
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Chapter 5: Processes of Macroevolution
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Q1) Unlike a cladogram, a phylogenetic tree
A) includes the dimension of time
B) does not suggest ancestral-descendant relationships
C) is one-dimensional
D) are used by physical anthropologists to identify and assess the utility of traits
E) are used by physical anthropologists to make testable hypotheses regarding relationships between groups of organisms
Q2) Endothermic animals include mammals and which of the following?
A) fish
B) amphibians
C) birds
D) all dinosaurs
E) reptiles
Q3) Define "species" and the biological species concept. Why is the latter the one preferred by most biologists?
Q4) Define the term "adaptive radiation" and why it is important to the principle of evolution.
Q5) Define analogous and homologous traits and provide an example of each.
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Chapter 6: An Overview of the Primates
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Q1) Arms that are longer than the legs, and a short stable lumbar spine are traits associated with
A) brachiation
B) vertical clinging and leaping
C) arboreal quadrupedalism
D) terrestrial quadrupedalism
E) full-time bipedalism
Q2) What is a major underlying factor for the declining numbers of nonhuman primates?
A) the killing of primates for human consumption
B) the trapping of live primates for biomedical research
C) unprecedented human population growth
D) the trapping of live primates for the pet trade
E) the overpopulation of nonhuman primate groups
Q3) The "dental comb" is a specialization found in most of the anthropoid species.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Define three major forms of primate locomotion. Name at least one species associated with each.
Q5) What primate traits are likely to be adaptations to arboreal lifestyles?
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Chapter 7: Primate Behavior
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Q1) Species producing relatively large numbers of offspring and invest little parental care are
A) K-selected
B) r-selected
C) p-selected
D) alloparental
E) sympatric
Q2) Discuss the evolutionary explanation of infanticide in Hanuman langurs.
Q3) In bonobos, males and females
A) commonly form friendships and consortships
B) never interact except when a female is in estrus
C) are usually sexually active throughout the female's estrus cycle
D) always interact aggressively
E) always avoid one another
Q4) Several language experiments with chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, and bonobos have shown that all great apes have the capacity to use signs and symbols to communicate. Questions, however, have been raised about this type of research.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Primate and Hominin Origins
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Q1) Because organic materials such as sticks and bones are usually well preserved in the archaeological record, we have good evidence of the earliest stages of hominin cultural modifications.
A)True
B)False
Q2) _______ relies on identifying changes in the orientation of the earth's geomagnetic poles.
A) Stratigraphy
B) Potassium argon dating
C) Fluorine analysis
D) Biostratigraphy
E) Paleomagnetism
Q3) The fossil skeleton known as "Lucy" belongs to which species?
A) africanus
B) aethiopicus
C) habilis
D) boisei
E) afarensis
Q4) What is the law of superposition, and how is it related to the dating methods discussed in the text?
Page 10
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Chapter 9: The First Dispersal of the Genus Homo: Homo
Erectus and Contemporaries
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Q1) What is the range for estimated cranial capacities for Homo erectus?
A) 400 to 800 cubic centimeters
B) 700 to 1,250 cubic centimeters
C) 1,000 to 2,000 cubic centimeters
D) 1,250 to 1,600 cubic centimeters
E) 300 to 750 cubic centimeters
Q2) The Homo erectus site in Europe that has given paleoanthropologists a unique look at the first possible Homo erectus travelers from East Africa to Southeast Asia is
A) Zhoukoudian
B) Lantian
C) Ceprano
D) Nariokotome
E) Dmanisi
Q3) All analyses have shown that Homo erectus hominins represent a different hominin than their more ancient African predecessors.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe the attributes and important uses of the biface as part of the Acheulian tool kit.
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Chapter 10: Premodern Humans
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ________ epoch has been called the "Ice Age."
A) Pleistocene
B) Paleocene
C) Pliocene
D) Miocene
E) Eocene
Q2) Discuss the capability to conduct MtDNA analyses of fossil skeletal remains. What contributions to the understanding of what it means to be human will this capability have in the future?
Q3) Which is not true about the Teshik-Tash remains?
A) They show evidence of hybridization.
B) The remains are a child not considered at first to be clearly a Neandertal.
C) They include tools of the Mousterian industry.
D) They have recently been evaluated using DNA analysis.
E) They demonstrate dispersion to central Asia.
Q4) Chinese archaeologists point out that Chinese premodern H. sapiens specimens show no indications of genetic continuity with modern H. sapiens from China.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: The Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans
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Q1) A newly published controversial date for the Lake Mungo remains indicates they may be as old as ________ years.
A) 30,000
B) 400,000
C) 10,000
D) 600,000
E) 150,000, or the earliest specimens from Africa
Q2) The Upper Paleolithic culture period is divided into categories based on stone tool technologies. These include all of the following except
A) Solutrean
B) Magdalenian
C) Aurignacian
D) Chatelperroonian
E) Grottevian
Q3) By 165,000 ya individuals were using fire at Blombos Cave, as evidenced by microliths that show evidence that the stone had been carefully heated.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Summarize the main points of the various Replacement Models.
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Chapter 12: Human Variation and Adaptation
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Q1) Thanks to the modern medicine, many infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and cholera are no longer a threat to human populations.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Forensic anthropologists must deal with the race concept because they are asked by law enforcement agencies to identify an individual's race from skeletal remains.
A)True
B)False
Q3) When a disease is continuously present in a population it is said to be A) pandemic
B) chronic
C) epidemic
D) lethal
E) endemic
Q4) What does it mean when one states that humans are members of the same polytypic species?
Q5) Outline the general principles of Bergmann's and Allen's rules. Can we use these rules to explain human phenotypic variation at the level of the population?
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Chapter 13: Legacies of Human Evolutionary History: Effects
on the Individual
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which hormone is among those important in growth?
A) insulin
B) hemoglobin
C) gluten
D) lactose
E) hormones are not important in growth
Q2) The prenatal life cycle phase begins with conception and ends at weaning.
A)True
B)False
Q3) At birth, the human brain is approximately what percent of its adult size?
A) 15 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 75 percent
E) 100 percent
Q4) Humans have unusually short childhoods, reflecting the importance of learning in our species.
A)True
B)False
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Q5) Define senescence. Discuss one hypothesis that attempts to explain senescence.
Chapter 14: The Human Disconnection
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Q1) Of the mass extinction events occurring in the past 570 million years, _________of them altered all of the earth's ecosystems.
A) One
B) Two
C) Three
D) None
E) Four
Q2) Physical anthropologists do NOT view culture as a human adaptive strategy.
A)True
B)False
Q3) According to the information presented in the text, we are living in a critical time in the earth's history. Much of life as we know it will be decided in
A) laboratorios of scientists.
B) centuries of slowly changing habits.
C) world's meetings attended by diplomats.
D) the next few decades.
E) in rebellions.
Q4) What impacts have human-invented antibiotics had on bacteria?
Q5) Why are scientists concerned about the loss of ecosystems?
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