Human Variation and Adaptation Test Bank
Course Introduction
This course explores the patterns and processes of human biological diversity, examining how genetics, environment, and culture have shaped human variation and adaptation through time. Students will analyze genetic, physiological, and morphological differences among contemporary human populations, investigate the evolutionary mechanisms driving this diversity, and discuss how humans have adapted to a variety of environmental stresses such as climate, altitude, disease, and diet. The course also engages with ethical considerations and the social implications of interpreting and representing human variation in scientific and popular contexts.
Recommended Textbook
Our Origins Discovering Physical Anthropology 4th Edition by Clark Spencer Larsen
Available Study Resources on Quizplus
14 Chapters
673 Verified Questions
673 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/1778
Page 2
Chapter 1: What Is Physical Anthropology?
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
40 Verified Questions
40 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35386
Sample Questions
Q1) Which is the study of evolution and variation in humans?
A)physical anthropology
B)archaeology
C)linguistic anthropology
D)cultural anthropology
Answer: A
Q2) What were people on St.Catherines Island like just before the arrival of the Spanish?
A)They were primarily fishermen.
B)They were hunter-gatherers.
C)They became the first farmers of the region.
D)Their health had been worse before the Spanish arrived.
Answer: C
Q3) Primates are a group of mammals that have:
A)fingernails and forward-facing eyes.
B)no fingernails and a long snout.
C)complex behavior and small brains.
D)simple behavior and varied forms of locomotion.
Answer: A
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
3
Chapter 2: Evolution: Constructing a Fundamental Scientific Theory
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
43 Verified Questions
43 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35387
Sample Questions
Q1) What theory did the presence of iridium in geologic deposits around the world support?
A)The impact of a giant meteor that struck the Earth produced mass extinctions of dinosaur species across the planet.
B)Alien material was a factor in the origins of species on this planet.
C)Catastrophes occurred in the past and produced major changes in species,causing dinosaurs to adapt and eventually become mammals.
D)Cuvier's proposal of catastrophism as the theory explaining human origins is correct.
Answer: A
Q2) What do the forces of evolution include?
A)gene flow,mutations,chromosomes,and genes
B)mutations,genes,and genetic drift
C)natural selection,gene flow,genetic drift,and mutations
D)natural selection,genes,alleles,and chromosomes
Answer: C
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 4
Chapter 3: Genetics: Reproducing Life and Producing
Variation
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
50 Verified Questions
50 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35388
Sample Questions
Q1) During which process is chromosome number reduced?
A)mitosis
B)recombination
C)translation
D)meiosis
Answer: D
Q2) What determines human ABO blood types?
A)regulatory genes
B)multiple alleles
C)multiple genes
D)homeotic genes
Answer: B
Q3) An individual that is homozygous at the locus that determines ABO blood type may have type ________ blood:
A)O,A,or B
B)A,B,or AB
C)A,AB,or O
D)AB
Answer: A
Page 5
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 4: Genes and Their Evolution: Population Genetics
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
47 Verified Questions
47 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35389
Sample Questions
Q1) Fitness trade-off refers to selection favoring which genotype?
A)homozygous dominant
B)homozygous recessive
C)heterozygous
D)no genotype is favored
Q2) What is likely the cause of the clinal decrease in type B blood from East Asia to Western Europe?
A)the founder effect
B)stabilizing selection
C)a mutation
D)gene flow
Q3) An individual who displays the disease sickle-cell anemia must have inherited the deleterious allele from both phenotypically normal parents.What,therefore,is this individual?
A)homozygous with two dominant alleles
B)homozygous with two recessive alleles
C)heterozygous,with one dominant and one recessive allele
D)haplozygous
Q4) Why is a frameshift mutation far more likely to lead to a defective protein than a point mutation?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 5: Biology in the Present: Living People
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
48 Verified Questions
48 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35390
Sample Questions
Q1) What is the primary cause of the obesity pandemic?
A)the increased ability to produce and consume inexpensive,high-fat foods
B)a lack of physical exercise
C)a combination of lower calories and more exercise
D)the production of high-calorie,low-fat foods even though people still have a high exercise level
Q2) How did Franz Boas challenge the study of race?
A)He strongly supported the race concept.
B)He created racial categories based on living populations in the United States.
C)He showed that U.S.-born children had the same head shapes as their immigrant parents,proving that races are innately stable.
D)He showed that U.S.-born children had different head shapes from their immigrant parents,demonstrating that races are not innately stable.
Q3) What does the maintenance of homeostasis involve?
A)the functioning of all levels of any organism's biology
B)the study of populations in their natural environments
C)the use of material culture to make living possible in certain settings
D)the replication of environmental conditions and human responses to those conditions
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 7
Chapter 6: Biology in the Present: The Other Living Primates
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
53 Verified Questions
53 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35391
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is the only place living lemurs are found?
A)Asia
B)Africa
C)South America
D)Madagascar
Q2) What is preadaptation?
A)the series of apparent adaptations that are never actually used
B)the use of an anatomical feature in a way unrelated to the feature's original function
C)an anatomical feature used in the manner for which it was originally selected
D)a phenomenon that occurs before natural selection can occur
Q3) Old World monkeys have ________ molars.
A)Y-5
B)two sets of
C)bilophodont
D)one-inch
Q4) Describe the arboreal adaptation of primates and include specific anatomical characteristics.
Q5) Discuss the anatomical differences of the skeleton between (bipedal)humans and (quadrupedal)apes.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 8
Chapter 7: Primate Sociality, social Behavior, and Culture
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
51 Verified Questions
51 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35392
Sample Questions
Q1) Compare and contrast male and female primates in terms of reproductive strategies and competition.
Q2) What is special about primate societies and social behavior?
A)They are not diverse.
B)They welcome newcomers as humans do.
C)They are highly diverse.
D)They share and cooperate as humans do not.
Q3) In the context of primates' food,what does the word quality refer to?
A)the location of food sources
B)the ability to acquire food
C)the storage of food for future consumption
D)the amount of energy and protein a food provides
Q4) How do primates acquire food?
A)through cooperation among kin groups,mostly by hunting
B)through a wide variety of food-foraging strategies
C)through a limited set of highly specialized foraging strategies
D)through the use of highly developed material culture
Q5) Describe some examples of learned behavior and cultural traditions among primates.
Q6) Why are primates social?
Page 9
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 8: Fossils and Their Place in Time and Nature
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
48 Verified Questions
48 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35393
Sample Questions
Q1) What is an index fossil?
A)a fossil found in a particular site
B)the ideal specimen of that species that all later descriptions must refer to
C)a marker used to determine the age of a geological layer
D)the type specimen of a species
Q2) What do studies of temperatures during the Cenozoic era suggest?
A)Temperatures have steadily increased over time.
B)Temperatures have steadily decreased over time.
C)Temperatures have fluctuated,sometimes greatly,over time.
D)Temperatures have stayed basically the same over time.
Q3) What can cultural dating be used to date?
A)ceramics
B)bones and teeth
C)shells
D)trilobite evolution
Q4) Why is punctuated equilibrium an important addition to evolutionary theory?
Q5) Differentiate between absolute and relative dating techniques,giving one example of each.
Q6) How did dating methods help to support the theory of natural selection and biological evolution over other nineteenth-century or earlier ideas?
Page 10
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 9: Primate Origins and Evolution: The First 50
Million Years
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
49 Verified Questions
49 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35394
Sample Questions
Q1) The Fayum desert has yielded fossils of which three primates?
A)Oligopithecus,Apidium,and Aegyptopithecus
B)Proconsul,Notharctus,and Adapis
C)Eosimias,Biretia,and Micropithecus
D)Proconsul,Eosimias,and Adapis
Q2) If you are examining the fossil remains of the genus Dryopithecus,they are most likely from where?
A)India
B)Bolivia
C)France
D)China
Q3) Monkeys underwent massive ________ in the Pliocene and Pleistocene.
A)extinction
B)adaptive radiation
C)migration
D)diversification
Q4) Discuss the selective pressures operating in the late Miocene,Pliocene,and Pleistocene that favored an adaptive radiation of monkeys and contributed to decreased diversity among apes.
Q5) Name and briefly describe the three hypotheses of primate origins.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 11
Chapter 10: Early Hominin Origins and Evolution: The Roots of Humanity
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
49 Verified Questions
49 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35395
Sample Questions
Q1) What tools does the Oldowan Complex include?
A)hand axes,flakes,and cores
B)cobbles,flakes,and side scrapers
C)choppers,cobbles,flakes,and bone tools
D)choppers,hand axes,and side scrapers
Q2) What was Piltdown Man? Why was it significant?
Q3) What do bipedalism's advantages over quadrupedalism include?
A)an ability to transport food more easily
B)an ability to run faster
C)reduced burden on the circulatory system
D)less exposure to predators
Q4) Thick dental enamel in ________ helps with crushing food.
A)gorillas
B)hominins
C)chimpanzees
D)eosimians
Q5) Discuss the anatomical changes that occurred in the bipedal hominin and how they reflect certain habitat adaptations,and then discuss the hypotheses that propose why the change occurred.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 12
Chapter 11: The Origins and Evolution of Early Homo
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
52 Verified Questions
52 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35396
Sample Questions
Q1) How did Acheuliean stone tools compare to Oldowan tools?
A)Acheulian stone tools had a narrower range of functions.
B)Acheulian stone tools used fewer raw materials.
C)Acheulian tool kits were characterized by fewer tool types.
D)Acheulian stone tools required more learning and skill to produce.
Q2) What do the habitats of southern and eastern African sites dating to 2.5 mya indicate?
A)the spread of C3 plants
B)reduction both in habitat types and in dietary diversity
C)more frequent use of tools for the digging and processing of roots and tubers
D)the decreasing variation in Homo's diet
Q3) Which of the following is true about Gran Dolina adult hominids?
A)They were able to produce spectacular art,similar to later Homo sapiens.
B)They had a larger cranial capacity than later Homo sapiens.
C)They were more modern than Homo erectus,and like later Homo sapiens,had a wide nasal aperture.
D)They were similar to modern humans but with a narrow,Homo erectus-like nasal aperture.
Q4) Contrast the cranial and dental anatomy and adaptation of Australopithecus robustus with African Homo erectus.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 13
Chapter 12: The Origins,evolution,and Dispersal of Modern People
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
47 Verified Questions
47 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35397
Sample Questions
Q1) The best fossil evidence to suggest that Neandertals could produce a language like that of modern humans comes from which bone(s)collected at Kebara,Israel?
A)the cervical (neck)vertebrae
B)the mandible
C)the ribs
D)the hyoid
Q2) To date,where have the majority of Neandertal fossils been found?
A)India
B)Europe and western Asia
C)northern Africa
D)southeast Asia
Q3) The oldest Neandertal site dates to ________,at ________.
A)130,000 yBP;Krapina,Croatia
B)32,000 yBP;Krapina,Croatia
C)130,000 yBP;La Chapelle-aux-Saints,France
D)25,000 yBP;La Chapelle-aux-Saints,France
Q4) Discuss which anatomical traits are used to contrast modern humans' physical appearance with that of similar hominids.Which are derived and which are ancestral? Are these traits biological adaptations,as in the case of Neandertals?
Page 14
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 13: The Past 10, 000 Years: Agriculture, population, biology
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
50 Verified Questions
50 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35398
Sample Questions
Q1) Tooth size and jaw size have reduced in the last:
A)17,000 yBP.
B)10,000 yBP.
C)6,000 yBP.
D)3,000 yBP.
Q2) Parasitic infections are a primary cause of ________ in many regions of the globe.
A)iron-deficiency anemia
B)Staphylococcus aureus
C)treponematoses
D)endemic disease
Q3) Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated.By when were they domesticated?
A)before 15,000 years ago
B)the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic
C)the Lower Paleolithic
D)the beginning of the Cenozoic
Q4) Domestication of plants and animals led to stable food supplies during the Holocene;however,it also resulted in significant environmental and health problems.Discuss these problems in terms of natural selection.
Page 15
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 14: Evolution: Today and Tomorrow
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
46 Verified Questions
46 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/35399
Sample Questions
Q1) The incidence of diabetes has increased in adults by ________ in the last decade.
A)20%
B)50%
C)75%
D)90%
Q2) The term nutrition transition refers to shifts:
A)to higher-protein diets.
B)to higher-fat,higher-carbohydrate diets.
C)to lower-fat,lower-carbohydrate diets.
D)in diet due to climate change.
Q3) What does the "silent tsunami" refer to?
A)increasing urbanization,human population growth,and infectious disease
B)the slow and steady increase in sea level
C)the loss of access to sugar among the people of poor countries
D)a global wave of poverty
Q4) Discuss which forces of evolution are currently affecting human evolution.Also,consider how these forces are influenced by human intervention and global warming.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 16