Anthropology: Ch. 8 – Flashcards
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Biostratigraphic dating relies on
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the first and last appearances of species in the fossil record.
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High levels of 18O in now-fossilized foraminifera shells indicate
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a decrease in temperature.
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Which type of plants is associated with open grasslands typical of tropical savannas?
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C4 plants
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The English surveyor who developed the technique of stratigraphic correlation between regions was
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William Smith
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The significant drying up of the Mediterranean Basin at the end of the Oligocene epoch was probably due to
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the appearance of huge ice sheets in Antarctica.
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Which of the following has the greatest likelihood of becoming fossilized?
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teeth
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In an excavation you find the remains of two human skeletons along with the antler of an antelope. How can you attempt to date these skeletons?
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You can research the antler bone to find out which species it belongs to and then use faunal dating.
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As recently as a few hundred years ago, most Westerners thought the earth was about how many years old?
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6,000
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The ratio of C3 to C4 plants in a paleoenvironment can be estimated using the ratio of two stable isotopes of which element derived from fossils or ancient soils?
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carbon
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The study of what happens to an organism's remains after death is called
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taphonomy
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The time it takes for 50% of an unstable isotope to decay to a stable form is called the
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half-life
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The absolute dating technique that emerged as a result of research into constructing the atomic bomb during World War II is
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14C dating.
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A diagram (family tree) that proposes hypothetical ancestor-descendant relationships between species is a
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phylogeny
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The earth is about ________ old.
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4.6 billion years
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Which U.S. president reported the discovery of a fossilized ground sloth in Virginia to the American Philosophical Society?
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Thomas Jefferson
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The Danish physician who developed the geologic principle of superposition, according to which rocks (and fossils) higher in a sequence are younger than those buried farther down, was
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Niels Stensen (aka Nicolaus Steno).
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Based on the molecular clock, it is estimated that the hominid lineage diverged from that of the chimpanzee about
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6-8 mya.
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In terms of geologic time, when did human beings appear on Earth?
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very recently
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Which geological time period is referred to by geologists as the oldest portion of Earth's history, accounting for roughly 87% of that history?
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Precambrian eon
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The absolute dating method that involves counting the annual rings visible in the cross-section of a tree is called
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dendrochronology.
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Historically speaking, which came first in the science of giving ages to the fossil record?
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relative ages
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Variants of elements that differ based on the number of neutrons in the atom's nucleus are called
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isotopes
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Recent paleoenvironmental reconstructions suggest that the earliest members of the hominid lineage evolved in
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woodlands along both rivers and lakes.
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If fossil species A is consistently recovered from geological deposits beneath layers containing fossil species B, then A is considered older than B. This relative dating technique is based on the principle of
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superposition
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Studies of temperatures during the Cenozoic era suggest that
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temperatures have fluctuated, sometimes greatly, over time.
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While on a paleontological dig in the United Kingdom, you come across a completely preserved (including skin) extinct species of mammal within a bog. You note that for a mammal it is relatively hairless. In order to determine the adaptive significance of hairlessness, you must
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collect data that will help you to reconstruct the environment of that time.
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________ is the process of matching strata from several sites using chemical, physical, and other properties.
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Stratigraphic correlation
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fluorine dating.
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Prior to the invention of absolute dating techniques, one of the chemical dating methods useful for establishing the relative age of fossils from a single site was
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The "supercontinent" that existed about 200 mya, from which the modern continents ultimately emerged, is called
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Pangea
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Electron spin resonance dating would be most useful in attempting to date which object?
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a fossilized tooth
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Fossils are typically recovered within ________ exposures.
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sedimentary rock
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Which of the following is false regarding absolute dating techniques?
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Each can work with any type of material.
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One of the only fossil sites in the world that preserves a great deal of evidence for anthropoid evolution during the Eocene and Oligocene epochs is
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Fayum, Egypt.
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The first logical step in a sequence of events that leads to the discovery and analysis of primate fossils is the
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selection and surveying of potential sites.
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Which of the following is not an absolute dating method?
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stratigraphy
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The chemical signature of volcanic ash layers can be used to
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correlate sites across vast regions.
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Phylogeny is important to the study of human evolution because
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all of the above: A. in order to understand modern human anatomy and behavior, we must understand our evolutionary relationships to other extinct and living organisms. B. in order to account for changes in our species over time, we need to know what processes drove natural selection. C. it allows us to study our closest living relative in order to better understand how natural selection acted in previous environments.
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Ocean-dwelling microorganisms called foraminifera are important in evolutionary studies mainly because
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the chemical composition of their shells records past temperatures.
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Paleomagnetic dating relies on
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the periodic reversal of the earth's magnetic poles.
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Which dating method would be most appropriate for establishing the age of a volcanic ash layer from an early hominid site in eastern Africa?
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40K/40Ar dating
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Which of the following is not one of the main methods for reconstructing ancient environments?
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40K/40Ar analysis of lava flows and of ash layers
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With a half-life of 5,730 years, 14C dating is useful for dating carbon-bearing objects as far back as
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50,000 years ago.
