Question 1

Which of the following statements describes Neandertal culture?

Accepted Answer

A)   They buried their dead.
B)   They left a profusion of objects made of bone, ivory, antler, and shell.
C)   Many of their dwellings have been excavated.
D)   They abandoned their dead.E) None of the above
F) C) and D)

Question 2

The subfield of evolutionary studies that devotes attention to short-term evolutionary changes is

Accepted Answer

A)   macroevolution.
B)   microevolution.
C)   modern synthesis.
D)   natural selection.E) A) and B)
F) A) and C)

Question 3

The first anatomically modern humans (H. sapiens), to reach the Americas are called Denisovans.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 4

Identify and describe the four key evolutionary changes that occurred during hominin evolution and why is each important?

Accepted Answer

Fossil hominins are grouped together wit...

Question 5

The study of the various processes that bones and stones undergo in the course of becoming part of the fossil and archaeological records is called

Accepted Answer

A)   archaeology.
B)   paleontology.
C)   taphonomy.
D)   topography.E) A) and B)
F) A) and C)

Question 6

The Denisovans are a population of

Accepted Answer

A)   early Homo erectus found in the Republic of Georgia.
B)   Pleistocene hominins whose bones have been found in Africa and in Southeast Asia.
C)   Pleistocene hominins known only from ancient DNA recovered from three tiny fossils found in a cave in Russian Siberia.
D)   hominins ancestral to the early robust australopiths found in eastern Africa.E) None of the above
F) C) and D)

Question 7

A process in which natural selection is seen to operate among variant, related species within a single genus, family or order, is called

Accepted Answer

A)   species selection.
B)   gradualist transformation.
C)   reverse speciation.
D)   bipedalism.E) C) and D)
F) A) and B)

Question 8

Anatomically modern human beings are about how many years old?

Accepted Answer

A)   300,000 years old
B)   100,000 years old
C)   25,000 years old
D)   10,000 years oldE) A) and B)
F) A) and C)

Question 9

The role women play in food procurement in contemporary foraging societies suggests that a unique skill in the earliest human societies was the

Accepted Answer

A)   invention of endurance hunting techniques that enabled both men and women to travel long distances together.
B)   ability of women to arrange their reproductive lives around the demands of their food-gathering activities.
C)   ability of men and women to live apart from one another for long periods.
D)   ability of active, productive males to provision passive, unproductive females who stayed in base camps to tend offspring.E) A) and D)
F) None of the above

Question 10

It is now generally accepted that the earliest evidence for anatomically modern humans comes from

Accepted Answer

A)   Europe
B)   China
C)   Australia
D)   MoroccoE) A) and B)
F) A) and C)

Question 11

What characterizes the burial practices during the Upper Paleolithic period?

Accepted Answer

A)   They became less detailed.
B)   They were always limited to single bodies in a burial space.
C)   They became more elaborate.
D)   They refused to bury the dead.E) B) and C)
F) A) and C)

Question 12

The hypothesis that evolution from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens occurred gradually throughout the traditional range of H. erectus is the

Accepted Answer

A)   regional continuity model.
B)   replacement model.
C)   Asian origin model.
D)   mostly out-of-Africa model.E) A) and B)
F) A) and C)

Question 13

Richard Potts describes the evolutionary history of the human species as "survival of the generalist" because

Accepted Answer

A)   our species is narrowly adapted to a specific environment.
B)   our species had the plasticity to survive the extremes of rapidly fluctuating climates of the Ice Ages.
C)   our ancestors' gene-based ability to cope with small environmental fluctuations was exapted to cope with larger and larger fluctuations.
D)   b and cE) A) and B)
F) A) and C)

Question 14

Describe three different kinds of evidence that paleoanthropologists use for assigning fossils to different hominin genera. Use specific examples. How do these forms of evidence complement each other to provide a fuller picture of the evolutionary story?

Accepted Answer

Replacement model is the hypothesis that...

Question 15

The "Lucy" fossil is famous because

Accepted Answer

A)   she was the first australopith ever found.
B)   she left footprints that were discovered at the same time.
C)   her skeleton was 40% intact and undisturbed.
D)   the Beatles wrote a song about her.E) A) and B)
F) None of the above

Question 16

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)  recovered from a fossil hominin from Sima de los Huesos in northern Spain shows connections to the mtDNA of

Accepted Answer

A)   Ardipithecus ramidus.
B)   the robust australopiths.
C)   the gracile australopiths.
D)   the Denisovans.E) A) and B)
F) C) and D)

Question 17

As it has become increasingly clear to paleoanthropologists that human beings are the product of mosaic evolution,

Accepted Answer

A)   they have begun to pay attention to the earliest common features that define "human nature" in distant human ancestors.
B)   they are less willing to claim that a bundle of traits signifying "human nature" originated at one time among our distant ancestors.
C)   they are increasingly supportive of the "man the hunter" scenario.
D)   they are less willing to claim that either hunting or gathering was the force that drove the development of "human nature" in our distant ancestors.E) B) and D)
F) A) and B)

Question 18

The average Neandertal cranial capacity

Accepted Answer

A)   is larger than that of modern human populations.
B)   is smaller than that of modern human populations.
C)   averages about 1,400 cubic centimeters.
D)   suggests that the Neandertal brain was symmetrical.E) B) and D)
F) B) and C)

Question 19

Which of the following is NOT a typical feature of the skull of Homo erectus?

Accepted Answer

A)   Heavy brow ridges
B)   A cranial capacity of around 1,000 cubic centimeters
C)   An occipital bun
D)   A sagittal crestE) A) and C)
F) A) and B)

Question 20

Modern human beings in the Upper Paleolithic/Late Stone Age

Accepted Answer

A)   were more numerous and more widespread than were previous hominins.
B)   suffered many, many injuries.
C)   were the first hominins to move out of the coldest, harshest climates in Asia.
D)   relatively unhealthy.E) A) and D)
F) All of the above

Exam 4: What Can the Fossil Record Tell Us About Human Origins

The average Neandertal cranial capacity

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As it has become increasingly clear to paleoanthropologists that human beings are the product of mosaic evolution,

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The Denisovans are a population of

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Which of the following is NOT a typical feature of the skull of Homo erectus?

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Modern human beings in the Upper Paleolithic/Late Stone Age

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Anatomically modern human beings are about how many years old?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The study of the various processes that bones and stones undergo in the course of becoming part of the fossil and archaeological records is called

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The "Lucy" fossil is famous because

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Identify and describe the four key evolutionary changes that occurred during hominin evolution and why is each important?

Correct AnswerverifiedFossil hominins are grouped together wit...View AnswerShow Answer

The role women play in food procurement in contemporary foraging societies suggests that a unique skill in the earliest human societies was the

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) recovered from a fossil hominin from Sima de los Huesos in northern Spain shows connections to the mtDNA of

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The hypothesis that evolution from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens occurred gradually throughout the traditional range of H. erectus is the

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

What characterizes the burial practices during the Upper Paleolithic period?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Which of the following statements describes Neandertal culture?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

A process in which natural selection is seen to operate among variant, related species within a single genus, family or order, is called

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Richard Potts describes the evolutionary history of the human species as "survival of the generalist" because

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

It is now generally accepted that the earliest evidence for anatomically modern humans comes from

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The first anatomically modern humans (H. sapiens), to reach the Americas are called Denisovans.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Describe three different kinds of evidence that paleoanthropologists use for assigning fossils to different hominin genera. Use specific examples. How do these forms of evidence complement each other to provide a fuller picture of the evolutionary story?

Correct AnswerverifiedReplacement model is the hypothesis that...View AnswerShow Answer

The subfield of evolutionary studies that devotes attention to short-term evolutionary changes is

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

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Fossil hominins are grouped together wit...
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Replacement model is the hypothesis that...
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