Introduction to Human Evolution Test Questions
Course Introduction
Introduction to Human Evolution explores the biological and cultural development of humans from our earliest ancestors to the present day. This course examines key concepts in evolutionary theory, analyzes the fossil and genetic evidence for human origins, and traces the major milestones in hominin adaptations, including bipedalism, brain expansion, tool use, and the development of language and culture. Students will engage with topics such as natural selection, primate behavior, and the role of environment and diet in shaping human evolution, gaining a deeper understanding of our place within the natural world.
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Our Origins Discovering Physical Anthropology 4th Edition by Clark Spencer Larsen
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Chapter 1: What Is Physical Anthropology?
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Q1) The study of physical anthropology varies in that some physical anthropologists study:
A)the potential for life on other planets.
B)the disappearance of languages as small groups are assimilated into larger groups.
C)extinct and living species of primates.
D)changes in marine life.
Answer: C
Q2) Discuss the steps of the scientific method.
Answer: The scientific method includes an observation,development of a hypothesis,experimentation,data collection,and conclusions.Data are used to test hypotheses,possible explanations for the processes under study,by observing and then rejecting or accepting the hypotheses.After observations are collected,scientists develop a theory,which is an explanation,not just a description,of phenomena.
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Chapter 2: Evolution: Constructing a Fundamental Scientific Theory
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Q1) Discuss four key individuals who helped Darwin formulate the theory of natural selection.
Answer: Hutton,Lyell,Malthus,Linnaeus,Lamarck,Ray,Erasmus Darwin,and Cuvier could all be included for the discussion to be correct.Their contributions should also be correctly identified to receive full credit.
Q2) Who was the English demographer whose work on population growth greatly influenced Darwin's thinking on population adaptation?
A)Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
B)Georges Cuvier
C)Thomas Malthus
D)Charles Lyell
Answer: C
Q3) With what is James Hutton primarily associated?
A)adaptation
B)catastrophism
C)uniformitarianism
D)principles of heredity
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Genetics: Reproducing Life and Producing
Variation
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Q1) ________ DNA is heteroplasmic,meaning it can differ among different parts of a person's body.
A)Nuclear
B)All
C)Ribosomal
D)Mitochondrial
Answer: D
Q2) How is mitosis different from meiosis?
A)Mitosis results in identical copies of the parent cell.
B)Mitosis results in haploid cells.
C)Mitosis involves one DNA replication followed by two cell divisions.
D)Mitosis ultimately results in a reduced number of chromosomes.
Answer: A
Q3) mtDNA is found ________ and is ________.
A)in the nucleus;inherited from mother to daughter only
B)in the cell's "powerhouse";passed on from the mother to all of her offspring
C)outside of the cell's nucleus;passed on from the father to all his offspring
D)in prokaryotic cells;found only in females
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Genes and Their Evolution: Population Genetics
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Q1) What is a reproductive population,and what is its importance in the study of evolution,from the point of view of physical anthropology? How is this concept operationalized in the study of fossil species?
Q2) How can humans become infected with malaria?
A)having the parasite enter the blood while being fed on by infected mosquitoes
B)having a genetic mutation which manifests as the disease
C)drinking bad water
D)eating spoiled food
Q3) Which of the following is an example of adaptation?
A)A population of finches develops robust beaks in response to a change in food supply.
B)An island population derived from a small group of castaways has an unusually high prevalence of a rare genetic disease
C)A rare mutant allele for a medicinally beneficial chemical is lost in a plant population residing in a tropical forest fragment
D)The last black-footed ferret dies in captivity
Q4) Why is the peppered moth an excellent example of directional selection?
Q5) Why is a frameshift mutation far more likely to lead to a defective protein than a point mutation?
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Chapter 5: Biology in the Present: Living People
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Q1) Discuss Allen's and Bergmann's rules and how they affect human variation.Include the forces of evolution discussed in previous chapters to support your essay.
Q2) C.Loring Brace argued that the modern-day race concept:
A)originated in the late eighteenth century when European taxonomists applied Linnaeus's methods to humans.
B)has been present throughout human history.
C)can be traced to the Renaissance,when seafaring travelers incorrectly interpreted apparent differences among far-flung people encountered from seaports around the world.
D)originated in ancient Egypt.
Q3) How can homeostasis be studied indirectly?
A)by observing living populations as they engage in various activities in various settings
B)by experimentally manipulating or replicating environmental conditions and observing human responses
C)by identifying the genome of a given population of humans
D)by observing differences in such measures as body temperature across human groups
Q4) In humans,race is NOT a valid,biologically meaningful concept.Why?
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Chapter
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Q1) Discuss the anatomical differences of the skeleton between (bipedal)humans and (quadrupedal)apes.
Q2) Colobine primates are well adapted for eating leaves.What leaf-eating traits have evolved in these monkeys?
A)They have cheek pouches for saving leaves to be consumed later,analogous to a cow chewing cud.
B)They have low,rounded teeth that allow the crushing of leaves to obtain more nutrients from them.
C)They are very arboreal,have high,pointed molars good for shearing leaves,and a three or four chambered stomach similar to that of a cow.
D)They have prehensile tails that allow them to more easily feed and move about in the high canopy of the rainforest.
Q3) What do high,pointed crowns indicate a diet of?
A)fruit
B)leaves
C)meat
D)insects
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Chapter 7: Primate Sociality, social Behavior, and Culture
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Q1) Male primates compete for access to females by:
A)forming long-term cooperative relationships with multiple females.
B)conducting infanticide and fighting other males for dominance.
C)identifying their own rank,based on age,and waiting until reaching a certain age to approach females.
D)bringing females a courtship gift such as fruit or a small mammal.
Q2) What do female reproductive strategies emphasize?
A)bonding with the dominant male monogamously
B)having one birth per year
C)having twin births every year
D)caring for young and ensuring access to food
Q3) What is grooming's function?
A)the development of alliances between females only
B)the development of alliances between males only
C)bonding between individuals of the same rank,picking through the skin and hair of another individual
D)bonding between two members of a social group,calming or appeasing the primate being groomed if he or she has a higher dominance
Q4) Why are primates social?
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Chapter 8: Fossils and Their Place in Time and Nature
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Q1) Electron spin resonance dating can be used to determine the age of which type of material?
A)wood
B)igneous rock
C)teeth
D)soft tissue such as muscle
Q2) In the 1600s,what did Nicolaus Steno propose?
A)the principle of uniformitarianism
B)taphonomy
C)the law of stratigraphy
D)the law of superposition
Q3) What is the study of fossils called?
A)phylogeny
B)biology
C)chronometry
D)paleontology
Q4) How does Steno's law of superposition support relative and absolute dating methods?
Q5) Differentiate between absolute and relative dating techniques,giving one example of each.
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Chapter 9: Primate Origins and Evolution: The First 50
Million Years
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Q1) Which genus is considered the ancestor to adapids and omomyids?
A)Notharctus
B)Proconsul
C)Carpolestes
D)Eosimias
Q2) 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
Q3) What is a difference between Miocene apes and modern apes?
A)tail length
B)ribcage breadth
C)hand size
D)foot morphology
Q4) The calcaneus (heel bone)of Eosimias suggests that it may be a very primitive: A)primate.
B)anthropoid.
C)New World monkey. D)ape.
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Chapter 10: Early Hominin Origins and Evolution: The Roots of Humanity
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Q1) Australopithecus garhi may be the ancestor of:
A)Homo habilis.
B)Australopithecus afarensis.
C)Orrorin tugenesis.
D)Australopithecus africanus.
Q2) 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
Q3) What did the Laetoli footprints have that demonstrated that the foot of Australopithecus afarensis was humanlike?
A)long and curved toe bones
B)a divergent big toe
C)a single arch and five toes
D)a rounded heel and a double arch
Q4) Discuss the Ardipithecus ramidus fossil and its implications for understanding human evolution.
Q5) What was Piltdown Man? Why was it significant?
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Chapter 11: The Origins and Evolution of Early Homo
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Q1) Which of the following is a conclusion drawn from comparing Homo erectus remains?
A)This species must have evolved and spread very quickly as there is almost no variation from specimen to specimen.
B)As the species spread from Africa,Homo erectus became smaller and smaller over time,so the Asian specimens are the smallest and the African ones are the largest.
C)This taxon exhibits a high degree of variation,with some very gracile features and some very robust features.
D)This species is the most gracile of all of the hominins,less robust than both Australopithecus and modern humans.
Q2) Stone tools are more commonly found on archaeological sites thought to be associated with:
A)Australopithecus africanus.
B)Paranthropus.
C)Australopithecus afarensis.
D)Homo habilis.
Q3) Contrast the cranial and dental anatomy and adaptation of Australopithecus robustus with African Homo erectus.
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Chapter 12: The Origins,evolution,and Dispersal of Modern
People
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Q1) Approximately when did human beings first arrive in the Americas?
A)50,000 yBP
B)25,000 yBP
C)15,000 yBP
D)5,000 yBP
Q2) 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?
Q3) In the study of human evolution,scientists define modern in terms of:
A)a series of distinctive anatomical traits that contrast with archaic traits from earlier hominins.
B)a designated timeframe between the Upper and Lower Paleolithic.
C)a series of anatomical traits that distinguish Cro-Magnon features from Neandertal's.
D)traits like large browridges,large nasal sinuses,and a large masticatory complex.
Q4) What "symbolic" behavior is evident in the archaeological record and associated with Neandertals and anatomically modern humans in Europe beginning around 35,000 yBP (during the Upper Paleolithic)?
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Chapter
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Q1) The archaeological record suggests that farming began in southeastern Turkey by:
A)6,000 yBP.
B)4,000 yBP.
C)1,500 yBP.
D)10,500 yBP.
Q2) What do comparisons of the bones from hunter-gatherers to later agriculturalists to modern peoples show?
A)a remarkable decline in size
B)an increase in size
C)variation in size to a high degree
D)no change in size over time
Q3) What does an oval cross-section of an adult human femur suggest?
A)The individual was likely very physically active.
B)The individual was lethargic and largely sedentary.
C)The individual had a nutritional deficiency as a child.
D)You cannot discern anything from the shape of a bone.
Q4) What form of subsistence pattern is found in the Neolithic period? Name three geographic regions where Neolithic lifeways appeared independently.
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Chapter 14: Evolution: Today and Tomorrow
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Q1) Climate change can bring about illness and death through:
A)an increase in airborne particulates and other pollution causing respiratory disease.
B)an increase in the size of glaciers,which can destroy human settlements.
C)forcing a shift from urban areas to farmland.
D)a decrease in food production despite the fact that plants use CO2.
Q2) The global warming that naturally occurred during the Eocene resulted in the rise of the primate order.What is an example of a negative impact the global warming that is taking place today will likely have?
A)changes in crop production as a result of decreased precipitation
B)extinction of certain species unrelated to habitat loss
C)lower sea levels,resulting in the addition of coastal lands on multiple continents
D)increased species diversity of humans,as happened earlier with other primates
Q3) Loss of forest in tropical areas has resulted in:
A)decrease in diversity of both plant and animal species.
B)greater diversity in plant habitats resulting in the rise of new animal species.
C)long-term increase in habitat stability that will ultimately benefit humans.
D)long-term economic gain at the expense of short-term loss of natural habitat.
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