Anthropology Midterm – Flashcards
120 test answers
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answers 120question
5.Anatomical changes in hominins indicative of habitual bipedal locomotion include...
answer
Change in the pelvis (helps to stabilize the line of weight in a bipedal posture from the lower back to the hip joint). Having a divergent large toe helped with grasping and climbing but is less capable as a stable platform during bipedal locomotion.
Unlock the answer
question
6.The earliest stone tools are dated to approximately...
answer
2.6 million years ago
Unlock the answer
question
7.The estimated average cranial capacity for Homo habilis is
answer
631 cm cubed
Unlock the answer
question
8.The earliest australopith fossils come from ...
answer
Central African site called Toros- menalla
Unlock the answer
question
9.The hominin fossils from Laetoli and Hadar are classified by most researchers as...
answer
Australopithecus Afarensis
Unlock the answer
question
10.Recently discovered remains from the Tugen Hills, dated to about 6 million years ago have been placed in which genus?
answer
Orrorin
Unlock the answer
question
11.Sahelanthropus has an unusual combination of characteristics, including
answer
A small braincase and huge brow ridges, The upper canine is reduced and is worn down from the tip called the honing complex ( the sharing of a large upper canine with the first lower premolar, with the wear leading to honing of the surfaces of both teeth)
Unlock the answer
question
12.Which situations would be best suited to the carbon-14 dating technique?
answer
To date organic materials ranging from less than 1,000 years up to around 50,000 years old.
Unlock the answer
question
13.Potassium-40 (40K) decays to...
answer
To the gas argon-40 and has a half-life of 1.25 billion years
Unlock the answer
question
14.The current evidence indicates that hominins possessed all the major structural changes necessary for bipedalism by... (years ago)
answer
5 to 7 million years ago
Unlock the answer
question
15.What are the contributions of Olduvai research?
answer
Found that hominins were already inventing and adopting culture as a mean to deal with the world around them. Found the fossil material Homo Habilis "handy man" since they were tool makers. Found a nearly complete cranium.
Unlock the answer
question
16.The key artifacts in the Oldowan tool tradition are:
answer
- Stone artifact manufacture, large mammal butchery and novel transport and discard behaviors. - Assemblages mostly consisted of stone flakes which were used for cutting; hammer stones used as the name implies, core tools such as choppers which so considerable battering on the edges, and stone cores which were used only as a source of flakes. - Oldest tools that archaeologists can reliably identify
Unlock the answer
question
17.Radiometric dating techniques are based on what principle?
answer
technique used to date materials such as rocks, usually based on a comparison between the observed abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products, using known decay rates
Unlock the answer
question
18.Which dating techniques relies on the regular growth of tree rings?
answer
Dendrochronology
Unlock the answer
question
19.When a disease is continuously present in a population it is said to be...
answer
Endemic
Unlock the answer
question
20.Proto-hominins (pre-australopiths) lived approximately ... (years ago)
answer
6.0 to 4.4 million years ago
Unlock the answer
question
21.Could proto-hominins (pre-australopiths) use tools?
answer
Very possible because they could have used tools that did not turn into fossils for people to study
Unlock the answer
question
22.Which term refers to the process of attaching a handle to a tool?
answer
Hafting
Unlock the answer
question
23. If you were digging a hominin site that contains geological layers that resulted from volcanic activity, what dating technique would you most likely use?
answer
potassium argon method which is a dating technique based on accumulation of argon 40 gas as a byproduct of radiometric decay of potassium 40 in volcanic materials
Unlock the answer
question
24.The principle of superposition is a key component of what relative dating technique?
answer
Stratigraphy
Unlock the answer
question
25.Reconstructing human technology and material culture as a means of generating testable ideas about the past is known as:
answer
Experimental archaeology
Unlock the answer
question
26.The study of contemporary human societies as a means of understanding the past is known as:
answer
ETHNOARCHAEOLOGISTS
Unlock the answer
question
27. The spatial and temporal relationships between artifacts and features is known as:
answer
contexts
Unlock the answer
question
28. Which of the best defines an ecofact?
answer
natural materials that give environmental information about a site. Examples include plants and animal remains discarded as food waste and also pollen grains preserved in the soil.
Unlock the answer
question
29. What is the most common means of conducting a site survey?
answer
Wireless site survey
Unlock the answer
question
30. The study of the human past, primarily through material remains, is known as:
answer
archeology
Unlock the answer
question
31. Taphonomy is defined as:
answer
The study of how bones and other materials came to be buried in the earth and preserved as fossils. They study the processes of sedimentation, the action of streams, preservation properties of bone and carnivore disturbance factors
Unlock the answer
question
32. What kinds of evidence of hominin behavior are most likely available for study?
answer
tools and bones
Unlock the answer
question
33. Why are stone tools important for reconstructing the human past?
answer
Helps to place the time period because as time evolves, the tools get more advanced.
Unlock the answer
question
34. The term 'hominin' refers to:
answer
The evolutionary group that includes modern humans and now-extinct bipedal relatives
Unlock the answer
question
35. ___________ is the study of the evolution of behavior, emphasizing the role of ecological factors as agents of natural selection.
answer
Behavioral ecology
Unlock the answer
question
36. Ecological factors influencing primate social behavior include ...
answer
The distribution of food and water, predators and nutritional value of foods
Unlock the answer
question
37. Primate groups composed of several adult males and females are advantageous in what kind of areas?
answer
Where predation pressure is high, particularly in mixed woodlands and on open savannas.
Unlock the answer
question
38. Mounting as an expression of dominance in baboons is believed to also serve to ...
answer
Defuse potentially situations by indicating something like "It's okay, I accept your apology."
Unlock the answer
question
39. Amicable behaviors that promote group cohesion are called _______ behaviors.
answer
Affiliative Behaviors. Examples include grooming, reinforcing social bonds and promoting group cohesion.
Unlock the answer
question
40. In many primate species, ________ have/has a central role in reinforcing social relationships.
answer
social grooming
Unlock the answer
question
41. Are permanent male-female bonds typical among non-human primates?
answer
no they are uncommon
Unlock the answer
question
42. The term for a mating system in which males, and some cases females, have several mating partners is...
answer
Polygynous
Unlock the answer
question
43. What does K-selection refer to?
answer
An adaptive strategy whereby individuals produce relatively few offspring in whom they invest increased parental care
Unlock the answer
question
44. Species producing relatively large numbers of offspring and invest little parental care are ...
answer
R-selected
Unlock the answer
question
45. Infanticide by adult males can occur because...
answer
-Males kill infants fathered by other males -Maximizes the individuals reproductive status -Coincides with the transfer of a new male in a group -Once the male has killed the child, he fathers another infant with the victim's mother
Unlock the answer
question
46. What is the basic primate social unit
answer
A female and her offspring
Unlock the answer
question
47. Linguistic symbols are said to be ________ because they do not resemble the object or concept they represent.
answer
Arbitrary
Unlock the answer
question
48. Which non-human primates have been taught to use sign language?
answer
Great Apes: orangutans, gorillas and bonobos, chimpanzees
Unlock the answer
question
49. What do the language experiments with chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas indicate?
answer
They can learn the symbols but they cannot interpret what they mean
Unlock the answer
question
50. Currently, there are approximately _______ species of non-human primates.
answer
230
Unlock the answer
question
51. What is noteworthy about primate maturation, learning, and behavior?
answer
A more efficient means of fetal nourishment, reduced numbers of offspring, longer periods of gestation and delayed maturation.
Unlock the answer
question
52. Traditionally, primate characteristics have been explained as the result of adaptation to ________ environments.
answer
Arboreal
Unlock the answer
question
53. Using all four limbs to support the body during locomotion is called
answer
Quadrupedialism
Unlock the answer
question
54. Vertical clinging and leaping is a locomotor pattern frequently practiced by which kinds of primates?
answer
Colobus monkeys, Indris Lemurs, galagos, tarsiers aka found in Prosimians
Unlock the answer
question
55. _________ is seen in some New World monkeys, but not in any Old World monkeys
answer
Prehensile tail
Unlock the answer
question
56. DNA hybridization of humans and chimpanzees indicate they share about _________ of their DNA base sequences.
answer
98%
Unlock the answer
question
57. What are the defining characteristics of tarsiers?
answer
Nocturnal, insectivores, social unit is a mom, dad and offspring. Also their enormous eyes, ability to rotate their head 180 degrees
Unlock the answer
question
58. What are the most non-derived, or primitive, primates?
answer
Prosimians
Unlock the answer
question
59. Monkeys are divided into which two major groups?
answer
Old and New World Monkeys
Unlock the answer
question
60. What are the smallest New World anthropoids?
answer
Marmosets and tamarins
Unlock the answer
question
61. What is a hominoid? Examples?
answer
Members of the primate superfamily that includes apes and humans
Unlock the answer
question
62. Sexual dimorphism refers to...
answer
Differences in physical characteristics between males and females of the same species
Unlock the answer
question
63. Gibbons and siamangs are adapted for what kind of locomotion?
answer
Brachiation aka arm swinging
Unlock the answer
question
64. Mountain gorilla social groups are usually composed of
answer
One or two large silverback males, a variable number of adult females and their sub adult offspring
Unlock the answer
question
65. Chimpanzees live in groups composed of (age/sex)
answer
Males, females and a variation in age. They live in large communities in size from 10-100 individuals
Unlock the answer
question
66. What is a major underlying factor for the declining numbers of nonhuman primates?
answer
Reduction of Habitat
Unlock the answer
question
67. Ideally, taxonomic classification suggests what kind of relationships?
answer
Organisms are classified first according to their physical similarities
Unlock the answer
question
68. Structural similarities shared by species that are acquired by descent from a common ancestor are ...
answer
Homologies
Unlock the answer
question
69. What is the evolutionary process that produces analogous structures called?
answer
Homoplasy
Unlock the answer
question
70. Structural similarities shared by a wide array of distantly related species that are inherited from a remote ancestor, such as the number of bones in the forelimb, are termed ...
answer
Homologies
Unlock the answer
question
71. What is the term for traits that reflect specific evolutionary lineages and can be informative of evolutionary relationships?
answer
Derived (modified) traits
Unlock the answer
question
72. A hypothesis regarding ancestor-descendant relationships that includes a time scale is called a
answer
Phylogenetic tree
Unlock the answer
question
73. Speciation can occur as a result of ...
answer
Isolation
Unlock the answer
question
74. Morphological variation between individuals within a species
answer
May be the product of male/ female morphological differences
Unlock the answer
question
75. As discussed in the text, long-term continental drift had significant evolutionary ramifications because
answer
Groups of animals became isolated from each other by oceans, significantly influencing the distribution of mammals and other land vertebrates
Unlock the answer
question
76. What does the term endothermic refer to?
answer
Able to maintain internal body temperature by producing energy through metabolic processes within cells
Unlock the answer
question
77. What are Monotremes?
answer
Egg-laying mammals
Unlock the answer
question
78. What is the term for the rapid expansion and diversification of groups of organisms into newly available ecological niches?
answer
Adaptive radiation
Unlock the answer
question
79. What is the false belief that there is a relationship between physical traits and certain behavioral traits such as intelligence and morality?
answer
Biological determinism
Unlock the answer
question
80. What is the term for the philosophy of "race improvement" through the forced sterilization of some groups and the encouraged reproduction of others?
answer
Eugenics
Unlock the answer
question
81. What is a polytypic species?
answer
Species composed of populations that differ in the expression of one or more traits
Unlock the answer
question
82. In its most common biological usage, the term race is...
answer
Refers to geographically patterned phenotypic variation within a species
Unlock the answer
question
83. Why are anthropologists interested in the ABO blood type system?
answer
provide some of the best examples of Mendelian traits in humans
Unlock the answer
question
84. The frequency of the O allele (in ABO blood type) is almost 100 percent among which indigenous population?
answer
In south America
Unlock the answer
question
1. Lactose intolerance is characterized by ...
answer
A person's ability to digest milk
Unlock the answer
question
86. Population geneticists use the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium equation to determine ...
answer
The mathematical relationship expressing the predicted distribution of alleles in populations
Unlock the answer
question
87. Biological systems are balanced systems maintained by the interaction of physiological mechanisms that compensate for both external and internal changes. Such a balanced system is in ...
answer
Homeostasis
Unlock the answer
question
88. Acclimatization refers to ...
answer
Physiological response to changes in the environment that occur during an individual's lifetime. These changes may be temporary or permanent, depending on the duration of the environmental change and when in the individual's life it occurs.
Unlock the answer
question
89. What are some examples of acclimatization?
answer
A temporary and rapid adjustment to an environmental change. Another example is the very rapid increase in hemoglobin production that occurs when people who live at low elevations travel to higher ones.
Unlock the answer
question
90. What contributes most to skin color?
answer
Mostly influenced by the pigment melanin, a granular substance produced by specialized cells in the epidermis.
Unlock the answer
question
91. Dark skin is found in populations near the equator. Why?
answer
It is where the sun's rays are most direct and thus where exposure to UV light is most intense
Unlock the answer
question
92. What causes rickets?
answer
Lack of vitamin D
Unlock the answer
question
93. Mechanisms for radiating body heat include...
answer
Vasodilation: expansion of blood vessels, permitting increased blood flow to the skin. Permits warming of the skin and facilitates radiation of warmth as a means of cooling.
Unlock the answer
question
94. Bergmann's rule ... what is it?
answer
Concerns the relationship of body mass or volume to surface area
Unlock the answer
question
95. Hypoxia is...
answer
Lack of oxygen
Unlock the answer
question
96. What are disease-causing organisms such as bacteria and viruses called?
answer
Pathogens
Unlock the answer
question
97. The World Health Organization lists ______ as the world's leading killer of adults.
answer
Tuberculosis
Unlock the answer
question
98. What is the belief that species do not change but are the same as when first created known as?
answer
Fixity of species
Unlock the answer
question
99. By the 17th century, some scientists were beginning to break with long-held traditions and sought to investigate _______.
answer
evolution
Unlock the answer
question
100. __________________first recognized that species were groups of organisms that were distinguished from other such groups by their ability to mate with one another and produce fertile offspring.
answer
John Ray
Unlock the answer
question
101. _____________________refined the existing system of classifying biological organisms into a binomial system.
answer
Carolus Linnaeus
Unlock the answer
question
102. Charles Darwin was not the only one to conceive of natural selection. Who published an article suggesting current species were descended from other species?
answer
Alfred Russel Wallace
Unlock the answer
question
103. Who was the first to actually attempt to explain the mechanism by which species change?
answer
Charles Darwin
Unlock the answer
question
104. What is the view that the extinction and the subsequent appearance of more modern forms could be explained by a series of disasters and creations?
answer
Catastrophism
Unlock the answer
question
105. __________________ proposed that population size increases at a faster rate than food supplies.
answer
Thomas Malthus
Unlock the answer
question
106. The fact that individuals who possess favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce than those who possess less favorable traits is the basis for which theory?
answer
Natural selection
Unlock the answer
question
107. "Fitness," in an evolutionary sense, refers to an individual's ...
answer
Genetic contribution to the next generation compared with that of other individuals
Unlock the answer
question
108. According to the text, which is among the reasons that about half of Americans believe that evolution does not occur?
answer
Because of their faith of creation
Unlock the answer
question
109. A person who is homozygous recessive at a locus will express what kind of genotype?
answer
Two lowercase r's (rr)
Unlock the answer
question
110. What is the term used to refer to the observable, physical expression of genotypes?
answer
phenotypes
Unlock the answer
question
111. What is it called when a person possesses two different alleles at the same locus, and both alleles are expressed in the phenotype?
answer
- Codominance
Unlock the answer
question
112. How many ABO phenotypes are there?
answer
six
Unlock the answer
question
113. Mendelian traits are described as discrete, or discontinuous because ...
answer
- They are only controlled by alleles at one genetic locus
Unlock the answer
question
114. Two people (both heterozygotes) are able to taste a chemical substance called PTC. The ability to taste PTC is caused by a dominant allele (T). The inability to taste PTC is caused by a recessive allele (t). What proportion of their children would be expected not to be able to taste PTC?
answer
1/4 of their children
Unlock the answer
question
115. What types of traits are governed by more than one genetic locus?
answer
Polygenetic inheritance
Unlock the answer
question
116. What is the only source of new genetic material in any population?
answer
Mutation
Unlock the answer
question
117. What is gene flow defined as?
answer
Exchange of genes between populations
Unlock the answer
question
118. Genetic drift is ...
answer
Evolutionary changes produced by random factors. It is a result of small population size
Unlock the answer
question
119. Altruism is a behavior that ...
answer
Benefits another while involving some risk or sacrifice to the performer
Unlock the answer
question
120. Some of the deliberate nonhuman primate behaviors that serve as communication include ...
answer
To communicate information relating to their emotional state only
Unlock the answer
