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

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

Remains of animals that have replaced by rock are called

paleos
artifacts
fossils
relics

All hominins were

knuckle-walkers
very tall
bipedal
large-brained

All australopithecines have been found in

North America
South America
Asia
Africa

Lucy is remarkable because

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

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.

Neanderthal Man
Turkana Boy
Lucy
Handy Man

Homo erectus made stone tools called

handaxes
arrowheads
atlatl darts
Oldowan choppers

At the site of Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia

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

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

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 remains represent ritual deposition of the dead
whether Homo erectus had language
whether the handaxe "Excalibur" rightfully belongs to Arthur Pendragon

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

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

Evidence for Neanderthal care and sympathy is

healed wounds
sympathy cards
cut marks on bone
excalibur

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

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

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

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

Hunting

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

Hunting is thought to have

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

Gorilla diets

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

Richard Wrangham thinks

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

Nina Jablonski argues that

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

Nina Jablonski thinks

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