Anthro

Apes first appear in Europe and Asia from about ________

17 Mya.

The earliest australopithecines first show up in the fossil record more than ______.

4 million years ago

Earth's age is:

4.6 billion years

Differentiate between absolute and relative dating techniques, giving one example of each.

Absolute dating is pinpointing the exact date when something took place or came from. An example the book gave was knowing the exact date when the American Civil war and Revolution war took place. Some techniques that absolute dating method are dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating. Dendrochronology is using a tree-ring to count the numerical age. Each ring represents one year of growth, so have 50 rings the tree is 50 years old. Relative dating technique is knowing what event came first but not having to specially know the date. Going off the Civil war and Revolutionary example, you know the revolutionary came first. You do not need to know the date to know that. Some technique's of relative dating is biostratigraphic dating and fluorine dating. Fluorine dating is comparing the accumulation of fluorine in human bones and animals from the same site. You can know that a bone that's been buried longer than the other by how much fluorine it has absorbed inside it.

Distinguish and discuss at least three absolute and relative dating methods used in biological anthropology. Provide some examples of such dating methods

Absolute dating method: dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating, radiopotassium dating, fission track dating, amino acid dating, paleomagnetic dating, electron spin resonance dating, and thermoluminescence dating. Relative dating method: stratigraphic correlation, fluorine dating, Steno's law of superposition, biostratigraphic dating, and cultural dating

Name and briefly describe the three hypotheses of primate origins.

Arboreal hypothesis- The idea or proposition that unique traits of primates is an adaptation to living in the trees. Visual predation hypothesis- The idea or proposition that unique traits of primates arose as adaptations to prey on small animals and insects. Angiosperm radiation hypothesis- The idea or proposition that due to the availability of flowers and fruit following the spread of angiosperms, certain primate traits like visual acuity occurred.

Discuss the short-comings of using radiocarbon dating on older fossils and fossil sites?

C14 has a short half life rendering the dates most accurate for only the last 50,000 yBP

What period saw the proliferation of mammals?

Cenozoic

How do dating methods help to support the theory of natural selection and biological evolution?

Dating methods help to support the theory of natural selection and biological evolution because it helps us understand what the habitats were like, how plants and animals lived, major climate changes and evolutionary changes. By dating these fossils and objects we can figure out are past and how we came to be. Dating methods help put things in chronological order so we can see how things evolved and survived.

Discuss the first true primates and how they differ from modern primates today, and why they emerged (which hypotheses have been used to explain their emergence).

Eocene Euprimates- made possible to emerge due to climate change and global warming. High global temperatures and high global humidity led to expansion of evergreen tropical forest.

As discussed in Chapter 9, basal anthropoids are ________

Eocene primates that are the earliest anthropoids.

An increased ability to see greater distances is one of the adaptations to bipedalism and diurnal sleeping patterns.

False

Ecological evidence from the site where Australopithecus ramidus "Ardi" was found shows that early hominins lived in a forest.

False

Hunting and tool use was the foundational behavior of Hominini ________.

False

Orrorin tugenensis lived in a dry savannah mixed with jungle and woodland.

False

Proconsulids were Paleocene organisms that may have been the first primates.

False

Explain how an organism becomes incorporated into the fossil record (taphonomic and fossilization processes), contrast East African fossil sites from those in South Africa in terms of taphonomy.

Fossilization can occur when volcanic activity has buried remains in volcanic ash. Remains must stay in an oxygen-free environment, where nothing can access like scavengers the body and where bacterial activity and decomposition are limited. South Africa has caves where carnivores dropped their dead prey (the bones). Due to this, the bones where able to be persevered very well.

According to Larsen in Chapter 9, if you are examining the fossil remains of the genus Dryopithecus, they are most likely from where? _____

France.

Australopithecus garhi may be the ancestor of ______

Homo habilis.

Discuss the methods paleoanthropologists use to study fossils. Be able to list various types of fossils discussed in your textbook and in class lectures.

Methods paleoanthropologists use to study fossils: Surveys and mapping and Excavations and fossil recovery. Types of fossils: tyrannosaurus skeleton, ammonite, trilobite, fern, crab, soft-shelled turtle, eocene primate and fish.

Understand the basal anthropoids of the Eocene period and how they differ from the Oligocene primates. You should know at least three genera of Oligocene primates, specifically from the Fayum deposits and their contributions to the evolution of primates in general

Oligocene primates- oligopithecids, parapithecids, and propliopithecids. basal anthropoids- eocene primates that are the earliest anthropoids

Which of the following apes has been proposed as the last common ancestor of living African apes and humans?______

Ouranopithecus

In Chapter 9 and as discussed in class, Owen Lovejoy's "Provisioning hypothesis" proposes that _____________________________________________________

Owen Lovejoy's "Provisioning hypothesis" proposes that to enhance the survival of the mother and infant, monogamous males/fathers had to provide both food and protection from predators. This intern required them to have free hands for caring food causing bipedalism to arose.

As described in the geological time scale, the three eras that make up earth history are:

Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.

Understand the geological time scale in particular the Tertiary and Quaternary periods and their epochs and the fossil primates associated with the two periods.

Paleozoic- Permian, Devonian, Silurian, Ordovician, and Cambrain(Period=Quaternary) Mesozoic- Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic(Period=Quaternary) Cenozoic- Pliocene, Miocene, Oligocene, Eocene and Paleocene(Epoch)

The original continent that existed about 200 mya, from which the modern continents ultimately emerged, is called:

Pangaea

In East Africa robust australopithecines are also called _______

Paranthropus.

As we discussed in class and in your textbook, the two genera of propliopithecids discovered at Fayum Egypt include _________

Propliopithecus and Aegyptopithecus.

Why is punctuated equilibrium an important addition to natural selection?

Punctuated equilibrium an important addition to natural selection because it shows that not only can gradual change over time, like Darwin hypothesized, but it shows it can also have rapid change within long static periods. It shows that evolutionary change is diverse, it is not one thing. It also helps us understand that local, geographic factors or natural selection, plays a huge part to it.

The first recognizable ancestors of the lineage leading to humans include _______

Sahelanthropus tchadensis

How does Steno's law of superposition support relative and absolute dating methods?

Steno's law of superposition support relative and absolute dating methods by giving us an order of what came first. In Steno's law, the lower the layer, the older its age. By knowing this fact, we can determine what came first. This well place things in chronological order when dating. In relative dating, we just need to know what came first while in absolute dating, we use numbers to get an actual date. In absolute, if we already know the sequence from Steno's law, it will help us figure out the date. Example being if one fossil from one layer is from 50,000 years ago, we know that the upper layer(layer on top) can't be anything below 50,000.

Why is the Fayum depression in Egypt such an important site for understanding the origin and diversification of anthropoid primates?

The Fayum depression in Egypt is such an important site for understanding the origin and diversification of anthropoid primates because it helped answer long-standing questions along with producing one of the most comprehensive pictures of habitats from the past for any place and any time in the world. It also helped learn more about primates like Apidium and let researchers access deposits from million of years ago.

Discuss the anatomical changes that occurred in the bipedal hominin and how they reflect certain habitat adaptations, and then discuss the hypotheses that propose why the change occurred.

The anatomical changes that occurred in the bipedal hominin is the loss of walking on four legs and grasping capabilities in hands to hold on to branches. When living in wooded areas like forests, grasping abilities in hands and feet will help you move along in the trees. Shifting to unwooded areas like grasslands, you do not need those abilities. A good example is the Ardi. This specie was caught in the middle of transitioning. They lost the ability of grasping in feet, their feet became more rigid and now can propel itself forward when walking like a humans but they still had the grasping ability in their hands. These features indicated that they lived in both in the trees and on the ground. One of the reasons or hypothesis why there was a shift from quadrupedalism to bipedalism is because the forests where changing. Forests where becoming fragmented which caused the forest to become patchy and food more dispersed. Energy had to be used more and hands needed to be free to be able to pick up food.

Discuss the two obligate traits, including specific anatomical features, that first emerge in the pre-australopithecines to eventually become firmly established in australopithecines.

The two obligate traits that first emerge in the pre-australopithecines to eventually become firmly established in australopithecines are nonhoning canine-premolar chewing complex and bipedalism due to the foramen magnum being positioned at the base of the skull. These features can be clearly shown in Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Femurs of Orrorin tugenensis were also found which showed a long femoral neck and a groove for the obturator externus muscle which are features presented in humans and hominin ancestors.

As discussed in your textbook (Chapter 8), most of the fossils discovered in Africa come from the eastern and southern parts of the continent. Why is this?

These areas provided better preservation.

According to Larsen in Chapter 10, reduced sexual dimorphism in early hominins is an evidence for cooperation and pair bonding.

True

Based on postcranial morphology, Ardipithecus ramidus "Ardi" was adapted to life in trees and on the ground.

True

Biological anthropologists have posited the visual predation hypothesis, which proposes that primate traits arose as adaptation to preying on insects and small mammals.

True

Carpolestes is a fossil mammalian genus considered to be an ancestor to Adapids and omomyids.

True

In trying to understand primate evolution, it is clear that certain primate traits were responses to the acquisition of fruit during the Cenozoic period; this assumption is proposed as the angiosperm radiation hypothesis. _______

True

Plesiadapiforms are also called proprimates.

True

The evolution of apes began in Africa and continued into Europe and Asia during the Miocene.

True

A Y-5 molar pattern is the most distinctive feature of ape dentition, clearly distinguishing apes from Old World monkeys.

True.

A diastema is a space between the canine and the first premolar in the lower jaw in some primates which are highly sexual dimorphic.

True.

Anthropoids fossil groups are characterized by an eye orbit fully enclosed by bone.

True.

Large eye orbit is an anatomical feature that you would expect to find in the fossil remains of a nocturnal primate species.

True.

The English surveyor who developed the technique of stratigraphic correlation between regions was:

William Smith

As discussed in Chapter 9, like that of Dryopithecus, a modern gorilla mandible has __________

a Y-5 molar pattern, low rounded cusps, large canines, and a diastema.

To reconstruct and interpret evolutionary changes, it is crucial to place each fossil in time. This is called:

a chronological sequence

An index fossil is:

a fossil used to categorize a stratigraphic layer.

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

a nondivergent big toe, a double arch and a rounded heel.

The molecular clock has been useful to determine the phylogenetic relationships of species based on the assumption that:

a species accumulates genetic differences over time at a constant rate.

According to Larson (2014) in Chapter 8, which is the following is NOT an ideal environment for fossilization?

acidic soil

According to Larsen in Chapter 9, which Eocene organisms had clear primate characteristics like a postorbital bar, opposable thumbs, nails, and a large brain?

adapids and omomyids.

A rapid temperature increase about 55 mya created tropical conditions around the world, resulting in the _________

adaptive radiation of Euprimates.

According to our class discussion and Larsen in your textbook in Chapter 9: Monkeys underwent massive__________in the Pliocene and Pleistocene.

adaptive radiation.

A hearth is discovered with bone fragments in it. What method might be used to date the bone?

amino acid method

Bipedalism's advantages over knuckle walking (quadrupedalism) include _____

an increased ability to see greater distances and ease of transporting food.

During the Miocene epoch of the Cenozoic era, there was an adaptive radiation of which kind of primate? ______

apes.

Thick dental enamel in ________ helps with crushing food.

australopithecines

A layer of stratigraphy in one location overwhelmingly represents one species, while the same species is discovered in a similar stratigraphic layer fifty miles away. What method is used to provide an estimate of age for this layer and this species?

biostratigraphy

According to Larsen (Chapter 10), a hominin is defined as having two obligate behaviors _______

bipedal locomotion and nonhoning chewing complex.

Chemical analysis of the _________ can provide information on diets and habitats.

bones and teeth

A mummy is discovered whose tomb includes cloth, food, and other organic remains. What dating method might be used to date the tomb?

carbon 14

Cultural dating can be used to date:

ceramics

During the Holocene artifacts like began to appear.

ceramics

Fluorine dating is an example of what type of dating method?

chronometric

According to Larsen in Chapter 9, Chororapithecus is considered the ____________

common ancestor of African apes and hominins.

According to Larsen in Chapter 10: Humans use their molars for _______.

crushing.

At a site in the American Southwest, you find only a single ceramic pot in association with an individual within a burial. You can use the pot to date the burial based on:

cultural dating, since the pot must be specific to a known culture and time period.

A wooden tomb is discovered with a well-preserved mummy inside. What method could be used to date the tomb?

dendochronology

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

diastema.

Eras are:

divisions in geologic time divided into periods and epochs

Coinciding with the appearance of early hominins about 5-10mya, the climate was:

dry and seasonal

Euprimates represent the ___________

first true primates.

Some of the best information on climate history is based on the study of:

foraminifera

The Patchy Forest hypothesis proposes that _____

forests became patchy and food more dispersed.

The shift from the Miocene, which had greater diversity of ape species and fewer monkey species, to a living assemblage with greater diversity of monkey species and fewer ape species may be the result of ______.

global climate changes that resulted in cooler, wetter environments less optimal for ape species.

The arboreal hypothesis proposes that defining primate characteristics were adaptations to life in the trees, such as __________

grasping hands and feet, developed vision, and greater intelligence.

The time it takes for 50% of an unstable isotope to decay to a stable form is called the:

half-life

Fission track dating can provide dates when used on which type of material?

igneous rock

Explain why Electron-spin resonance (ESR) is so important in determining age of archaeological sites?

it can date older fossils from a few thousand to a million year old

The discovery of Kenyanthropus platyops was important mainly because ______

it showed diversity in the hominin fossil record 3.5 mya.

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

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

Along with other distinct traits robust australopithecines had __________ adapted for grinding food.

large premolars and molars and large temporalis muscles and a sagittal crest

Which of the following is an adaptive characteristic of bipedalism?

longitudinal arch in the foot.

As discussed in lecture notes and in Chapter 9 in your textbook; the northern African fossil primate called Biretia may be an early anthropoid, based on the morphology of its ____

lower premolar tooth.

During crucial periods of human evolution, the Pleistocene was characterized by:

massive glaciation, then warm interglacials.

Stratigraphic correlation is:

matching strata by chemical composition and color from several sites across distances.

Which of the following is a derived (character) trait of Sahelanthropus tchandensis?

nonhoning chewing complex.

Distinguish primates from the Eocene and how they may be related to the Oligocene primates. Be able to distinguish omomydis from adapids in terms of their characteristics.

omomydis differ from adapids in haveing large and projecting central lower incisors, small canines, and wide variation in the other teeth. Eocene- had clear primate charateritcs like digits with nails, grasping, convergent eye orbits.

Sivapithecus is widely recognized as an ancestral member of which ape lineage? ______

orangutan.

The study of fossils is called?

paleontology

The best-accepted hypothesis for the dispersal of African monkeys to the New World is ___________

platyrrhines evolved from anthropoids in Africa that migrated across the Atlantic to South America.

Paleocene organisms that may have been the first primates were _____

plesiadapiforms.

Which dating method would be the most appropriate for establishing the age of a volcanic ash layer from an early hominin site in eastern Africa?

potassium-argon dating

Igneous rock can be dated with which of the following methods?

radio-potassium dating

Crucial to creating a fossil record of a species is a:

representation

Thermoluminescence dating can provide dates when used on which types of materials?

sediment, stone, and ceramics

Distinctive traits of robust australopithecines include ______

small front teeth and large back teeth and a big face and a sagittal crest.

Hominins have canines that are _________

small, blunt, and nonprojecting, with no diastema.

If fossil species A is consistently recovered from geological deposits beneath layers containing fossil species B, then A is considered older than B. This relative dating technique is based on what principle of:

superposition

The study of what happens to an organism's remains after death is:

taphonomy

Electron spin resonance dating can provide dates when used on which type of material?

teeth

What is the most important feature of climate?

temperature

Studies of temperatures during the Cenozoic era suggest that:

temperatures have fluctuated, sometimes greatly, over time.

Paleosols and fauna in the Middle Awash Valley of Ethiopia show that:

the earliest hominins lived in wooded settings

in the 1600s Nicolaus Steno proposed:

the law of superposition

Taphonomy is the study of:

the processes that affect an organism after death

What is the basic difference between relative and absolute dating?

the use of actual number of years

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

thighbones (femora) that angle in toward the knees.

Explain what is uniformitarianism and its contribution to geology as a science?

uniformitarianism- the theory that changes in the earth's crust during geological history have resulted from the action of continuous and uniform processes.

Paleontologists find a fossil ape with long arms. What type of environment can they infer it inhabited?

woodland