Course Introduction
Primate Evolution
Final Exam Questions
Primate Evolution explores the origins, development, and diversification of primates, focusing on their anatomical, behavioral, and genetic adaptations over time. The course examines the fossil record, comparative anatomy, and molecular data to trace the evolutionary history from early primate ancestors to modern species, including humans. Students will study important primate lineages, key evolutionary milestones, and environmental factors that shaped primate diversity, while learning about methods used in paleoanthropology and primatology to reconstruct evolutionary relationships and behavioral ecology.
Recommended Textbook How Humans Evolved 7th Edition by Robert Boyd
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Chapter 1: Adaptation by Natural Selection
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Q1) Which of the following is an adaptation?
A) The human eye.
B) Design by a divine creator.
C) Both the human and the fish eye, but humans are better adapted to their environments than fish are to theirs.
D) The Grand Canyon.
Answer: A
Q2) Discontinuous variation is unlikely to lead to new species because
A) quick changes are never found in the fossil record.
B) complex adaptations are unlikely to occur in a single jump.
C) selection cannot act on discontinuous variation.
D) it allows for only small incremental changes.
Answer: B
Q3) Which of the following is an example of stabilizing selection?
A) Both small and large individuals survive, but medium individuals die off.
B) Only large individuals survive.
C) The proportion of small and large individuals remains the same.
D) Neither small nor large individuals survive.
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: Genetics
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Q1) If you have two parents with the genotype Aa, what is the chance that they will have an offspring with the genotype AA?
A) 1/8
B) 1/2
C) 1/4
D) 1/16
Answer: C
Q2) Which of the following statements is true?
A) DNA has a nonrepeating four-base structure.
B) DNA is contained in chromosomes.
C) DNA stands for determining nuclear acid.
D) DNA does not tell us why heredity leads to the patterns Mendel described in pea plants.
Answer: B
Q3) Because there are 64 possible codons and only 20 amino acids,
A) many mutations have no effect on phenotype.
B) every mutation has some effect on phenotype.
C) each tRNA molecule contains two extra amino acids.
D) each tRNA molecule contains two extra codons.
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: The Modern Synthesis
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Q1) Evolutionary change in a phenotype
A) results from change in the environment only.
B) reflects change in the underlying genetic composition of a population.
C) cannot be passed from parent to offspring.
D) Both a and
Answer: B
Q2) Male soapberry bugs adjust their mate-guarding behavior
A) in places where the environment is stable.
B) in places where the environment is variable.
C) in colder climates.
D) in wetter climates.
Answer: B
Q3) What are the allelic frequencies of the following population: 0 AA, 100 Aa, and 100 aa individuals?
A) 50% A and 50% a
B) 0% A and 100% a
C) 25% A and 75% a
D) 33% A and 67% a
Answer: C
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Chapter 4: Speciation and Phylogeny
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Q1) In order to conduct a meaningful comparative analysis, a researcher must A) not take phylogeny into account.
B) only compare behavioral features.
C) only use independently evolved features.
D) compare absolutely everything about two taxa.
Q2) Imagine a scenario where a lake dries up enough to become two separate lakes, dividing a population of fish into two daughter populations. This is an example of
A) allopatric speciation.
B) sympatric speciation.
C) both allopatric and sympatric speciation.
D) neither allopatric or sympatric speciation.
Q3) Ancestral characters are traits that
A) characterize the last common ancestor that a particular collection of species share.
B) evolved after the last common ancestor that a particular collection of species share.
C) are less well suited to the environment than derived characters.
D) are less specialized than derived characters.
Q4) Give a hypothetical example of parapatric speciation.
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Chapter 5: Primate Diversity and Ecology
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Q1) Modern primates are found in the tropical and temperate zones of
A) Madagascar, Africa, and Australia.
B) Africa, Asia, Europe, and Antarctica.
C) Africa, Asia, and the New World.
D) China, Japan, and Australia.
Q2) What makes primates useful models for understanding human evolution?
A) Primate evolution is more complex than the evolution of lower animals.
B) We share many of the same adaptations as other primates.
C) We share an interest in evolution with other primates.
D) Modern primates represent the primitive condition of our common ancestor.
Q3) Discuss the main factors contributing to the endangerment and extinction of primates.
Q4) Most primate species
A) live in social groups.
B) live solitary lives.
C) live in social groups only during the breeding season.
D) are only social when predator activity is high.
Q5) How do active metabolism, growth rate, and reproductive effort affect basal metabolism?
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Chapter 6: Primate Mating Systems
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Q1) How does the threat of infanticide influence male-female relationships in baboons? Include in your answer a discussion of mating effort and parenting effort.
Q2) In the language of adaptive explanations, cost and benefit refer to the impact of behaviors on the animal's A) overall health.
B) reproductive success. C) foraging success.
D) social relationships.
Q3) Explain the relationship between body, canine, and testis size and the following forms of social organization: (a) pair-bonded groups; (b) one-male, multifemale groups; and (c) multimale, multifemale groups.
Q4) How could infanticide be seen as a male reproductive strategy? Why is infanticide more prevalent in species that form one-male, multifemale groups than in multimale, multifemale groups? Is there evidence that this is an adaptive strategy? Explain your answer.
Q5) As an evolutionary biologist, how would you explain the relationship between animal behavior and strategy, cost, and benefit to a layperson? Make sure to define what you mean by "strategy."
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Chapter 7: The Evolution of Cooperation
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Q1) Which of the following is predicted by Hamilton's rule?
A) No altruism should evolve when r < 0.5.
B) Altruism evolves only when r > 0.0.
C) Altruism evolves only when r < 0.0.
D) No altruism should evolve when r > 0.5.
Q2) Although alarm calling benefits the whole group, it cannot be explained by group selection because
A) callers make themselves conspicuous to the predators, but calling costs little in terms of individual fitness.
B) calling reduces the risk of mortality for everyone who hears the call, changing the frequency of callers and noncallers in the population, because everyone benefits.
C) noncallers benefit from the alarm call and will have higher fitness than the callers, so selection will suppress alarm calling.
D) callers and noncallers have the same relative fitness.
Q3) Conflict and aggression are a large part of group life for many primate species, which would seem disruptive to social bonds. What, then, keeps social groups cohesive?
Q4) 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) Organisms that reproduce early tend to have
A) large body size and small brains.
B) short gestation times and large litters.
C) high rates of mortality and long life spans.
D) low rates of mortality and short life spans.
Q2) Primates who understand the nature of third-party relationships may A) have a good idea about who will support them in a conflict.
B) enlist aid from the most dominant male in the group.
C) follow basic social rules, including supporting subordinates against dominants.
D) recruit allies who are close to their opponents.
Q3) How does life history theory explain the trade-offs regarding reproduction and offspring? Illustrate your answer with animal examples.
Q4) Vervet monkeys and baboons appear to know
A) which monkey provides the best alarm calls.
B) how to deceive other monkeys to gain hidden food.
C) rank relationships among other individuals.
D) how to choose related individuals from pictures.
Q5) Explain why coalitional behavior may require sophisticated cognitive abilities.
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Q6) Give two examples indicating that primates deliberately deceive conspecifics.
Chapter 9: From Tree Shrew to Ape
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Q1) ________ is based on an effect of high-energy nuclear particles traveling through rock.
A) Radioactive decay
B) Electron-spin-resonance
C) Thermoluminescence
D) Carbon-14
Q2) ________ dating determines an accurate age of single rock crystals.
A) Carbon-14
B) Thermoluminescence
C) Electron-spin-resonance
D) Argon-argon
Q3) Modern orangutans most likely evolved from
A) Kenyapithecus.
B) Dryopithecus.
C) Ouranopithecus.
D) Sivapithecus.
Q4) Discuss the different hypotheses that the chapter presents for how the first primates adapted to share the same suite of diagnostic characteristics.
Q5) What kind of environment did the earliest primates evolve in?
Q6) Why did the radiation of hominoids come to an end?
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Chapter 10: From Hominoid to Hominin
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Q1) Compared to the gracile australopiths, the robust australopiths
A) were twice the body size.
B) exhibit a number of derived features of the cranium and teeth.
C) were not appreciably different in any way.
D) have all come from East African sites.
Q2) Dental characteristics of hominins, relative to previous species, include
A) thin enamel.
B) thick enamel.
C) a parallel dental arcade.
D) both a and
Q3) Imagine you have found a skull with an ape-size brain, sagittal crest, very large back teeth, and large cheekbones. Based on this information, this is most likely a specimen of A) Australopithecus afarensis.
B) a robust australopith.
C) Australopithecus africanus.
D) a modern human.
Q4) What is the anatomical evidence that early australopithecines were bipedal?
Q5) What was the diet of the robust australopiths? What are the anatomical features associated with their diet?
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Chapter 11: Oldowan Toolmakers and the Origin of Human
Life History
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Q1) Which the following statements is NOT true concerning human foraging groups?
A) Children are able to obtain enough food to feed themselves by the age of 10 years.
B) Women do not forage enough food to feed themselves until they are in their late 40s.
C) Men provide the majority of calories over time in all foraging groups.
D) Men frequently share the food they obtain with other group members.
Q2) What kinds of studies established that most of the accumulated bones found in Olduvai were NOT deposited by natural causes?
A) Taxonomic
B) Taphonomic
C) Palynological
D) Microscopic
Q3) Human foragers primarily include ________ foods in their diet.
A) raw and unprocessed
B) hunted
C) scavenged
D) extracted and hunted
Q4) What is the evidence that early hominins ate meat?
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) Homo ergaster possessed many derived features shared by modern humans, including
A) a taller skull.
B) larger teeth.
C) no chin.
D) small, gracile muscles.
Q2) ________ is used as evidence that Neanderthals did not have modern language.
A) The simplicity of Mode 3 technology
B) The crural index
C) The relatively flat basicranium
D) The reconstruction of past climates
Q3) What processes may have caused the changes in hominin morphology and technology during the Pleistocene?
Q4) The tools of Homo heidelbergensis are
A) more similar to those of modern humans than to those of Homo erectus.
B) more similar to those of Homo erectus than to those of modern humans.
C) in between those of Homo erectus and modern humans.
D) never made of chipped stone tools.
Q5) What is the evidence that Neanderthals took care of the sick and buried their dead?
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Q6) Why do anatomists think that Homo ergaster did not have spoken language?
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Chapter 13: Homo sapiens and the Evolution of Modern Human Behavior
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Q1) The hallmarks of modern human behavior are partly due to cognitive ability and partly due to what other characteristic?
A) Our large ability to transmit information and learn
B) Our large brain
C) Our large geographic range
D) Our large body size
Q2) What was the most likely result of any interaction between Neanderthals and modern humans?
A) Neanderthals waged war on modern humans.
B) Neanderthals succumbed to modern humans' superior weapons.
C) Neanderthals were outcompeted and replaced by modern humans.
D) Neanderthals and humans did not have any opportunity to interact.
Q3) Evidence in favor of the viewpoint that modern humans evolved in Africa includes the fact that ________ lived side-by-side.
A) in Asia Homo erectus and modern humans
B) in the Middle East Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans
C) in Africa Homo ergaster and modern humans
D) in Australia Homo erectus and modern humans
Q4) Why do some researchers feel that there was not a human revolution at all?
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Chapter 14: Human Genetic Variation
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Q1) Researchers think that the negatively selected sequence HAR1
A) is related to the rapid evolution of the large and complex human brain.
B) has a slower rate of change in humans than in other lineages.
C) is found in a coding region and results in new proteins.
D) is involved in speech production along with FOXP2.
Q2) If parents and offspring resemble each other, similarities are likely due to
A) shared genes.
B) shared genes and environments.
C) shared environment and culture.
D) shared genes, environments, and culture.
Q3) Scientists conventionally divide human variation into which two components?
A) Genetic and cultural
B) Cultural and environmental
C) Genetic and environmental
D) Cultural and phenotypic
Q4) Physical traits such as weight
A) are determined by genes more than by environment.
B) cannot be influenced by cultural practices.
C) can be influenced by genes, environment, and culture.
D) both a and b
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Chapter 15: Evolution and Human Behavior
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Q1) Bridewealth among the Kipsigis
A) is tendered in cattle.
B) compensates the bride's family for the cost of her move.
C) gives the groom rights to her labor and the children she bears during her marriage.
D) is higher for higher-status families.
Q2) Evolutionary psychologists believe that the human mind evolved to A) deal with the pressures of living in densely populated urban areas.
B) allow humans to create more and more complicated technology.
C) solve the challenges of a foraging lifestyle.
D) avoid predators.
Q3) Evolutionary psychologists believe the human mind evolved to solve the challenges that confront food foragers because
A) foraging is more time-consuming than agriculture.
B) humans have practiced foraging for most of our evolutionary history.
C) sexual division of labor is clearly evident in the fossil record.
D) foraging requires greater skill compared with agriculture.
Q4) Describe the differences between men and women with regard to the preferred ages of prospective partners.
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Chapter 16: Culture Cooperation and Human Uniqueness
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Q1) Members of the Franklin Expedition of 1846
A) perished because they were unable to figure out how to adapt to the arctic habitat.
B) succeeded in surviving the harsh arctic conditions.
C) had access to accumulated local knowledge.
D) brought with them a diverse tool kit.
Q2) Cumulative cultural change is possible
A) with social facilitation only.
B) with observational learning only.
C) only when learning is mainly genetic
D) only in humans
Q3) Emulation occurs when individuals
A) perform an action by watching the behavior of others.
B) learn the end state of a behavior but not the behavior that generated the end state.
C) have an increased chance of learning a behavior when others have that behavior.
D) learn a behavior by following the first steps then figuring out the rest on their own.
Q4) How does culture differ between human and nonhuman primates? How is it similar?
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