ANTH UNIT 2 Reading 2
What was the cranial capacity of Au. afarensis?
430 cm3, close to the size of an average chimp
How old is the human ancestor known as Sahelanthropus tchadensis?
6 to 7 million years old
Which of the following statements best describes the time period during which Homo habilis and Homo erectus overlapped?
The species overlapped between 1.9 and 1.4 m.y.a., but after that only Homo erectus endured to perhaps 0.5 m.y.a. (or 500,000 years ago).
Which of the following correctly describe the hominins who lived at Terra Amata?
Their tools were made from local materials. They used tree saplings to support huts. There were hearths within their shelters.
How do the discoveries at Dmanisi compare to the Nariokotome boy?
There are notable skull similarities.
In which of the following ways did the Neandertals deal with the cold environment that characterized the Würm glacial?
They hunted mammoths, reindeer, and woolly rhinos. They made more elaborate tools. They wore clothes.
Which of the following statements about the Denisovans are true?
They lived in Asia from roughly 400,000 to 50,000 years ago. The split between ancestral Neandertals and Denisovans happened when Neandertals spread to the west and the Denisovans headed east.
Which of the following statements best describes early anatomically modern humans (AMHs)?
They originated in Africa.
What is the best explanation of why Homo erectus expanded out of Africa into Europe and Asia?
They were following the animals they hunted for meat.
Which of the following statements best describes the behavior of Homo floresiensis?
This small-brained species hunted elephants, made tools with small blades mounted on wooden shafts, and controlled fire.
True or false: A newly reported Au. anamensis skull from Ethiopia, dated to 3.8 m.y.a. indicates that Au. anamensis and Au. afarensis overlapped in time.
True
The species Homo erectus is associated with which of the following important archaeological sites?
Zhoukoudian
The Oldowan chopper was
a by-product of flaking.
A new species of hominin was discovered in 1999 in Ethiopia that may have used stone tools to butcher animals earlier than any human ancestral species had been thought to use them. What was the name given to this early tool user from 2.5-2.6 million years ago?
Australopithecus garhi
The genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus are both part of what hominin group?
Australopiths
How Homo erectus is like modern humans?
Both share a similar height and body shape.
A human jawbone recovered in 1980 from the Baishiya Karst cave on the Tibetan Plateau, in Xiahe county, China, has recently been identified as a(n):
Denisovan.
In 1891 the fossil find called "Java man" made ______ famous as one of the first scientists to identify a "missing link" between apes and humans.
Eugene Dubois
True or false: Our knowledge of Au. afarensis is based on fewer than 10 fossil specimens representing only 2 individuals discovered at Laetoli and Hadar.
False
Among the anatomical contrasts that distinguish H. erectus from modern humans are
a large brow ridge.
What evidence of bipedalism was discovered at a famous site in Laetoli, Tanzania?
a trail of ancient footprints preserved in volcanic ash
What does the name Homo habilis mean?
able man
The original Homo heidelbergensis jaw was discovered in modern-day
Germany.
H. rudolfensis overlapped in time with which of the following hominins?
H. erectus H. habilis
Which of the following groups stayed within a particular territory and did not engage in long-distance trade?
Neandertals
In 2010 scientists identified the Denisovan hominin group as most closely related to
Neandertals.
The human ancestral species ______ is associated with the cave site in China known as Zhoukoudian, which contained hearths and a large amount of tools, animals bones, and the fossilized remains of more than 40 individuals.
Homo erectus
This human ancestral species ______ might date as far back as 1.9 million years ago (m.y.a.) and continued to exist until about 500,000 years ago.
Homo erectus
Which of the following ancestral human species had an average cranial capacity of around 900 cm3?
Homo erectus
Which of the following human ancestral species is associated with the tool type known as Acheulean?
Homo erectus
What does the term Paleolithic mean?
Old Stone Age
The stone tools that date to about 1.8 million years ago that were found in Tanzania in the early 1930s by the Leakeys are called ___ pebble tools.
Oldowan
What is the name for the simple stone tools dating to about 1.8 million years ago that were first discovered by L. S. B. and Mary Leakey?
Oldowan tools
What was the discovery site (in 1986) of the female Homo habilis fossil find known as OH62?
Olduvai
The first representative of Homo habilis was found at
Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
A significant amount of fossil evidence has been found that relates to the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis. Which statement best describes the number of fossil specimens found?
One site yielded about two dozen specimens; another site yielded fossil specimens representing 35-65 individuals.
Why were the "underground astronauts" who excavated H. naledi remains from the Rising Star cave all young, slender women?
Only such a body type could navigate the narrow passages leading to the fossils.
Acheulean tools were part of which of the following tool making traditions?
Paleolithic
Which of the following differentiates Paranthropus from Australopithecus?
Paranthropus had a thicker face and a more rugged skeleton. Paranthropus had a sagittal crest. Paranthropus had a bigger skull and larger back teeth.
Which of the following hominins had an anatomical feature called a sagittal crest?
Paranthropus robustus Paranthropus boisei
The geological epoch known as the ________, which began about two million years ago and ended about 11,700 years ago is considered the epoch of early human (as opposed to merely hominin) life.
Pleistocene
What is the name of the possible human ancestor that was discovered in Chad (Central Africa) and dates to 6-7 million years ago?
Sahelanthropus tchadensis
What trait of the fossil remains found in the Liang Bua cave led paleoanthropologists to assign a new species, H. floresiensis?
Small stature
Which site in southern France is important because it yielded evidence dating to 300,000 years ago of the ability to build huts and establish seasonal camp sites?
Terra Amata
Which statement best describes the famous fossil find known as "Lucy"?
The Lucy skeleton, which is 40 percent complete, is that of a female hominin and has been dated to about 3.3 m.y.a.
Which of the following is a true statement about the genus Ardipithecus?
The ancestral relationship of Ardipithecus to Australopithecus has not been determined.
Archaeological evidence of intentionally made fire has been found in Israel dating back almost 800,000 B.P. and in Spain dating back 800,000 B.P. Based on these dates, which human ancestral species would most likely have been the first to master fire?
Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis
Which of the following statements best describes the earliest migration of human ancestors out of Africa?
Homo erectus was the first species to range out of Africa for hunting and gathering.
The species named ______, discovered in Indonesia, had a cranial capacity smaller than that of a chimpanzee.
Homo floresiensis
With a cranial capacity of 600 to 700 cubic centimeters (cm3), which of the following species was initially identified as the first tool maker and as the first member of the genus Homo?
Homo habilis
Which statement best describes the general shape of the pelvis and spine of Australopithecus?
The australopith pelvis is shorter and bowl shaped, and the spine is curved, similar to that of humans.
How does the brain size or cranial capacity of the australopiths compare with Homo sapiens and chimps?
The australopiths' brain size was only slightly larger than that of chimps and was roughly one-third the size of Homo sapiens' brain.
Which of the following statements best describes the cranial capacity (brain size) of Homo erectus compared with the australopith average?
The average cranial capacity of H. erectus at about 1,000 cm3 was double the size of the australopiths.
The three subdivisions of the Pleistocene reflect
age of fossils
Fossil finds from Dmanisi, Georgia, dating to 1.8-1.7 million years ago (m.y.a.) are significant because they
are the earliest known ancestral hominin fossils found outside Africa.
Which statement best describes the cranial capacities of Homo sapiens and the australopiths?
The average cranial capacity of Homo sapiens is 1,350 cm3, and the cranial capacity of the australopiths ranges from 430 to 540 cm3.
The teeth of early hominins such as Australopithecus afarensis have been carefully analyzed to see if they are more like those of apes or humans. Which statement best describes the differences?
The canines of Au. afarensis are larger than those of humans and extend beyond the other teeth.
Which ability of Homo erectus provided the best protection against cave predators?
control of fire
The position of the foramen magnum in australopiths is centered under the base of the skull, which indicates that Australopithecus
could move bipedally.
Marcellin Boule claimed that the Neandertal found at La Chapelle-aux-Saints
could not straighten its legs for fully erect locomotion.
Fossil remains from several sites in Europe, Africa, and Asia dating between 850,000 and 200,000 years ago may represent species transitional between Homo erectus and Neandertals and anatomically modern humans. What species name has been assigned to this group?
Homo heidelbergensis
What is the name of the ancient hominin species dating to 2.4-1.78 m.y.a., and associated with the skull labeled KNM-ER 1470, which has an unusual combination of a large brain (775 cm3) and very large molars?
Homo rudolfensis
What ability set apart Homo erectus from Homo habilis and Paranthropus boisei?
Hunting ability
At the time that Neandertals were first discovered, what did scientists think of the discovery?
It was confusing; there was no framework for understanding evolution.
Which of the following statements about the diet of afarensis is true?
It was mainly vegetarian.
What are some characteristics of the oldest known hominin fossil in Europe?
It's from Spain. It's more than one million years old.
H. erectus remains have been found at which places?
Java Africa
The fossil of the flat-faced "man" that was discovered in 1999 by Maeve Leakey's research team and represented a new branch of the early human family tree was named
Kenyanthropus platyops.
The species known as Homo habilis was first discovered and identified by which famous team of paleoanthropologists in 1960?
L. S. B. and Mary Leakey
Which of the following paleoanthropologists made Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania famous by discovering and naming the first Homo habilis?
L. S. B. and Mary Leakey
A discovery in 1908 of a Neandertal skeleton turned out to be an old man with osteoarthritis, but it gave us the popular image of a cave man who cannot walk upright. What is the name of the famous site where this Neandertal was discovered?
La Chapelle-aux-Saints
Which of the following sites is associated with Neandertal remains?
La Chapelle-aux-Saints
Significant Australopithecus afarensis discoveries have been made in
Laetoli, Tanzania, and Hadar, Ethiopia.
Which statement regarding "Lucy" is true?
Lucy lived around 3 m.y.a., and about 40 percent of her skeleton was recovered.
Some _____ hominins evolved into a groups known collectively as australopiths.
Miocene
The stone-tool technology associated with Neandertals is called
Mousterian
Where was the first evidence of Neandertals discovered in 1856?
Neander Valley, Germany
Mousterian tools include a wide variety of stone scrapers and notched tools designed to make clothing from animal hides and to be used for sawing and piercing. Which ancient hominin group made these tools?
Neandertal
The average cranial capacity of which of the following species exceeded that of modern humans?
Neandertal
What is one characteristic of Neandertals?
Neandertal fossils have been found in a variety of places, including Siberia.
Which of the following statements is true about the skeletons of Homo erectus and modern humans?
The skeleton of H. erectus (below the head) was similar to that of modern humans.
Key hominin fossil discoveries announced in 2015 included
finds at South Africa's Rising Star cave of more than 1,500 bones, which have been assigned to the species H. naledi. a jaw fragment found in Ethiopia, dating to 2.8 m.y.a., that appears to be the earliest known member of the genus Homo.
How were Oldowan stone tools likely used?
for breaking open bones for marrow, and for digging up roots and insects to eat
The location of which opening at the bottom the skull of an ape or human ancestor indicates whether the species was bipedal or quadrupedal?
foramen magnum
The name for the place in the skull where the spinal cord joins the brain is the ______, and its placement in the species named "Toumai" or Sahelanthropus suggests that Toumai may have walked bipedally.
foramen magnum
What is another term for ice ages?
glacials
All of the South African australopiths probably descend from Au. afarensis, which was _____ in form, or from an (as yet undiscovered) South African version of Au. afarensis.
gracile
South African australopiths can be divided into two major groups based on bone structure. To which group does Australopithecus africanus belong?
gracile
What is the term for a body type that is slighter and less rugged?
gracile
Heavily enameled teeth suggest that the Au. anamensis diet likely may have included
hard, abrasive foods.
What are some physical characteristics of Neandertals?
heavy brow ridges slanting foreheads
The most notable aspect of the Nariokotome boy fossil was its
height
Announced in April 2019, fossilized teeth and bones from the feet, hands and thigh of at least three individual hominins, recovered from Callao Cave on the island of Luzon, Philippines, have been assigned to the species .
homo luzonensis
What are long warm periods between ice ages?
interglacials
What physical characteristic of Homo erectus allowed it to hunt longer distances?
longer legs
The group representing the common ancestors of Neandertals, Denisovans, and anatomically modern humans (AMHs)
separated into two lineages, one jointly ancestral to Neandertals and Denisovans, and the other ancestral to AMHs. began to split up around 460,000 years ago.
Lucy's arms suggest
significant time spent in trees.
The current prevailing view among scientists is that H. erectus
split into separate groups, one ancestral to the Neandertals and the other ancestral to anatomically modern humans (AMHs).
How did scientists relate the Denisovans to other groups?
studying their DNA
The structure of the pelvic, hip, leg, and foot bones of Au. Afarensis suggests
upright bipedalism.
The australopith known as Australopithecus sediba
was found by Matthew Berger, then a nine-year-old boy, in South Africa. is an almost complete skull and partial skeleton of an 11- to 12-year-old boy who stood 4′3″ (1.3 m.) tall.
Fossilized remains indicate that Orrorin tugenensis lived in what kind of environment?
wooded
The fossil known as "Lucy" is a partial skeleton of a bipedal walker. A more recently discovered fossil skeleton predates "Lucy" by more than a million years and is an even earlier bipedal walker. What is the name of this earlier species?
Ardipithecus ramidus
What is the name of the hominin skeleton that was discovered in 2009 and dates to 4.4 million years ago?
Ardipithecus ramidus
Of Ardipithecus and Australopithecus, which genus was probably the ancestor?
Ardipithecus was probably ancestral to Australopithecus.
Which statement most accurately describes the teeth of Australopithecus afarensis?
Au. afarensis had pointed premolars that are somewhat similar to an ape's.
What does it mean when scientists say that there was a high degree of sexual dimorphism in Australopithecus afarensis?
Au. afarensis males were taller and heavier than the females.
Both Au. africanus and Paranthropus probably descended from
Au. afarensis.
What is the species name of the oldest fossil child, known as "Lucy's Baby"?
Australopithecus afarensis
Which hominin species dates to between 3.8 and 3.0 m.y.a. and is associated with the sites of Laetoli, Tanzania, and Hadar, Ethiopia?
Australopithecus afarensis
In 1924, Raymond Dart identified the skull of a child belonging to a new ancestral species from a quarry in Taung, South Africa. What was the name he gave to this new species?
Australopithecus africanus
What was the species name given to the famous "Taung child" discovery, and which anatomist named it?
Australopithecus africanus; Raymond Dart
What is a sagittal crest?
A ridge on the top of the skull where large chewing muscles attach, found in species such as Paranthropus boisei
Which of the following Neandertal characteristics is/are considered adaptive in a cold climate?
A stocky build and long, broad noses
Neandertals were resistant to change and were suspicious of outsiders, but members of which group were innovators and had regional social networks?
AMHs
The oldest Homo habilis and Homo erectus fossils can be found on which continent?
Africa
What was the physical location of the three important early hominin discoveries of 2015?
All were in Africa.
The fossil specimens of "Ardi" (Ardipithecus) and "Lucy" both show anatomy built for bipedal walking, but one of these hominids was considered more primitive. Which of the following statements best describes their differences in anatomy?
Ardi's pelvis is transitional for use in arboreal climbing and bipedalism; Lucy's pelvis shows nearly all the adaptations needed for full bipedalism.
The early hominin species Ardipithecus had bipedal anatomy but still retained which characteristic of apelike anatomy?
Ardipithecus had a divergent big toe, like an ape's, and her feet lacked the archlike structure of later hominin feet.
A possible ancestor to Neandertals and anatomically modern humans (AMHs) has been discovered in northern Spain at Atapuerca dating to 780,000 years ago. The name given to this species is ______, although some scientists consider them to be Homo heidelbergensis.
Homo antecessor
Hunting was an important cultural behavior marking a significant step for a human ancestor. Which ancestral species does the fossil record indicate was the earliest habitual hunter?
Homo erectus
The Acheulean hand ax, associated with the species ______, represents a type of tool that requires a mental template in the mind of the maker, a significant advance in human evolution.
Homo erectus
Which of the following are true about Homo luzonensis?
It has been dated to 67,000-50,000 B.P. Body size was likely small.
What is the foramen magnum and why is it important?
It is the hole through which the spinal cord attaches to the brain; its placement on the skull indicates whether or not a creature was bipedal.
What important information regarding Homo erectus was revealed by the fossil find known as the Nariokotome boy?
The find suggested that the boy as an adult might have reached a height of six feet.
Which of the following statements about Kenyanthropus playtops are true?
The fossil find was made in northern Kenya. It provides evidence that at least two hominin lineages existed at the same time. It is dated to 3.5 million years ago.
Which of the following is true about H. naledi?
The fossils have been dated somewhere between 335,000 B.P. and 236,000 B.P.
What do the teeth and jaws of Australopithecus afarensis suggest about its diet?
The large back teeth and thick lower jaw (mandible) suggest the ability to chew and process hard, brittle foods.
Which of the following is true of similarities and differences of the anatomical features of Au. afarensis with those of apes and humans?
The teeth and skulls were more apelike, while the pelvis and leg bones were more humanlike.
Which statement best describes the anatomy and characteristic movement of the possibly ancestral species known as Orrorin tugenensis, which dates to about 6 million years ago?
The thigh bone suggests bipedal walking, and the upper arm bone suggests tree-climbing skills.
A fossil discovery known as "Lucy's Baby" was found in northern Ethiopia. Which statement best describes this specimen?
The toddler bones date to about 3.3 m.y.a. and, compared to Lucy, includes more skull and skeletal material.
Which statement best describes the sexual dimorphism of Australopithecus afarensis?
The weight of adult males was likely twice that of the females.
The search for ____ is the most probable explanation for Paleolithic-era home-range expansion.
meat
Which of the following are likely social changes associated with a diet reliant on meat?
pair bonding increased male investment in children a gender-based division of labor
Which dating technique was used to establish that the age of the volcanic ash at the Laetoli site was 3.6 million years old?
potassium KA dating
Which of the following was the reason why Eugene Dubois went to the Indonesian island of Java?
to find a transitional form between apes and humans
True or false: "The Levant" refers to countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean, including Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.
true
True or false: All Neandertal mtDNA derives from an ancient AMH woman who mated with a Neandertal male.
true
True or false: The Kanjera site provides the earliest, and very complete, evidence for persistent reliance on meat within the hominin diet.
true
True or false: The brain size or cranial capacity of Australopithecus afarensis was only slightly larger than the average chimpanzee brain size.
true
True or false: The earliest member of the genus Homo, dated to 2.8 m.y.a., was found in Ethiopia, and the earliest stone tools, dated to 3.3 m.y.a., were discovered in Kenya.
true