Introduction to Physical Anthropology Exam Practice Tests
Course Introduction
Introduction to Physical Anthropology explores the biological and evolutionary aspects of the human species within the context of primate ancestry. This course examines fundamental concepts such as human genetics, evolution, adaptation, and variation, as well as comparative studies of both living and extinct primates. Students will investigate fossil records, paleoanthropological discoveries, and the modern human evolutionary trajectory, gaining insight into the interplay between biology, environment, and culture in shaping what it means to be human.
Recommended Textbook
Essentials of Physical Anthropology 3rd Edition by Clark Spencer Larsen
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13 Chapters
580 Verified Questions
580 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: What Is Physical Anthropology
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Sample Questions
Q1) A hypothesis is:
A)another word for a theory.
B)a testable statement that potentially explains specific phenomena observed in the natural world.
C)a statement concerning scientific facts assumed to be true.
D)unable to be refuted by future investigations.
Answer: B
Q2) The scientific method:
A)relies on making hunches about the natural world.
B)involves empirical data collection and hypothesis testing.
C)is used to support preconceived notions or theories.
D)seeks to establish the absolute scientific truth.
Answer: B
Q3) Forensic anthropologists:
A)focus their work on skeletal analysis of individuals.
B)study skeletal remains from past human populations.
C)study the evolution of human skeletal traits.
D)do not work outside academia.
Answer: A
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Evolution: Constructing a Fundamental Scientific Theory
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Sample Questions
Q1) James Hutton is associated primarily with: A)adaptation.
B)catastrophism.
C)uniformitarianism.
D)principles of heredity.
Answer: C
Q2) The individual genotypes in a breeding population, taken as a whole, are the:
A)gene pool.
B)DNA.
C)phenotype.
D)polygene.
Answer: A
Q3) 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
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Chapter 3: Genetics: Reproducing Life and Producing
Variation
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Sample Questions
Q1) The gene responsible for lactose persistence among adults in Europe is a
gene.
A)structural
B)dominant
C)regulatory
D)Hox
Answer: C
Q2) Haplotypes are:
A)not likely to recombine during crossovers.
B)likely to recombine during crossovers.
C)genes that code for similar things.
D)genetic material that come from one parent only.
Answer: A
Q3) In his work on pea plants, Mendel found that plant height was inherited independently of the type or color of the seed coat.This finding:
A)applies only to genes on the same chromosome.
B)demonstrates the law of independent assortment.
C)explains gene linkage.
D)explains inheritance only in simple organisms.
Answer: B
Page 5
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Chapter 4: Genes and Their Evolution: Population Genetics
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Sample Questions
Q1) The best-documented case of industrial melanism involves:
A)Galápagos finches.
B)dung beetles.
C)monarch butterflies.
D)peppered moths.
Q2) Studies of Galapagos finches have found that at certain points in time all finches on the island have either wide beaks or sharp narrow beaks.The type of evolution that leads to this phenotype distribution is _______ selection.
A)directional
B)natural
C)disruptive
D)stabilizing
Q3) The type of selection that favored progressively larger brain size in human evolution is _______ selection.
A)natural
B)directional
C)stabilizing
D)disruptive
Q4) Why is the peppered moth an excellent example of directional selection?
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Chapter 5: Biology in the Present: Living People
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Sample Questions
Q1) Natural selection favored alleles for light skin in:
A)Africa.
B)Europe.
C)South America.
D)Australia.
Q2) When epiphyses fuse to the diaphyses:
A)long bone growth is slowed.
B)full adult height is attained.
C)the adolescent growth spurt begins.
D)the diaphyses continue to grow but the epiphyses stop growing.
Q3) The postnatal stage includes:
A)the first, second, and third trimesters.
B)menarche and senescence.
C)the growth or development of the deciduous teeth, motor skills, and cognitive abilities.
D)the human growth cycle from the embryo stage.
Q4) How does human life history (prenatal stage, infancy, childhood, juvenile stage, adolescence, adulthood, old age) determine the interaction between genes and environment?
Q5) Is race a valid, biologically meaningful concept? Why or why not?
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Chapter 6: Biology in the Present: the Other Living Primates
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Sample Questions
Q1) Prehensile tails are:
A)present in catarrhine primates.
B)present in most primates.
C)present only in some platyrrhines.
D)made strictly of muscle.
Q2) While at the zoo you see an exhibit with a small group of primates and notice they have wet, snout-like noses.This indicates a species of:
A)prosimian, because they retain the rhinarium not found in other mammal species.
B)anthropoid primate, because they retain the rhinarium commonly found in other mammal species.
C)platyrrhine primate, because their nostrils do not point downward.
D)strepsirhini that retain a rhinarium found only in prosimian primates.
Q3) Low, rounded cusps indicate a diet of:
A)fruit.
B)meat.
C)insects. D)leaves.
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8
Chapter 7: Primate Sociality, Social Behavior, and Culture
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Sample Questions
Q1) Predator-specific vocalizations in Diana monkeys vary based on:
A)the type of predator and the predator's attack strategy.
B)conditioning in the lab by primatologists.
C)emotional impulses produced randomly and involuntarily.
D)individual factors, as in humans.
Q2) A male and female gibbon that are similar in size likely demonstrate the lack of sexual dimorphism:
A)due to the polygamous social structure in gibbons.
B)as the result of unequal access to resources within their environment.
C)due to decreased competition for mates in a monogamous social structure.
D)which is not related to social structure in gibbons.
Q3) Vocalization in chimp groups:
A)occurs only to communicate a food source.
B)exists only among those high up in the dominance hierarchy.
C)sounds like howls and growls.
D)is unique to specific groups or regions.
Q4) Compare and contrast male and female primates in terms of reproductive strategies and competition.
Q5) Why are primates social?
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Chapter 8: Fossils and Their Place in Time and Nature
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Sample Questions
Q1) Stratigraphic correlation is:
A)matching strata by chemical composition and color from several sites across distances.
B)correlating stratigraphic markers in one location.
C)matching stratigraphy from known sites only.
D)dating through the use of a chronometric method.
Q2) How does Steno's law of superposition support relative and absolute dating methods?
Q3) Electron spin resonance dating can provide dates when used on which type of material?
A)wood
B)shell
C)teeth
D)soft tissue such as muscle
Q4) Which of the following is NOT an ideal environment for fossilization?
A)mud
B)acidic soil (as in a jungle)
C)sand
D)rock
Q5) Why is punctuated equilibrium an important addition to natural selection?
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Chapter 9: Primate Origins and Evolution: the First 50 Million Years
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Q1) The calcaneus (heel bone) of Eosimias suggests that it may be a very primitive: A)primate.
B)anthropoid.
C)New World monkey.
D)ape.
Q2) Comparisons of tooth wear in living apes and extinct Miocene apes suggest that some extinct species of apes ate:
A)insects, fruit, and leaves.
B)leaves, grass, and bark.
C)leaves, nuts, and fruits.
D)nuts, fruits, and small animals.
Q3) The Fayum desert has yielded fossils of the following three primates:
A)Oligopithecus, Apidium, and Aegyptopithecus.
B)Proconsul, Notharctus, and Adapis.
C)Eosimias, Biretia, and Micropithecus.
D)Proconsul, Eosimias, and Adapis.
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.
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Chapter 10: Early Hominin Origins and Evolution: the Roots of Humanity
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Sample Questions
Q1) Two types of australopithecines were using two different types of locomotion in East Africa:
A)one was a quadruped and the other a leaper.
B)one was a clinger and the other a climber.
C)one was a knuckle walker and the other a quadruped.
D)one was a climber and the other a biped.
Q2) The adaptive radiation of the australopithecines after their split from the lineage that led to early Homo seems to have focused on:
A)bipedalism.
B)mastication.
C)brain size increase.
D)body size increase.
Q3) An increased ability to see greater distances is one of the adaptations to: A)bipedalism.
B)diurnal sleeping patterns.
C)improved diet.
D)becoming larger.
Q4) Discuss the Ardipithecus ramidus fossil and its implications for understanding human evolution.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: The Origins and Evolution of Early Homo
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Q1) The Acheulean complex:
A)emerged around 2.5 mya.
B)is used to describe simple pebble tools.
C)emerged around 1.5 mya.
D)is characteristic of Homo habilis.
Q2) The discoverer of Homo erectus was:
A)Louis Leakey.
B)Richard Leakey.
C)Eugène Dubois.
D)Ernst Haeckel.
Q3) Greater body size and facial gracility documented in Homo erectus are likely related to:
A)changes in tool technology and increasing access to meat and other proteins.
B)the natural continuation of previous trends documented in hominid fossils, similar to great brain size.
C)the global climate, as these trends are characteristic of an increasingly forested environment
D)none of the above
Q4) Contrast the cranial and dental anatomy and adaptation of Australopithecus robustus with African Homo erectus.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: The Origins, Evolution, and Dispersal of Modern People
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Middle Paleolithic prepared-core stone tools that are associated with Neandertals are called:
A)Mousterian.
B)Gravettian.
C)Solutrean.
D)Acheulean.
Q2) The Homo floresiensis specimen:
A)had a small brain due to a pathology.
B)lived about 20,000 yBP.
C)is the result of genetic drift.
D)fits Allen's rule in body proportions.
Q3) The fossils called Homo floresiensis were dated to:
A)12,000 yBP.
B)18,000 yBP.
C)40,000 yBP.
D)25,000 yBP.
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 adaptation, as in the case of Neandertals?
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Our Last 10,000 Years: Agriculture, Population, and Biology
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Sample Questions
Q1) New World domesticated products include:
A)wheat.
B)rice.
C)cotton.
D)pigs.
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) In the American Midwest, native seed crops goosefoot, sumpweed, and sunflowers were farmed about:
A)11,500 yBP.
B)8,000 yBP.
C)6,000-1,000 yBP.
D)10,500 yBP.
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
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