Biological Anthropology Exam 1 Study
You may have been taught the scientific method as a simple and linear process. In reality it is a much more complex, creative, and dynamic process. Which of the following processes may also be included in the scientific process?
-Explore the literature on a topic -Sharing data and ideas with others -Write up research for feedback and peer review -Develop new questions and hypotheses based on the results of study
As discussed in the Nova episode, What Darwin Never Knew: About what percentage of human DNA codes for proteins (i.e. are "genes")?
2%
The most common form of male patterned baldness is an X-linked recessive trait. Bob's dad and both of his grandfathers we bald by the time they were 30 and Bob wants to know what his chances of also going bald are. We will help bob out by walking through it with him in a multi-step question. We are assuming biological relatedness among Bob and the family members mentioned. We will use B for "Baldness", so "B" is the dominant allele and "b" is the recessive allele. Question 3: We can now answer Bob's burning question. What is the probability that he will have male patterned baldness (in other words, what are the odds that he will inherit the "bald" gene)?
50% - Because his mother is a carrier, there is a 50/50 chance he will get the recessive gene from her and be hemizygous recessive, and therefore will go bald.
Look at the large eyes (each one as large as its brain) of the tarsier. Below are two different explanations for the evolution of large eyes in this primate species. Which is a PROXIMATE level explanation and which is an ULTIMATE level explanation A. Tarsiers are nocturnal, but lack a reflective eye layer due to their diurnal ancestry. So large eyes enable more light to enter the eyes. B. The ability to see in the dark means that they can be active at night and hunt for insects when their own predators are inactive.
A is proximate and B is ultimate
____ occurs when the number of individuals in a population drops dramatically due to some random event.
A population bottleneck
As discussed in the Nova episode, What Darwin Never Knew: What is a "switch" in DNA?
A section of noncoding DNA that turns genes on and off.
Gene
A segment of DNA on a chromosome that codes for a specific trait
Individuals that are blood type A have ____ antigens on the red blood cell surface, and ____ antibodies in their blood.
A; anti-B
A woman with the B blood type has a child who has the AB blood type. Which of the following genotypes must the father have in order to have an AB child with a B woman?
AA
Which of the following is the BEST definition of a scientific hypothesis?
An explanation for observed phenomena based on experience and background research.
Which of the following is the BEST definition of a scientific theory?
An explanation of observations that addresses a wide range of phenomena and are supported by many lines of evidence
Heterozygous
An organism that has two different alleles for a trait
Homozygous
An organism that has two identical alleles for a trait
Phenotype
An organism's physical appearance, or visible traits.
Not really a subfield as it spans all anthropological discipline by drawing on anthropological theories, methods, and findings to solve real-world problems.
Applied Anthropology
Excavates and analyses the material past to reconstruct the lifeways of past societies.
Archaeology
Kathleen Kenyon's excavations of the ancient city of Jericho
Archaeology
Why are group selection arguments ("good for the survival of the population/species") usually flawed and NOT an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS)?
Because individuals who "cheat" will be the ones who survive and pass on their genes. Over time the population will predominantly have the "cheater" gene and the "sacrifice" gene will disappear from the gene pool
A synonymous mutation, won't cause a change in the resulting protein. Why is this?
Because it is a point mutation that does create a change in nucleotide, but the resulting codon still codes for the same amino acid as the original codon.
Focuses on study of human origins, evolution, and biological variation.
Biological Anthropology
Jan Goodall's research on the behavior of wild chimpanzees
Biological Anthropology
Nina Jablonski's research on the adaptive significance of skin pigmentation to UV radiation exposure
Biological Anthropology
Which scientist is known for developing a system of taxonomy, including a method of giving each organism two names, such as Homo sapiens for humans?
Carolus Linnaeus
What does transfer RNA (tRNA) do?
Carries a corresponding amino acid to the mRNA codon
Who was the naturalist who spent five years on the HMS Beagle?
Charles Darwin
Focus on similarities and differences in ways of life among living human societies.
Cultural Anthropology
Margaret Mead's research on gender and socialization among Samoan adolescents
Cultural Anthropology
As discussed in the Nova episode, What Darwin Never Knew: Why do the finches on the Galapagos Islands have differently shaped beaks on different islands?
Each island has a different type of food source and the beaks are adapted to that food.
____ is best defined as evidence that is verified by experience and observation (rather than derived primarily from logic or theory).
Empirical
When Europeans explored and colonized much of the world during the so-called "Age of Discovery" (1400s-1700s), their belief that their own culture was better than others was used to justify the subjugation of non-European societies. This belief is regarded as
Ethnocentrism
A scientific theory is nothing more than a guess.
False
All traits in an organism are adaptations.
False
Archimedes' buoyancy principle, which is useful for such things as density calculations and designing ships, is an example of a hypothesis.
False
Because evolution is so incremental and takes place on a large time scale it is not possible to study it in real time.
False
Darwin's ideas about evolution and Mendel's research in genetics are combined into what we now call the idea of blending inheritance.
False
Identical twins share identical genetic material (same alleles and genotypes), therefore they will have identical phenotypes regardless of the environment in which they are raised.
False
In the evolutionary synthesis, Mendel's theory indicates how traits are passed from one generation to the next, while mutation explains where variation originates.
False
Only academics trained in science should utilize the scientific method.
False
Point mutations are changes in multiple letters (multiple nucleotides) that together change the genetic code.
False
Scientists rarely work with others; they typically work in isolation.
False
The largest organelles in a cell are the mitochondria.
False
The majority of human traits are influenced by a single gene.
False
The work of Darwin and Mendel were immediately accepted by scientists of their time.
False
Who created the discipline of American anthropology?
Franz Boas
If one side of the DNA ladder includes the sequence CTAATGT, what will be the complementary base configuration for this sequence?
GATTACA
____ refers to the study of how various aspects of cultural or biological life intersect and influence one another.
Holism
All of the following are questions that a biological anthropologist might address EXCEPT
How have languages diversified over time?
Which two scientists proposed uniformitarianism, an important idea in geology?
Hutton and Lyell
As discussed in the Nova episode, What Darwin Never Knew: Where are the vast majority of the differences in DNA between chimpanzees and humans located?
In the "switches" (regulatory DNA), especially concentrated in areas coding for the brain.
Which researcher laid the groundwork for later taxonomy by encouraging careful attention to detail, including consideration of plants' and animals' many attributes?
John Ray
Benjamin Whorf's research on grammatical structure of the Hopi Language
Linguistic Anthropology
Studies human language - e.g. structure, evolution, and the relationships between language, thought, and culture.
Linguistic Anthropology
In 1974, Donald Johanson found the remains of a 3.2-million-year-old fossilized skeleton in Ethiopia that he nick-named ____.
Lucy
Which process results in four haploid daughter cells?
Meiosis
The process of evolution that occurs when certain phenotypes confer an advantage or disadvantage in survival and/or reproductive success is called
Natural Selection
This medical anthropologist and physician has worked in Haiti to treat diseases, like tuberculosis and cholera. As an anthropologist, he contextualized the suffering of his Haitian patients in relation to the historical, social, and political forces that impact Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Paul Farmer
Which of the following is a tenet of Darwin's theory of natural selection?
Populations adapt to different environments over time
When a pregnant mother and her baby have incompatible ____ blood types, the mother's antibodies break down the newborn's red blood cells. When this happens, a doctor can administer treatments to prevent pregnancy complications and hemolytic disease in the baby.
Rhesus (Rh)
Using X-ray crystallography, ____ provided the original image that clearly showed the double helix shape of DNA.
Rosalind Franklin
While James Watson and Francis Crick are widely credited with discovering the molecular structure of DNA, it was really the pioneering work of scientist ______________ that lead to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA.
Rosalind Franklin
Why do lemmings commit mass suicide by jumping into the Arctic Ocean?
They don't. It was a staged scene in a documentary that led to the public belief that this is the case.
In the scientific method, predictions need to have testable variables (components you can measure and compare, in other words, they need to be testable). What were the variables that Tinbergen and his team used to generate a prediction to test their hypothesis that black headed gulls eggshell cleaning behavior is an adaptation to reduce predation risk?
They predicted that distance of eggshells from nest (variable 1) would correlate with chick mortality due to predation (variable 2)
While home for winter break, you start telling your grandmother about your biological anthropology class. She once heard about a man who became a bodybuilder and then produced muscular children, and she asks you to explain how this could happen. What correct information could you give her?
This is an example of Lamarckism, which has some kernels of truth about evolution but is not a wholly accurate theory.
Which scientist is known for writing about limitations of the earth's food supply and its effect on population size?
Thomas Malthus
Which process produces a strand of mRNA?
Transcription
The process in which messenger RNA is read and an amino acid chain is formed is called
Translation
Which process produces a string of amino acids (aka a protein)?
Translation
A beneficial mutation is a change in the DNA that provides some sort of advantage to an individual at a particular time.
True
ABO blood types are an example of a Mendelian trait.
True
Although bacteria are commonly associated with illness, not all bacteria are harmful.
True
Biological anthropology deals with all aspects of human biology, both past and present
True
DNA replication is described as "semi-conservative" since the result is two separate double-stranded DNA molecules, each of which is composed of an original "parent" template strand and a newly synthesized "daughter" DNA strand.
True
Darwin's ideas helped stimulate research in the fields of biology, genetics, comparative anatomy, and biological anthropology.
True
Derived from Greek, the term "anthropology" means the study of humans.
True
Evolution is more like a tree than like an escalator.
True
Gene flow (aka admixture) in humans has been so extensive throughout out history as a species that there are no distinct genetic populations and humans are all genetically similar enough to be classified in the same subspecies.
True
Genetic drift refers to random changes in allele frequencies from one generation to the next.
True
Homologous traits are traits that closely related organisms share because they both inherited the trait from a common ancestor.
True
In a simplified example of eye color inheritance, B stands for the allele for brown eyes and is dominant. Blue eyes are represented by the recessive allele b. A child who inherits one of each allele from her parents will have the genotype Bb and therefore have brown eyes.
True
James Hutton disagreed with biblical estimations of Earth's age. In contrast to biblical estimates of a few thousand years, Hutton estimated that Earth was several million years old.
True
Microevolution refers to changes in allele frequencies within breeding populations (that is, within a single species).
True
Most mutations in humans exist in somatic cells.
True
Most mutations occur in somatic cells and thus will not be passed on to future generations.
True
One thing to look for when determining whether a trait is adaptive is if the trait is associated with a cost.
True
People who are heterozygous for sickle cell produce enough round red blood cells to avoid the symptoms of sickle cell anemia, and have enough sickle cells to provide protection from malaria.
True
Scientific hypotheses should generate testable predictions/explanations.
True
The HMS Beagle, whose path is seen here, circumnavigated the globe.
True
The assertion that each parent provides one allele for any inherited trait is known as the law of segregation.
True
The end result of DNA replication is that the number of chromosomes are doubled so that the cell can divide into two.
True
The style of locomotion shown here is the earliest and most profound difference between humans and other animals.
True
The term hominin refers to modern-day humans and our fossil relatives that are more similar to us than they are to chimpanzees.
True
As discussed in the Nova episode, What Darwin Never Knew: What was the "one big problem" with Darwin's theory?
Understanding HOW evolution works
The most common form of male patterned baldness is an X-linked recessive trait. Bob's dad and both of his grandfathers we bald by the time they were 30 and Bob wants to know what his chances of also going bald are. We will help bob out by walking through it with him in a multi-step question. We are assuming biological relatedness among Bob and the family members mentioned. We will use B for "Baldness", so "B" is the dominant allele and "b" is the recessive allele. Question 2: What is Bob's mom's genotype (she has a luxurious full head of hair)?
XB Xb
The most common form of male patterned baldness is an X-linked recessive trait. Bob's dad and both of his grandfathers we bald by the time they were 30 and Bob wants to know what his chances of also going bald are. We will help bob out by walking through it with him in a multi-step question. We are assuming biological relatedness among Bob and the family members mentioned. We will use B for "Baldness", so "B" is the dominant allele and "b" is the recessive allele. Question 1: What is Bob's dad's genotype for this trait?
Xb Y
This military officer traveled through Central Asia and discovered many of the trade routes used in the Silk Road. He is one of the first examples of someone who attempted to systematically study and document cultural differences among different groups.
Zhang Qian
Down syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is caused by ______________.
a nondisjunction event
All of the following are true about recessive traits and their inheritance in a family (as represented on a pedigree), EXCEPT
a parent that has that trait will have a child with that trait.
Alelle
a variation of a coding region
Forces of evolution
account for all the genotypic variation observed in the world today.
In humans, height is an example of ...
all of these apply to human height (continuous trait, polygenic trait, adult phenotype is decided by a combination of genes and environment)
In population genetics, _____________ refers to the ratio or percentage of one allele of a given gene compared to the other alleles for that gene in a population. In other words, the ratio of dominant alleles to recessive alleles in the population.
allele frequency
Alternate versions (copies) of a gene, that may result in different phenotypic expressions of a trait, are
alleles.
All of the following are parts of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) EXCEPT
amino acid
Proteins are composed of
amino acids
Genetic conditions caused by an unexpected (or abnormal) number of chromosomes, like Down Syndrome or an unexpected combination of sex chromosomes (XXY, XXX, and XO) are known as
aneuploid
Proteins that coat the surface of red blood cells are called
antigens.
The practical application of anthropology theories, methods, and findings to solve real-world problems is known as ____ anthropology.
applied
The study of culture in the past, based on material remains, is part of which branch of anthropology?
archaeology
Which process occurs when selection works against the extremes of a trait and favors the intermediate phenotype?
balancing (or stabilizing) selection
While sickle cell anemia has devastating effects to people who are homozygous recessive for the disease. Yet the recessive allele remains in some populations at a high frequency because heterozygous individuals have an advantage over both homozygous dominant and homozygous recessive individuals. This is an example of __________.
balancing selection
Which subdiscipline of anthropology would research why darker skin pigmentation is more prevalent in high ultraviolet (UV) contexts, while lighter skin pigmentation is prevalent in low UV areas?
biological anthropology
When two heterozygous parents reproduce (e.g. Bb), what type(s) of offspring can they produce?
both heterozygous and homozygous
Crossing-over of parts of chromosomes...
can increase the number of genetic combinations in populations
A scientific hypothesis must be
capable of being refuted. testable. an explanation for observed phenomena.
The nucleotides in the mRNA are read as triplets, which are called
codon.
Primates and opossums both have grasping feet with opposable big toes ( but humans are the one primate that has lost this trait). Given that most other mammals do not have this trait, it is most likely that this shared trait is an example of
convergent evolution
Several forensic anthropologists have dealt with the aftermath of Argentina's "Dirty War" (1970s and 1980s), during which many people disappeared. Which of the following techniques would NOT be appropriate for anthropologists to use in attempting to find and identify these individuals?
creating a glossary of the local language, using methods of linguistic anthropology
What are the four branches of anthropology?
cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology
What is the specific shape of DNA known as?
double helix
Offspring that can reproduce successfully to have offspring of their own are called ____ offspring.
fertile
In biology, ______________ is defined as individuals who can reproduce successfully and have offspring of their own.
fertile offspring
Darwin studied species of __________ in the __________ Islands when coming up with his ideas about evolution.
finches; Galápagos
All of the following is true about anthropology EXCEPT that it
focuses on exotic places
Your best friend's great-uncle went missing in action during his Pacific tour of duty during World War II. Your friend wants to find out what happened to these enlisted men and women and to bring them home. What course of study would you suggest that your friend pursue in college?
forensic anthropology
A segment of DNA that codes for RNA, and can vary in length from a few hundred to as many as two million base pairs in length best defines a(n)
gene
The gene for sickle-cell anemia is found at a rate of 10% in West African blacks, 0% in American whites, and 5% in the descendants of West African blacks and American whites. Which force of evolution explains this pattern for the gene?
gene flow
What are the four forces of evolution?
gene flow, genetic drift, mutation, and natural selection
In population genetics, _____________ refers to the entire collection of genetic material in that population that can be passed on from one generation to the next.
gene pool
Your history professor is interested in genealogy and tells your class that, on his mother's side, he is descended from the original Amish population, a religious and insular group of people in Pennsylvania who tended to marry within their social circle. He also notes that many members of his extended family have the condition polydactyly, an extra finger or toe. The high frequency of polydactyly in your professor's ancestry is an example of __________ in the Pennsylvania Amish.
genetic drift
If I were to tell you that in a population of 1,000 people, 32% were homozygous dominant for tongue rolling, 45% were heterozygous, and 23% were homozygous recessive, what information am I giving you?
genotype frequency
All of the following are studied in science EXCEPT
ghosts and luck
Subspecies are subpopulations of species that
have their own unique phenotypes and are geographically isolated from one another, but are capable of successful interbreeding.
To organize DNA in a cell it undergoes coiling. First, DNA is first wrapped around proteins called ____. This creates a complex called chromatin, which resembles "beads on a string". Next, chromatin is further coiled into a ____, of which human body cells typically have 46.
histones; chromosomes
Paleoanthropology is the study of
human ancestors and their evolution.
Biometricians believed that
individual mutations of hereditary units could never account for the spectrum of variation seen in many traits.
Prior to the modern synthesis, many scientists subscribed to the concept of Lamarckian inheritance, which proposes that...
individuals would acquire changes in their lifetimes and pass those changes onto their offspring.
According to Linnaean taxonomy, what is the MOST specific category and level shared by humans, gorillas, and howler monkeys?
infraorder Anthropoidea
Intervening sequences that are removed during RNA splicing are known as
introns
The human chin might be an example of a morphological pleiotropy because...
it likely evolved as a side effect to other structural changes in the jaw and serves no adaptive function in and of itself.
A prediction about what will happen under certain conditions (but not how or why) is known as a ____.
law
An example of an applied area of anthropology that draws on all four subdisciplines to understand the interrelationship of health, illness, and culture is ____ anthropology.
medical
Crossing-over that results in heritable altered chromosomes occurs during...
meiosis
The fruit fly studies conducted by Thomas Hunt Morgan demonstrated that most mutations
merely increased variation within populations.
These parts of the cell are often referred to as "powerhouse centers" because they produce energy for the cell in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
mitochondria
These anthropologists use genetic data to test anthropological questions about such phenomena as: human origins, dispersals, evolution, adaptation, demography, health, disease, behavior, and animal domestication.
molecular anthropologists
After doing a genetic analysis on your respective __________, you and your roommate learned that you shared the same maternal ancestor 15,000 years ago in Europe.
mtDNA
What is the only source of new genetic material?
mutation
At root, human evolutionary theory consists of two propositions: (1) that the human species is descended from other similar species and (2) that ____has been the primary mechanism of biological adaptation.
natural selection
What did Darwin believe was the primary cause of evolution?
natural selection
Transcription occurs in the
nucleus
Transcription happens in the __________ and translation happens at a _________ in the cell cytoplasm.
nucleus / ribosome
Genetic pleiotropy is when...
one gene has multiple effects (codes for different traits)
The nucleus, mitochondria, and the golgi body are examples of ___ in a cell.
organelles
What was the name for the idea that combined inheriting acquired characteristics with the idea that particles from different parts of the body make their way to the sex cells?
pangenisis
Mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes can affect crucial processes such as DNA repair, which can lead to breast and ovarian cancers. Although BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations have an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance, it does not mean an individual will develop cancer if they inherit a pathogenic allele. This phenomena is an example of
penetrance.
This picture shows two variants in __________ or physical appearance of seven characteristics of the pea plant.
phenotype
The presence of over 700 genes involved in height determination is an example of (a)
polygenic trait.
Which technological invention of the 1980s revolutionized DNA data collection by allowing scientists to amplify millions of copies of DNA from a very small amount of template DNA?
polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
All of the following are true of meiosis EXCEPT that meiosis
produces daughter cells identical to the parent cell.
These types of single celled organisms include bacteria and archaea. Additionally, their DNA and organelles are not surrounded by individual membranes.
prokaryote
Genotype
set of alleles that an individual has
There are two types of cell division (cellular replications), mitosis and meiosis. Mitosis occurs in ___________ and meiosis occurs in __________.
somatic cells / gametes
Organisms who are capable of breeding because they are biologically and behaviorally compatible to produce viable, fertile offspring are called
species.
A new mutation that pops up at random in a family lineage it is known as a ____ mutation.
spontaneous
Which of the following did Darwin draw from to come up with an idea of evolution?
taxonomy and demography
All of the following are ways that the "complex flow" depiction of the scientific method differs from the "simple" depiction often portrayed in textbooks, EXCEPT that the "complex flow" chart mentions
testing hypotheses.
For most complex traits...
the genotype interacts with factors in the environment to produce a phenotype
An example of incomplete dominance is
the manifestation of pink (Rr) vs. red (RR) snapdragon flowers.
Sexual selection is an aspect of natural selection in which
the selective pressure affects reproductive success (the ability to breed and raise offspring) rather than survival.
A scientific way of knowing that is used to explain and predict a wide range of phenomena based on repeated testing best defines a ____.
theory
Fragments of DNA that can "jump" around in the genome are known as
transpons
Which of the following is found in RNA but not DNA?
uracil
All of the following is true about cultural anthropologists EXCEPT they
use excavation to collect data.
Lamarckian inheritance posited that offspring
would inherit characteristics that were acquired during their parents' lifetimes.
