ANTH 026 Early Hominin

The robust australopithecines lived roughly ______ million years ago.

2.5 to 1

Australopithecus africanus lived roughly ______ million years ago

3 to 2

Australopithecus africanus lived roughly ______ million years ago.

3 to 2

The species Australopithecus anamensis dates within the _______ million years ago range.

4 to 3

The earliest australopithecines first show up in the fossil record around:

500,000 years ago.

The oldest suggested possible hominids, dating back close to 7 million years ago, are classified as

All of the above.

The oldest known robust australopithecine species is

Australopithecus aethiopicus.

The fossil known as "Lucy" belongs to the species

Australopithecus afarensis.

Which hominin has the largest molar teeth?

Australopithecus boisei

The best evidence for an association of stone tools with the genus Australopithecus is for the species

Australopithecus garhi.

The three species of robust australopithecine are

Australopithecus robustus, Australopithecus boisei, and Australopithecus aethiopicus.

The Oldowan Complex is a part of the

Lower Paleolithic.

Many hypotheses regarding the origin of bipedalism have assumed that the first bipeds evolved in the savanna. Why has this idea been recently challenged?

New evidence shows that the earliest hominids evolved in a woodland environment.

The ravine in northern Tanzania where many early hominin fossils have been recovered (often referred to as the "cradle of humankind") is:

Olduvai Gorge.

Robust australopithecines are sometimes called

Paranthropus.

Australopithecus africanus has been found in

South Africa.

Bipedal locomotion preceded the appearance of large brains during the course of hominin evolution.

True

The Laetoli footprints demonstrate that the foot of Australopithecus afarensis was humanlike in having a:

all of the above

The sagittal crest functions to

anchor chewing muscles.

The patchy forest hypothesis proposes that forests

became patchy and food more dispersed

A hominin is defined as having the following two obligate behaviors:

bipedal locomotion and nonhoning chewing complex.

The tool-use model of hominid origins has been rejected because

bipedalism existed long before stone tools were used.

An increased ability to see greater distances is one of the adaptations to:

bipedalism.

The foundational behavior of hominins was

bipedalism.

Bipedalism's advantages over quadrupedalism include:

both a. and c.

Among living nonhuman primates, which is Homo sapiens' closest relative?

chimpanzee

The Oldowan Complex includes tools like

choppers, cobbles, flakes, and bone tools.

The earliest hominins probably lived in which kind of environment?

complex patchy habitats

In an ape, the space between the upper lateral incisor and the canine that accommodates a large, projecting lower canine is a:

diastema.

The diversity of the hominins included increasingly specialized

diets.

Australopithecus robustus's large masticatory complex (large molars, face, and muscles) indicate an adaptation to

eating foods requiring heavy chewing

Evidence indicating that Orrorin tugenensis was bipedal comes mainly from which part of the skeleton?

femur (thighbone)

The most definitive evidence for bipedalism found in Laetoli is

footprints of bipedal individuals

In which of the following species would you expect to find a large projecting canine tooth with a sharp edge on its back?

gorillas

Humans use their molars for:

grinding and crushing.

The dentition (i.e., teeth) of Australopithecus afarensis is

intermediate in structure between modern apes and modern humans

Australopithecus robustus was likely the longest-surviving species of australopithecine in South Africa. It had

large molars, a big face, and a sagittal crest.

Ecological evidence from the site where Ardi was found shows that early hominins

lived in a forest.

Owen Lovejoy's provisioning hypothesis proposes that:

monogamy and food provisioning created the necessity for bipedalism

Which of the following are among the "seven steps of bipedalism"?

opposable big toe, length of the leg, S-shaped spine, downward-facing foramen magnum

According to the Larsen text (and based on the research of Philip Reno), some scholars argue that early homininsshow reduced sexual dimorphism, which is evidence for cooperation and likely for:

pair bonding.

Ardi's intermediate form of bipedality included the use of

palms and feet to move along tree branches.

Sahelanthropus, Orrorin, and Ardipithecus are generally considered

pre-hominids.

The Laetoli site, in Tanzania, is most famous for

preserving fossil hominin footprints

Imagine you have found a skull with an ape-size brain, very large back teeth, and large cheekbones. Based on this information, this is most likely a specimen of

robust australopithecine.

The discovery of Kenyanthropus platyops, with its somewhat unexpected morphology for its time period, was important mainly because it

showed diversity in the hominin fossil record 4-3 mya.

Given that chimpanzees and humans are closely related, it is not surprising that early pre-australopithecines such as Ardipithecus ramidus had a

small brain, a long forearm, and evidence of climbing ability.

Hominins have canines that are:

small, blunt, and nonprojecting, with no diastema.

The canine teeth of Australopithecus afarensis are

smaller than modern apes, but larger than modern humans

Peter Rodman proposed that human evolution was linked to ________ while Owen Lovejoy suggested the best explanation was ________.

the increased efficiency in walking as forests transformed to wooded environments; the ability to carry food in order to provision family members

The MOST obvious features defining the robust australopithecines compared to other early hominins are

the presence of a large sagittal crest and flaring zygomatic

A sagittal crest is frequently found in

the robust australopithecines.

You find a fossil that you are sure shows evidence of bipedalism. You know this because which of the following anatomical traits is present?

thighbones that angle in toward the knees

All the early hominins from Africa older than 2 million years possessed small brains, the size of apes'.

true