Paleoanthropology
Final Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Paleoanthropology is the scientific study of human evolution, focusing on the origins and development of our species and our closest relatives through the analysis of fossil remains, artifacts, and ancient environments. This interdisciplinary field combines methods from anthropology, archaeology, geology, and biology to reconstruct the evolutionary history of hominins, interpret changes in anatomy and behavior, and contextualize major discoveries within broader patterns of environmental and climatic change. Students will explore significant fossil finds, dating techniques, and the ongoing debates surrounding human ancestry, adaptation, and the emergence of culture.
Recommended Textbook
How Humans Evolved 7th Edition by Robert Boyd
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Adaptation by Natural Selection
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Q1) Which of the following is an example of directional selection?
A) Both small and large individuals survive.
B) Only large individuals survive.
C) The proportion of small and large individuals remains the same.
D) Neither small nor large individuals survive.
Answer: B
Q2) What does the Grants' study of medium ground finches tell us about evolution by means of natural selection?
A) New species cannot form.
B) A new species can form only when natural selection operates consistently in one direction for a few million years.
C) Evolution can change only single traits within a species.
D) New species normally take thousands to millions of years to arise because natural selection pressures operate in fits and starts.
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: Genetics
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Q1) Recombination and crossing over are very important in the genetic process because they produce
A) variation.
B) a new somatic cell.
C) DNA.
D) linked chromosomes.
Answer: A
Q2) Homologous chromosomes
A) come in pairs.
B) move together into the gametes during meiosis.
C) are found only in mammals.
D) have three codons.
Answer: A
Q3) Chromosomes are contained in
A) the gametes of prokaryotes.
B) the nuclei of eukaryotes.
C) the ribosomes.
D) the mitochondria.
Answer: B
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Page 4
Chapter 3: The Modern Synthesis
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Q1) Which of the following increase(s) genetic variation?
A) Mutation
B) Selection
C) Recombination
D) Both a and c
Answer: D
Q2) Consider a population of 20 aa, 32 Aa, and 48 AA individuals. Selection acts against the lethal recessive homozygote (aa) before adulthood. After selection, survivors mate randomly. What are the genotypic frequencies of the next generation?
A) 25% aa, 50% Aa, and 25% AA
B) All AA
C) 4% aa, 16% Aa, and 64% AA
D) None of the above.
Answer: C
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Chapter 4: Speciation and Phylogeny
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Q1) What is the biological species concept? Under what circumstances is this concept difficult to apply?
Q2) Which of the following does the ecological species concept emphasize?
A) The importance of allopatry between species
B) The importance of gene flow within species
C) The importance of sympatry within species
D) The importance of selection pressures
Q3) According to the biological species concept, species remain the same because A) new mutations are usually maladaptive.
B) environments change slowly.
C) gene flow keeps individuals similar to each other.
D) natural selection is a powerful process.
Q4) Adaptive radiation occurs when
A) a mutation caused by solar radiation produces adaptations.
B) a population expands across a uniform habitat.
C) multiple new species are produced because subpopulations adapt to new environments.
D) a species loses adaptations through mutation.
Q5) Explain the difference between ancestral and derived characters.
Q6) What is the ecological species concept? Is it applicable to asexual species?
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Chapter 5: Primate Diversity and Ecology
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Q1) Compounds found in foods that are essential in regulating many of the body's metabolic functions are
A) proteins.
B) fats and oils.
C) vitamins, minerals, and trace amounts of certain elements.
D) carbohydrates.
Q2) Using the information from the chapter on how ecology shapes behavior, create a model showing how certain ecological pressures might have favored sociality in primates.
Q3) In the phylogeny of evolutionary relationships among the primates, tarsiers
A) may be more closely related to anthropoids than to lemurs and lorises.
B) are small-bodied like most anthropoids.
C) may be more closely related to strepsirrhines because they are nocturnal.
D) are considered arboreal quadrupeds like most New World monkeys.
Q4) Cercopithecines
A) typically live in small one-male groups.
B) typically live in groups where all the females are related.
C) typically live in groups where all the males are related.
D) are typically monogamous.
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Chapter 6: Primate Mating Systems
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Q1) When male primates disperse, they often move to groups that are nearby because A) those groups usually have the best females to mate with.
B) male primates prefer not to travel long distances alone.
C) the cost of dispersal is high due to predation risk and poor access to resources.
D) they know the neighboring groups, so they do not have to compete as fiercely for access.
Q2) Primate mothers modify their investment in their offspring
A) when offspring can give alarm calls.
B) with the mother's need to conserve resources.
C) after they conceive the next offspring.
D) depending on their mating system.
Q3) Which of the following statements is true?
A) Dominance rank is not a good predictor of female reproductive success.
B) Young females tend to reproduce more often than older females because they are in better physical condition.
C) Variation in longevity is a major contributor to variation in lifetime fitness among females.
D) Females in multimale groups have more offspring than females in one-male units.
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Chapter 7: The Evolution of Cooperation
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Q1) Parent-offspring conflict occurs
A) because parents and offspring share all of their genes.
B) because individuals are more closely related to self than to siblings.
C) only when siblings are not full siblings.
D) only during weaning.
Q2) By definition, altruistic behaviors
A) incur a cost to the recipient.
B) incur a cost to the actor.
C) result in a benefit to the actor.
D) are beneficial to the recipient and the actor.
Q3) Kin selection combined with females remaining in their natal group, in many primate species, has led to
A) mutualistic behavior.
B) asymmetrical behavior.
C) the transmission of rank laterally from sister to sister.
D) the transmission of rank from mothers to offspring.
Q4) What evidence exists for reciprocal altruism in primates? Why would reciprocal altruism be common for primates but not for other animals?
Q5) What is altruism? Why was it a puzzle for evolutionary biology before Hamilton?
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Chapter 8: Primate Life Histories and the Evolution of Intelligence
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Q1) Cognitive differences between humans and great apes
A) are related to their differences in physical cognition.
B) do not exist because both have a theory of mind.
C) seem to reflect the specialized skills humans evolved for living and exchanging knowledge in cultural groups.
D) are manifested within the act of deception.
Q2) In a playback experiment in which female baboons listened to a recording of a female's grunt followed by another female's submissive fear barks,
A) females responded more strongly when they heard a higher-ranking female responding submissively to a lower-ranking female's grunt.
B) females responded more strongly when they heard high-ranking females in conflict with each other.
C) females reacted to each vocalization regardless of the rank of those making the call.
D) females only reacted to the vocalizations of female kin.
Q3) What is the neocortex ratio? Explain how data on the neocortex ratio of primate species have been used to address hypotheses accounting for the evolution of primate intelligence.
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Chapter 9: From Tree Shrew to Ape
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Q1) The Eocene primates had most of the features that modern primates share, including
A) grasping hands and feet.
B) claws.
C) small brains.
D) long snouts.
Q2) Apes from the Middle Miocene adapted to have ________ because they ate harder foods than their predecessors.
A) molars with thick enamel and rounded cusps.
B) narrow zygomatic arches.
C) robust upper jaws.
D) molars with thin enamel and sharp cusps.
Q3) Laurasia was a landmass that consisted of
A) all present-day continents.
B) all present-day continents except for Asia.
C) none of the continents that are present today.
D) North America, Europe, and Asia.
Q4) Compare and contrast the three families of Fayum haplorrhines (oligopithecids, parapithecids, propliopithecids). What characteristics did they share with living groups of primates?
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Chapter 10: From Hominoid to Hominin
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Q1) Australopithecines were
A) prehominin apes from the Miocene from which hominins evolved.
B) toothless wonders from the late Cretaceous.
C) bipedal primates.
D) primates with brains larger than hominoids.
Q2) Features of Australopithecus afarensis that are intermediate between those of apes and humans include
A) the shape of the skull.
B) the size of the canines.
C) the size of the brain.
D) both a and
Q3) Based on fossil evidence, which feature is thought to have evolved first in hominin evolution, bipedalism or large brains?
A) Bipedalism.
B) Large brains.
C) Both evolved at the same time.
D) This answer cannot be obtained from currently available data.
Q4) Discuss three hypotheses concerning the evolution of bipedalism.
Q5) Why might there be uncertainties about the relationship of different hominins to each other?
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Chapter 11: Oldowan Toolmakers and the Origin of Human
Life History
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Q1) Compare the sexual division of labor in hunting in contemporary foragers. What are the reasons for such a division of labor?
Q2) Which of the following statements about early use of tools by hominins is NOT true?
A) Early hominin toolmakers were most likely right-handed.
B) Experimental analysis of fossil bone tools from australopithecine sites in South Africa suggests that they were used as digging sticks.
C) It is clear that the australopithecines were not capable of making stone tools.
D) Mode 1 refers to the method used to make Oldowan stone tools.
Q3) Experimental analysis of bone tools from South Africa suggests that they were used to
A) dig up plant roots and tubers.
B) extract termites from their mounds.
C) dig up tree roots.
D) bury carcasses.
Q4) Why is it difficult to determine which early hominin species may have invented the use of chipped stone tools?
Q5) Did early hominins live in home bases? Explain your answer.
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Chapter 12: From Hominin to Homo
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Q1) The lifeways of Neanderthals probably included
A) burial of the dead and hunting large game.
B) primarily scavenging for meat, and very little use of plant foods.
C) permanent settlements.
D) limited planting of crops.
Q2) Homo ergaster males were
A) twice as large as females.
B) 20% to 30% larger than females.
C) about the same size as females.
D) smaller than females.
Q3) Neanderthals are known to have used A) only Oldowan tools.
B) mostly Acheulean tools.
C) a wide range of Mousterian tools.
D) only wood and bamboo tools.
Q4) Why do anatomists think that Homo ergaster did not have spoken language?
Q5) What processes may have caused the changes in hominin morphology and technology during the Pleistocene?
Q6) Discuss the differences between Mode 1, 2, and 3 stone tool technologies.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Homo sapiens and the Evolution of Modern
Human Behavior
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Q1) In what ways was the transition to Upper Paleolithic technology and lifeways a result of biological change? In what ways was it a matter of cultural change?
Q2) Imagine you are a paleoanthropologist. You have found a fossil that dates to 45 kya in Europe, and it has a cranial capacity of 1,400 cc and a chin and is associated with Aurignacian tools. How would you classify this specimen?
A) Homo ergaster
B) Homo heidelbergensis
C) Homo sapiens
D) Homo neanderthalensis
Q3) Artifacts and fossils from the site of Arcy-sur-Cure indicate that
A) Neanderthals and modern humans fought each other.
B) only modern humans lived there.
C) Neanderthals borrowed technology from modern humans.
D) Neanderthals killed off that population of modern humans.
Q4) Why do some researchers feel that there was not a human revolution at all?
Q5) How does the archaeological evidence support the hypothesis that modern humans arose in Africa?
Q6) What are the two main theories about the origin of modern humans?
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Chapter 14: Human Genetic Variation
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Q1) The hemoglobin S allele causes sickle-cell anemia. It occurs in high frequencies
A) where pastoralism is common.
B) where drift has been strong.
C) where malaria is common.
D) where hemoglobin is rare.
Q2) The normal version of the FOXP2 gene spread throughout human populations less than
A) 10,000 years ago.
B) 500,000 years ago.
C) 200,000 years ago.
D) 75,000 years ago.
Q3) Physical traits such as weight are
A) more determined by genes than by the environment.
B) determined by an interaction between genes and environment.
C) determined more by the environment than by genes.
D) strictly genetic.
Q4) Why is there variation between human populations in the ability to digest lactose?
How has natural selection affected and maintained this variation?
Q5) Explain the changes in the structural or protein-coding genes of humans and chimpanzees.
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Chapter 15: Evolution and Human Behavior
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Q1) Humans rarely mate with close relatives because
A) culture stops us from doing what we really desire.
B) childhood propinquity stifles desire.
C) natural selection cannot stop the power of culture.
D) Both a and c
Q2) Behavioral traits are
A) less genetic than morphological traits.
B) more canalized than morphological traits.
C) less canalized than morphological traits.
D) both a and c
Q3) Women who fetched the highest bridewealth payments among the Kipsigis were those
A) with the richest fathers.
B) with the poorest fathers.
C) who experienced menarche at a later age.
D) who experienced menarche at an earlier age.
Q4) Among nonhuman primates, inbreeding
A) is common.
B) is rare.
C) occurs when animals are bored.
D) is avoided only with siblings.
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Chapter 16: Culture Cooperation and Human Uniqueness
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Q1) The Yurok
A) built pyramids.
B) built snow houses that kept them warm during frigid winters.
C) made a living by raising and herding cattle.
D) constructed weirs to harvest salmon requiring the labor of hundreds of men from different villages.
Q2) You have just completed a study of chimpanzee tool use. You noticed that young chimpanzees accompanied females to sites where tools and termites were available and females practiced termite fishing. Young chimpanzees usually played and socialized with each other while females fed. If these chimpanzees grow up to termite fish themselves, you can conclude that this behavior was passed on through which mechanism?
A) Active teaching
B) Observational learning
C) Social facilitation
D) Imitation
Q3) Imagine you are a European explorer living in nineteenth-century Europe and you decide to embark on an expedition to explore the Arctic. Based on historical evidence, how likely are you to survive this journey and why?
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