Principles of Paleoanthropology Exam Practice Tests
Course Introduction
Principles of Paleoanthropology offers an in-depth exploration of the scientific study of human evolution, focusing on the fossil record and the biological and cultural development of hominins. This course covers the discovery, analysis, and interpretation of fossil evidence, as well as the methods used to reconstruct our evolutionary history. Students will examine major fossil finds, dating techniques, evolutionary theory, and the environmental and adaptive contexts that shaped human origins. Emphasis is placed on critical thinking, evaluating competing hypotheses, and understanding the dynamic nature of paleoanthropological research.
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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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following provides an example of why Jenkin called Darwin's ideas incompatible?
A) Tall and short individuals are not able to breed with one another because they look different.
B) If tall and short individuals breed with one another, all of their offspring will be short, and variation will disappear.
C) If tall and short individuals breed with one another, all of their offspring will be tall, and variation will disappear.
D) If tall and short individuals breed with one another, all offspring will be intermediate in height, and variation will disappear.
Answer: D
Q2) Natural selection usually acts upon and produces adaptations at the level of the A) gene.
B) individual.
C) group.
D) species.
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Genetics
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Q1) The structure of DNA is that
A) of a series of intertwining chromosomes.
B) of a double-stranded molecule, consisting of four bases.
C) of a series of bases: adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine.
D) both b and c are correct.
Answer: D
Q2) A cross between true-breeding plants bearing yellow seeds produces offspring bearing
A) all yellow seeds.
B) 1/2 yellow and 1/2 green seeds.
C) 3 yellow seeds and 1 green seed.
D) all green seeds.
Answer: A
Q3) Chromosomes are
A) composed of ribonucleic acid.
B) attached to organelles.
C) replicated during cell division.
D) made of proteins.
Answer: C
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Page 4
Chapter 3: The Modern Synthesis
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Q1) Imagine a population where there are 20 aa individuals, 50 Aa individuals, and 30 AA individuals. Imagine that selection acts against both homozygotes such that neither homozygote survives to adulthood. What is the frequency of each genotype in the next generation of zygotes?
A) aa = 0, Aa = 1.0, and AA = 0
B) aa = .20, Aa = .60, and AA = .20
C) aa = .20, Aa = .50, and AA = .30
D) aa = .25, Aa = .50, and AA = .25
Answer: D
Q2) Explain why natural selection cannot evolve a camera-type eye from a compound eye.
Answer: Natural selection is not goal oriented. It occurs because some small change (variation) was advantageous compared with other such variants already present in the population. In the case of compound versus camera-type eyes, compound eyes are already complex and have their own physical adaptations and neural wiring. There are no small changes that are likely to result from mutation, which is random, that would trend it toward a camera-type eye. More important, there are no variants currently present in the population that have anything that would remotely resemble a "step" toward a camera-type eye. The "optimal" solution to seeing may not be the "local" solution.
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Speciation and Phylogeny
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Q1) At the end of the Cretaceous era, mammals diversified to fill a broad range of ecological niches. This is an example of A) reinforcement.
B) hybrid zones.
C) phylogeny.
D) adaptive radiation.
Q2) Analogous characters are similar because of A) similar DNA.
B) similar selection pressures acting on unrelated species.
C) common ancestry.
D) similar mutations.
Q3) Consider species A, B, and C, who share a knuckle-walking common ancestor.
Species A and B are bipedal. Species C is a knuckle walker. Which of the following is most likely to be true?
A) A and B are more closely related to each other than to C.
B) A and C are more closely related to each other than to B.
C) C and B are more closely related to each other than to A.
D) There is not enough information to determine the most likely relationship.
Q4) What is the ecological species concept? Is it applicable to asexual species?
Q5) Give a hypothetical example of parapatric speciation.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Primate Diversity and Ecology
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Q1) Imagine you discover a new species of primate. It has a large body size (about 35 lbs.), is sexually dimorphic, appears to spend much of its time in the trees, lives in dense tropical forest, and has longer arms than legs. Based on this information only, what can you hypothesize about this new species' behavior and ecology?
Q2) Which of the following statements is true?
A) Estimated predation rates vary from less than 1% to 15% of the population per year in primate populations.
B) Estimated predation rates per month are from 1% to 15% in primate populations.
C) Adults are 10% more susceptible to predation than are subadults.
D) Arboreal species are more susceptible to predation than are terrestrial species.
Q3) How is the comparative method used in the study of primate behavior and ecology? Explain how it might help researchers understand the evolution of behavior and morphology.
Q4) What adaptations do some plants have to make themselves less palatable to animals that might otherwise eat them? Explain the primate counteradaptations that allow them to eat such plants.
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Primate Mating Systems
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Q1) 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.
Q2) In social groups in which there is mate guarding,
A) females groom males more frequently.
B) males have little parental investment.
C) extrapair copulations result in a percentage of offspring.
D) genetic testing has shown it is effective against extrapair copulation.
Q3) Define sexual selection, and compare/contrast its two main forms: intersexual selection and intrasexual selection.
Q4) The majority of primate species are not pair-bonded. Therefore, we can predict that
A) both sexes will care for offspring equally.
B) neither sex will care for offspring.
C) males will provide more care for offspring than will females.
D) females will provide more care for offspring than will males.
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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) What is altruism? Why was it a puzzle for evolutionary biology before Hamilton?
Q3) Group selection
A) is likely to occur in primates because they live in well-established social groups.
B) is likely to occur in primates because certain behaviors benefit the whole group.
C) is unlikely to occur in primates because certain behaviors may benefit the group to the detriment of the actor.
D) is unlikely to occur in primates because it is a theoretically unsound principle.
Q4) The coefficient of relatedness (r) between mother and son is
A) 0.25.
B) 0.5.
C) 0.75.
D) 1.00.
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Chapter 8: Primate Life Histories and the Evolution of Intelligence
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Q1) The extent to which selection favors a strategy in which an animal makes an investment is determined by A) senescence.
B) the cost of the investment alone.
C) the benefit derived from the investment alone.
D) the net benefit (benefit minus cost) of the strategy.
Q2) A key derived primate trait is a relatively large brain relative to body size, with humans having among the largest. How much metabolic energy do human brains consume in a day?
A) 15%
B) 20%
C) 25%
D) 30%
Q3) Which of the following factors is hypothesized to contribute to the intelligence of primates?
A) Teaching behaviors to others
B) Provisioning
C) Competitive pressures produced by sociality
D) Manually manipulating food
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Q4) Give two examples indicating that primates deliberately deceive conspecifics.
Chapter 9: From Tree Shrew to Ape
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Q1) Discuss the different hypotheses that the chapter presents for how the first primates adapted to share the same suite of diagnostic characteristics.
Q2) The hominoid radiation occurred during the A) Eocene.
B) Oligocene.
C) Miocene.
D) Pliocene.
Q3) In general, larger continents have A) calmer weather than smaller continents.
B) the same weather as smaller continents.
C) more severe weather than smaller continents.
D) more consistent weather than smaller continents.
Q4) The first mammals evolved from A) dinosaurs.
B) birds.
C) therapsids.
D) reptiles.
Q5) Multiple hypotheses seek to explain how New World monkeys arrived in South America. According to the chapter, what are some of these hypotheses?
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Chapter 10: From Hominoid to Hominin
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Q1) Why might there be uncertainties about the relationship of different hominins to each other?
Q2) Compare and contrast the characteristics of Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, and Ardipithecus. What kinds of environments did they live in? How did the environment shape the evolution of their morphology?
Q3) Fossil candidates for the "first" hominins include
A) Pan, Pongo, Hylobates
B) Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, Ardipithecus
C) Paranthropus, Homo erectus, Homo ergaster
D) Homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthals, Homo sapiens
Q4) A recently discovered early hominin, which dates to 3.5-3.2 mya and has a flat face, is
A) Orrorin tugenensis.
B) Ardipithecus ramidus.
C) Australopithecus afarensis.
D) Kenyanthropus platyops.
Q5) What was the diet of the robust australopiths? What are the anatomical features associated with their diet?
Q6) Discuss three hypotheses concerning the evolution of bipedalism.
Page 12
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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) Explain how food sharing reduces the risk associated with hunting in contemporary foragers.
Q3) At modern kill sites
A) hunters usually take meat from the limbs, and scavengers eat meat from the skull and vertebrae.
B) hunters usually take meat from the skull and vertebrae, and scavengers eat meat from the limbs.
C) hunters take almost all of the meat, and scavengers eat only cartilage and bone marrow.
D) hunters and scavengers share all parts of carcasses.
Q4) How were the Oldowan tools manufactured? Why are they referred to as "Mode 1" tools? What does the manufacturing process tell us about the hominins who made them?
Page 13
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Chapter 12: From Hominin to Homo
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Q1) Derived features of Homo heidelbergensis include
A) thin cranial bones.
B) small browridges.
C) a higher forehead.
D) a sagittal keel.
Q2) ________ had large, robust bodies with relatively long arms and legs and may have been adapted to run long distances.
A) Homo habilis
B) Australopithecus africanus
C) Homo ergaster
D) Paranthropus boisei
Q3) Homo erectus was shorter and stockier than Homo ergaster. This morphological difference most likely reflects
A) dietary differences.
B) different climatic adaptations.
C) differences in technological abilities.
D) nonadaptive random differences.
Q4) What processes may have caused the changes in hominin morphology and technology during the Pleistocene?
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Chapter 13: Homo sapiens and the Evolution of Modern
Human Behavior
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Q1) During the human Cultural Revolution, innovations included A) construction of elaborate shelters.
B) living in caves.
C) Mode 3 technology.
D) independent problem solving.
Q2) The viewpoint that modern humans evolved in Africa proposes that
A) all modern humans evolved in Europe or the Near East.
B) Neanderthals became extinct.
C) Asian Homo erectus evolved into anatomically modern Asians.
D) Neanderthals evolved into modern humans.
Q3) Which of the following is an example of behavior almost totally unique to modern humans?
A) Tool use
B) Art
C) Living in Europe
D) Living in a social group
Q4) Why do geneticists think that there was some, albeit limited, interbreeding between Neanderthals and early modern humans?
Page 15
Q5) Why do some researchers feel that there was not a human revolution at all?
Q6) What are the two main theories about the origin of modern humans?
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Page 16
Chapter 14: Human Genetic Variation
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Q1) Height and stature are
A) not heritable within most human populations.
B) heritable within human populations.
C) can change if environments change.
D) both b and c
Q2) Variation among groups at a single locus can be maintained by A) haplotypes.
B) recombination.
C) founder effect.
D) single nucleotide polymorphisms.
Q3) According to the hypothesis the specific language impairment (SLI) can be caused by a dominant gene at a single locus, what is the probability that an individual who has SLI and an individual without it will have a child with SLI?
A) 0%
B) 75%
C) 50%
D) 100%
Q4) Why is the hemoglobin S allele found in very high frequencies in some populations even though it is a lethal recessive?
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Chapter 15: Evolution and Human Behavior
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Q1) 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.
Q2) Describe the differences between men and women with regard to the preferred ages of prospective partners.
Q3) Which of the following statements is true?
A) Phenotypic traits result from either an individual's genes or from the impact of the environment, but not from both factors.
B) Bill Lambeer is tall because his genes specified that he'd be tall.
C) The expression of any genotype depends on the environment.
D) Genes are like blueprints specifying an individual's phenotype.
Q4) Natural selection should favor behaviors that
A) reduce mating with relatives.
B) increase mating with relatives.
C) increase mating with siblings but not parents.
D) decrease the chances of outbred matings.
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Chapter 16: Culture Cooperation and Human Uniqueness
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Q1) According to your text, humans owe much of their success to all the following EXCEPT A) culture.
B) intelligence.
C) individuality.
D) cooperation.
Q2) Which of the following is a typical outcome of the dictator game?
A) Proposers allocate 20% to 30% of their endowments to the other player.
B) Proposers allocate 80% to 90% of their endowments to the other player.
C) Proposers refuse to allocate any of their endowments to the other player.
D) Proposers receive a 20% bonus for being generous.
Q3) What do game theory scenarios illustrate about the nature of human cooperation? Include in your answer a discussion of the dictator game and the ultimatum game.
Q4) The Central Inuit, who inhabited the Canadian Arctic, made a living by A) hunting and fishing.
B) foraging for nuts and fruit.
C) farming.
D) raising cattle.
Q5) In what ways is human cooperation different from that of other mammal species?
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