Human Origins Test Bank
Course Introduction
Human Origins explores the evolutionary history of the human species, examining the biological and cultural developments that have shaped Homo sapiens over millions of years. The course delves into key concepts in paleoanthropology, including the study of fossil evidence, primate evolution, and archaeological discoveries. Students will investigate the major milestones in human evolution, such as bipedalism, brain expansion, tool use, and the emergence of language, as well as the environmental and social factors that influenced these changes. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the course offers insights into how humans became the unique species we are today and provides a foundational understanding of our place in the natural world.
Recommended Textbook
Essentials of Physical Anthropology 9th Edition by Robert Jurmain
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14 Chapters
832 Verified Questions
832 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Physical Anthropology
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55 Verified Questions
55 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Physical/biological anthropologists are only interested in the human fossil record.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Which of the following does not apply to theories
A) Tested explanations of facts
B) Usually concerned with broader and more universal views
C) Not absolutes and open for falsification
D) Specific statements of scientific relationships that have not been verified
E) The result of repeated testing
Answer: D
Q3) 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
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Development of Evolutionary Theory
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54 Verified Questions
54 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) "Fitness," in an evolutionary sense, refers to an individual's
A) strength
B) reproductive success
C) aggressiveness
D) size
E) age at death
Answer: B
Q2) When it came to explaining the origins of variation within species, Darwin
A) used Mendel's theory of heredity
B) agreed with Lamarck that it was caused by an animal's inner needs
C) argued it was caused by differential use of an animal's body parts
D) had no idea of the true causes
E) used his research gathered while at Cambridge
Answer: D
Q3) Creationism is considered a science because it has testable hypotheses.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 3: The Biological Basis of Life Connections
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58 Verified Questions
58 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Autosomes
A) occur singularly
B) carry genetic information that determine the individual's sex
C) carry genetic information influencing all physical characteristics
D) carry genetic information influencing all physical characteristics except primary sex determination
E) do not carry genetic information
Answer: D
Q2) Which of the following produces genetic variation in populations?
A) mitosis
B) meiosis
C) nondisjunction
D) replication
E) recombination
Answer: B
Q3) The Human Genome Project was successfully completed in 1952.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Heredity and Evolution
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63 Verified Questions
63 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the principle of independent assortment there is a __________chance that any tall pea plant will produce either yellow or green peas.
A) 0 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 75 percent
E) 100 percent
Q2) The ABO blood type system consists of ______ alleles.
A) 6
B) 4
C) 3
D) 2
E) 5
Q3) Explain Mendel's principle of segregation.
Q4) What produces new alleles at a locus?
A) natural selection
B) recombination
C) mutation
D) migration
E) genetic drift
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Chapter 5: Processes of Macroevolution
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57 Verified Questions
57 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Assigning fossil remains to a particular primate species
A) is an uncomplicated process
B) requires splitting samples into as many species as possible
C) requires making comparisons to well-known living species of primates
D) can be accomplished only if the species is sexually dimorphic
E) requires not making comparisons to well-known living species of primates
Q2) Explain the geological time scale and the various emergence of life forms during the three main eras.
Q3) Ideally, taxonomic classification
A) reflects evolutionary relationships
B) is based on the presence of acquired characteristics
C) is always based solely on between-species behavioral similarities
D) reflects the current geographic distribution of species
E) is only applicable to nonhuman species
Q4) Cladistic analysis makes no attempt to discern ancestor-descendant relationships. A)True B)False
Q5) Define "species" and the biological species concept. Why is the latter the one preferred by most biologists?
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Chapter 6: An Overview of the Primates
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67 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) What primate traits are likely to be adaptations to arboreal lifestyles?
Q2) Regarding aspects of primate maturation, learning, and behavior, primates have all except
A) a more efficient means of fetal nourishment
B) longer periods of gestation
C) reduced numbers of offspring
D) delayed maturation
E) decreased life span
Q3) Where are Old World monkeys found?
A) Africa and northern Europe
B) Mexico and South America
C) Sub Saharan Africa, southern Asia, and northern Japan
D) India and southern Asia only
E) North America and Mexico
Q4) Compared to monkeys, hominoids
A) generally have larger body sizes and lack a tail
B) have a more elongated lower back
C) have arms and legs of equal length
D) exhibit less complex behavior
E) have a shorter period of infant dependency
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Primate Behavior
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63 Verified Questions
63 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the context of social groups, dominance hierarchies
A) are maintained by females only
B) are maintained by males only
C) are not present in any primate species
D) impose a certain amount of order within the group
E) have not been studied by primatologists
Q2) What is chest slapping by gorillas an example of?
A) reassurance gesture
B) submission
C) display
D) involuntary behavior
E) affiliative behavior
Q3) Permanent male-female bonds are
A) common among nonhuman primates
B) not common among nonhuman primates
C) the basis of monogamous pairing typical of all nonhuman primate species
D) nonexistent in primates
E) known only in orangutans
Q4) Do you think apes have language? Discuss some of the questions that have been raised and what research has demonstrated.
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Primate and Hominin Origins
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Sample Questions
Q1) Thermoluminescence can be used on which of the following?
A) Heated materials such as burned flint
B) fossilized plants
C) bone
D) sedimentary layers of dirt
E) petrified wood
Q2) Which of the following would be best suited to the carbon-14 dating technique?
A) materials more than 100,000 years old
B) volcanic rock
C) sedimentary rock
D) metals
E) certain organic materials less than 75,000 years old
Q3) The fossil skeleton known as "Lucy" belongs to which species?
A) africanus
B) aethiopicus
C) habilis
D) boisei
E) afarensis
Q4) What traits best distinguish Homo habilis from the australopiths?
Q5) What general conclusions can be drawn regarding the Miocene hominoids?
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Chapter 9: The First Dispersal of the Genus Homo: Homo
Erectus and Contemporaries
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Sample Questions
Q1) Given the newest dates for the Ngandong Homo erectus material on Java, it is possible that Homo erectus could have existed contemporaneously with Homo sapiens.
A)True
B)False
Q2) All archaeologists agree that Homo erectus appears to have been an efficient big game hunter who rarely gathered wild plant foods.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Evidence from Zhoukoudian suggests that Homo erectus
A) lived there continuously for over 250,00 years
B) were settled agriculturalists
C) was a scavenger
D) built wooden structures
E) kept domesticated animals
Q4) A nuchal torus refers to the projection of bone on the top of the cranium which is very common among Homo erectus.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Premodern Humans
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Sample Questions
Q1) Some Neandertal physical characteristics may have arisen as adaptations to a ______ environment.
A) humid
B) hot
C) cold
D) tropical
E) high altitude
Q2) The evolutionary roots of Neandertals are shrouded in mystery because there are no fossils from western Europe.
A)True
B)False
Q3) There is some evidence to suggest that Neandertals accomplished all of the following except
A) experienced injuries while hunting
B) had language capabilities equivalent to modern humans
C) buried their dead
D) were capable of symbolic behavior
E) adapted to a cold environment
Q4) Why is it difficult to get a clear evolutionary picture of Middle Pleistocene hominins?
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Chapter 11: The Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans
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63 Verified Questions
63 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
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) Discuss the Upper Paleolithic cultural period, including innovations in technology, art and burials.
Q3) Which of the following sites in western Europe may offer evidence for genetic continuity between Neandertals and modern humans?
A) Abrigo do Lagar Velho
B) Tabun and Qafzeh
C) Qafzeh and Skh l
D) Border Cave and Vindija
E) Cromagnon
Q4) Review the evidence relative to the human occupation of Australia.
Q5) Why are the Upper Paleolithic cave paintings significant to the understanding of the Upper Paleolithic?
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Chapter 12: Human Variation and Adaptation
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60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss developmental acclimatization to high altitude.
Q2) What is AIDS caused by?
A) mosquito bites
B) a bacterium
C) a mutation on a cell's receptor site
D) a virus
E) bad meat
Q3) Acclimatization refers to which of the following?
A) long-term adaptations of species to certain environmental conditions
B) an individual's short-term physiological responses to the environment
C) the appearance of a new species
D) slow genetic changes in populations
E) changes in climate
Q4) Which of following protects from ultraviolet radiation?
A) carotene
B) hemoglobin
C) vitamin D
D) melanin
E) melanocytes
Q5) Explain the historical views on human variation.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Legacies of Human Evolutionary History: Effects
on the Individual
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52 Verified Questions
52 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) One hypothesis that proposes to explain senescence notes that cells that divide throughout the life course have shortened DNA sequences at the end of the chromosomes. This is referred to as the ________ hypothesis.
A) hadromere
B) carsonomere
C) telomere
D) intron
E) old age
Q2) Define senescence. Discuss one hypothesis that attempts to explain senescence.
Q3) What is the term for a female's first menstruation?
A) menopause
B) menarche
C) andropause
D) andrenarche
E) cyclopause
Q4) Birth is an event that is celebrated with ritual only in the United States and Europe.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are pleiotropic genes and what do they help us to understand?
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Chapter 14: The Human Disconnection
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Sample Questions
Q1) Scientists estimate that we add __________ people to the Earth's population about every 12 years.
A) 2 billion
B) 200,000
C) 5 million
D) 1 billion
E) 25 million
Q2) Culture
A) has not been an important factor in the evolutionary success of humans
B) is a means by which humans adapt beyond biology
C) has been a limiting factor in the evolution of humans
D) does not have profound effects on the choices we make E) has not impacted the lives of other species on the planet
Q3) The scientific community is now in almost complete agreement that we are seeing the effects of global warming.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What factors are implicated in the near extinction of the bald eagle?
Q5) What impacts have cultural adaptations had on local environments?
Q6) Discuss the nature of the dangers posed by human overpopulation of the planet.
Page 16
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