Chapter 9: How Did We Get Here?

Change over time in a species is called

cultural relativity
copy editing
evolution
mutagen

Archbishop James Ussher estimated the age of the earth and humans to be around

4.5 billion years old
6,000 years old
4.5 million years old
12,000 years old

Remains of animals that have replaced by rock are called

relics
fossils
paleos
artifacts

All hominins were

large-brained
very tall
knuckle-walkers
bipedal

All australopithecines have been found in

North America
South America
Africa
Asia

Lucy is remarkable because

she is the oldest hominin
much of her post-cranial skeleton was found
she discovered the first australopithecine in 1924
she is the oldest australopithecine

The opening for the spinal cord at the base of the skull is called

the foramen magnum
bipedality
medulla oblongata
laetoli

Skeletal evidence for bipedalism includes

the position of the foramen magnum
the shape of the pelvis
the orientation of the femurs
the lack of a divergent or grasping toe
the Laetoli trackway
all are correct

Homo habilis is a consistent and well-understood fossil.

False
True

Homo erectus had a similar body stature to modern humans, but had a smaller brain size.

True
False

A Homo erectus specimen from Lake Turkana in Afrca in which much of the post-cranial skeleton is preserved in called.

Lucy
Handy Man
Neanderthal Man
Turkana Boy

Homo erectus made stone tools called

handaxes
Oldowan choppers
atlatl darts
arrowheads

At the site of Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia

there is an Australopithecine trackway
very primitive examples of Homo erectus were discovered
Neanderthals buried their dead
Turkana Boy was discovered

Neanderthals had slightly larger brains than humans.

False
True

The Pleistocene from around 2.5 million to 12,000 years ago consisted of

a series of ice ages
the invention of agriculture
the fusion of Africa and South America
a series of Australopithecine footprints

The Neandertha genome has been sequenced, and it overlaps with some modern human populations.

True
False

The debate at The Pit of the Bones in Spain is

whether Homo habilis should be considered another Australopithecine
whether the handaxe "Excalibur" rightfully belongs to Arthur Pendragon
whether Homo erectus had language
whether the remains represent ritual deposition of the dead

We know Neanderthal buried their dead based on

skeletons that are oriented in manner
fully articulated skeletons
both are correct!

Evidence for Neanderthal cannibalism is

cave paintings representing cannibalistic rituals
stone tool cut marks on Neanderthal bones
written historical records
fully articulated skeletons

Evidence for Neanderthal care and sympathy is

cut marks on bone
excalibur
sympathy cards
healed wounds

Neanderthals overlapped in time with modern humans and interbred with them.

True
False

Compared to Archaic humans AMH’s have

smaller browridges
a smaller brain on average
a more domed-shaped skull
all are correct

Mitochondrial DNA is passed on

by recombining with nuclear DNA
from mother to offspring
only to daughters
only to sons

One of the first cases to link people to people living in the past was

the Syrian hamster revolution of 1918
Homo habilis
the Romanov case
the OJ Simpson trial

Hunting

is not interesting to paleoanthropologists since chimps also get most of their calories from meat
is at least hundreds of thousands of years old
started during the Industrial Revolution
started in the last 10,000 years

Hunting is thought to have

done very little
been invented around 5,000 years ago
arisen in gorillas first
helped fund the cost of the hominin brain

Gorilla diets

are insufficient to fund a bigger brain
are supplemented with cooked foods
are similar to human diets
are high in protein

Richard Wrangham thinks

cooking with fire provided extra energy to fund a larger brain
humans should eat more like gorillas
cooking foods ruins their nutrients
raw food diets are better for humans

Nina Jablonski argues that

sweat glands and furlessness are unrelated
human water sweat glands developed in response to a more open environment
furlessness in humans is a response to parasite load
humans sweat much like other mammals

Nina Jablonski thinks

fire burned off human hair
we inherited watery sweat from our Syrian hamster forebears
humans have very few sweat glands
increased pigmentation was a response to hominin furlessness