Biological Anthropology Unit 1
The discovery of _______________ made it difficult for biblically driven scholars to deny changes during the history of the Earth.
dinosaur fossils
Linnaeus' system of classification of plants and animals was innovative in the sense that it __________.
enabled scientists to make sense of the patterns of relationships between animals
Science is empirical and relies on _______ and ________.
evidence; experimentation
Biological anthropology, at its core, seeks to understand human _______________.
evolution
Using new evidence, scientists can __________ a previously held hypothesis.
falsify
The sex cells are also known as __________.
gametes
If you were interested in investigating the genetic basis for a particular body structure in a vertebrate, what class of genes would you examine?
homeotic (Hox) genes
The Information Age considers genes as ______________, which is a limited metaphor for how genes function within our bodies.
information storage
The Galapagos were the perfect setting for Darwin to observe the effects of evolution because they were __________.
islands with diverse habitats and isolated breeding populations
Which of the following is NOT used by biological anthropologists to address research questions?
language
As part of the scientific method or process, a hypothesis __________.
leads to experimentation to support or refute it
Evolution and creationism conflict in their origin stories of humanity. A creationist's view of the origin of humans relies on an Earth that is ____________.
less than 6,000 years old
Anthropometry is the __________
measuring of bodies
Many scientists held views related to evolution before Darwin, but he provided the ____________ behind it.
mechanism
The Church's stance accepting that Indians of the New World shared a common creation with men of the Old World helped advance the idea of ______________.
monogenism
When one uses chemistry to help date a hominid fossil or genetics to understand ancient disease, this would be considered a(n) ____________ approach.
multidisciplinary
Of the twenty different amino acids that function as the building blocks for proteins, the nine essential ones __________.
must be obtained from protein in the diet
Natural selection, as described by Darwin, acts upon variation, the raw source of which is ____________, which is a concept Darwin did not understand.
mutation
The process that favors the survival of the most reproductively fit organisms is known as __________.
natural selection
Lamarckianism involves the idea that creatures in the wild acquire traits by means of __________.
need and use
Understanding human behavior became a critical component of early physical anthropology. It began by observing the behavior of _________________.
non-human primates
In the scientific method, _______ precedes the formulation of every hypothesis.
observation
Understanding the human skeleton and landmarks associated with every bone falls to the __________.
osteologist
A(n) __________________ examines the bones and fossils of ancient human populations for evidence of disease.
paleopathologist
There was once much scientific debate about whether Neandertals represented a truly separate species from modern humans, a "race," or simply modern individuals who had suffered from some kind of disease. What specialist could examine the remains to rule out whether these individuals suffered from a disease?
paleopathologist
A ___________ is a conceptual framework used by scientists to understand a body of evidence.
paradigm
In Europe, most physical (biological) anthropologists were initially _____________ who were interested in anatomy.
physicians
Which of the following is the best technique for amplifying small quantities of DNA?
polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
By studying the variation within and between groups of organisms, one can better understand the species as a whole. This is the premise of __________.
population genetics
Within biological anthropology, a _____________ studies nonhuman primates to obtain a better understanding of human evolution.
primatologist
Science is considered a _________ guided by observation and deduction leading to a testable hypothesis.
process
The basic classification of life on Earth is between __________.
prokaryotes and eukaryotes
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a double-stranded molecule found in the nucleus of a cell. What are the primary functions of DNA?
protein synthesis and replication
The church and religious people were outraged at Darwin for suggesting that existence was __________.
random
Meiosis differs from mitosis in that meiosis involves __________.
recombination
A prehistoric archeologist is primarily concerned with the time period before __________.
recorded written history
The Renaissance was important for the development of science because it was a time when __________.
scholars gained a strong sense of the extent of cultural and biological variation around the world
The issue that scientists have with teaching religion in public schools is not based on a disrespect of religion but on whether _______________________.
school science classes should teach students to think like scientists
The use of _______ cells in clinical studies has recently become controversial because they are sometimes obtained from human embryos.
stem
The nucleotide, the basic unit of DNA, is composed of a(n) _________, a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base.
sugar molecule
Linnaeus is credited for the classification scheme that biological scientists still use today. The units in this formal hierarchy are known as __________.
taxons
In 1610, Galileo Galilei was accused of heresy by the Catholic Church for presenting evidence for what revolutionary idea?
that the sun was the center of the solar system
Science in the Middle Ages followed the political, spiritual, and legal norms established by ________.
the Catholic Church
Trofim Lysenko campaigned to store the Soviet Union's wheat at low temperatures to make the seeds cold-tolerant. This experiment represented an attempt to apply the notion of __________ to agriculture.
the inheritance of acquired characteristics
Which of the following is of least interest to linguistic anthropologists?
the vocalizations used by animals
The animals of the Galapagos Islands were important in Darwin's thinking because of __________.
their resemblance to mainland South American creatures
The Theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics was discredited because it was found that evolutionary change within a given species actually __________.
took place over more than one generation and not within a generation
Stem cells found in human embryos are considered ____________, meaning they can differentiate into any cell type.
totipotent
The idea that geological processes today are the same as those in the past, and that slow, gradual change is the norm, is associated with which of the following?
uniformitarianism
Unlike prehistoric archaeologists, historic archaeologists focus on civilizations that left behind ______________.
writing
Why is behavioral genetics controversial, particularly when it comes to studying human behavior?
Because behavior is complex and can be influenced by multiple factors.
A major obstacle for Darwin and his predecessors regarding their ideas about evolution and natural selection was the ______________.
Church and religion
Which of the following arguments would paleoanthropologists most likely make in support of their research?
Comparisons between extinct and living human and nonhuman primate forms are necessary to understand the evolution of humans.
The belief in a single creative force in the universe is ____________.
Creationism
___________ is the total learned traditions of a group of people.
Culture
Guanine always chemically bonds with ________ in the formation of the DNA molecule.
Cytosine
Mutations that can be passed on from one generation to the next occur in the __________.
DNA
If you wanted to determine the base sequence of a gene, which tool would you use?
DNA sequencing
Louis Agassiz, whose own work was rendered obsolete by Darwin, was a very aggressive opponent of the idea of natural selection. Why was he such a staunch opponent?
Darwin's work failed to incorporate a divine creator.
_______________ is critical to establishing a hypothesis that can be tested.
Deduction
Physical anthropology taught in the 1930s and 1940s incorporated primate anatomy, behavior and ____________ to more completely understand humanity.
Ecology
___________ uses electrical current and agarose gel to uncover allelic variation.
Electrophoresis
The full weight and influence of Darwin's theory was not felt until the 1940s and 1950s, when ____________ integrated Darwinian evolution and other fields of biology.
Ernst Mayr
Cultural anthropology studies human societies from a cross-cultural perspective and uses _____________ to describe observational accounts.
Ethnography
If the design of humans is supernatural, as claimed by intelligent design advocates, then which of the following statements is true?
Faith supports supernatural creation.
_____________ is the study of human remains applied to historical and criminal contexts
Forensic Anthropology
The most direct forms of evidence for human ancestry in the prehistoric past are __________.
Fossil remains of the pre-australopithecines are found in what part of the world?
Darwin's general lack of understanding of _____________ forced him to admit that Neo-Lamarckians may be right about what they proposed.
Genetics
A researcher studying how humans have physiologically adjusted to the high altitude environment of the Himalayas is interested in ______________.
Human Adaptation
Which of the following is untrue regarding the structure of DNA?
It is a single-stranded molecule.
Which of the following is NOT true of Aristotle's "Great Chain of Being"?
It supposed a biological relationship based on ancestry of all living creatures.
____________ uses a genetic approach to human evolutionary science to understand genomic differences between humans and nonhuman primates.
Molecular anthropology
When Georges Cuvier proposed the theory of catastrophism, the event he had in mind was ___________.
Noah's flood
___________ study the fossil record of humans and nonhuman primates.
Paleoanthropologists
Michael Behe is a biologist and advocate of intelligent design. Which of the following claims does he make?
Science and faith are reconcilable.
____________ is critical to good science.
Testing
Which of the following developments during the Renaissance helped to establish scientific thinking in Europe?
The discovery of the New World exposed European thinkers to greater natural variation than they had previously imagined existed.
An important concept for Darwinian evolution was time. Darwin was able to use the theories of Malthus to help with his own theory. What observations had Malthus made that influenced Darwin's thinking?
The human population could grow rapidly if left unchecked and had the potential to outstrip its resources, yet, populations remain roughly stable.
What is an important difference between the theory of natural selection and intelligent design?
The theory of natural selection can be tested using the scientific method and intelligent design cannot.
Which of the following is a similarity between mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA?
Their genomes contain regions that do not code for anything.
Which of the following is true of mitochondria?
They generate energy for cellular functions.
Which of the following did Darwin and Wallace both agree on?
Thomas Malthus' ideas on population growth
Darwinian fitness refers to which of the following?
a measure of reproductive success
The diversification of one founding species into multiple species is termed __________.
adaptive radiation
The development of powerful telescopes and the work on motion and gravity by Kepler and Newton resulted in the Church abandoning its position regarding __________.
an Earth-centered solar system
The origins of western scientific thinking are often attributed to the _________.
ancient Greeks
Which of the following is considered a method of anthropology rather than a subfield of biological anthropology?
applied anthropology
If you are interested in how a society built roads, temples, or tombs, you would likely consult a(n) ____________________.
archaeologist
The material culture of past societies is used in __________ to study how people used to live.
archaeology
Archaeologists study the culture of a society through ____________ that are left behind
artifacts
While Darwin accepted the concept of __________ and the unit of selection as the __________, Wallace did not.
artificial selection; individual
When one honeybee transmits information to another honeybee about the location of a flower, this activity is under strong genetic control. Trying to understand the actions of the honeybee in this respect is a matter of __________.
behavioral genetics
Which of the following research problems would you expect an osteologist to investigate?
bone fragments unearthed on a riverbank
If you were concerned with the study of genetics at the basic building block level of the organism, you would be interested in __________.
cellular and molecular genetics
Although fieldwork is important to many anthropologists, major research is also completed using _______________.
collections in museums
What is a potential concern when recovering and amplifying DNA from ancient bones using PCR?
contamination
The three main functions of DNA are to replicate, to make proteins and to ____________.
coordinate the structuring of the bodies of organisms
Forensic anthropologists take their knowledge of osteology and paleoanthropology and apply it to __________.
criminal investigations
Most practicing anthropologists in the United States are __________________.
cultural anthropologists
The fluid-filled space within the cell and surrounding the nucleus is known as the ______________.
cytoplasm
