Module 5 Anthropology

Where do New World monkeys live?

Central and South America

Which of the following happened during the Oligocene epoch?

Proto-monkeys became the most numerous primates.

The most useful dating technique to establish the age of tools made of deer antler and whale bone recovered at sites associated with the earliest inhabitants of North America would likely be

carbon-14 dating

The primate suborder Haplorrhini includes which types of primates?

monkeys and apes

During the Eocene, proto-monkeys branched off from other haplorrhines by becoming

more diurnal

Carbon dating is most dependable for

specimens more recent than 40,000 years.

What is the most exclusive classificatory unit of the zoological taxonomy?

subspecies

Which of the following statements about bonobos are true?

-Among bonobos, the strongest social bonds are among females. -Bonobos use sex to avoid conflict. Bonobos are about the same size as members of the smallest subspecies of chimpanzee.

Which of the following statements about apes and brachiation are true?

-Apes and humans likely had a brachiating ancestor. -Young apes brachiate. -Apes have longer arms than legs, which is adaptive for brachiation.

Which of the following statements about the behavior of chimps are true?

-Chimps are very vocal. -Chimps exhibit dominance relationships.

Which of the following are true of chimps?

-Chimps live in tropical Africa and range over a larger area than gorillas. -Chimps are omnivorous.

Which of the following statements about baboons are true?

-Female baboons form the stable core of the terrestrial monkey troop. -Male baboons typically leave their home troop for another near the time of puberty.

Which of the following statements about gorillas are true?

-Most of the gorilla's day is spent feeding. -Gorillas spend little time in the trees. -Gorillas live in social groups.

Which of the following accompanied the spread of angiosperms (flowering plants) at the start of the Cenozoic era?

-Primates spread along with the angiosperms. -This happened during a period of global warming.

Which of the following are traits of terrestrial, as opposed to arboreal, Old World monkeys?

-Terrestrial monkeys are larger than arboreal monkeys. -Sexual dimorphism tends to be more marked in terrestrial than in arboreal monkeys.

Which of the following statements about catarrhines are true?

-They include Old World monkeys, apes, and humans. -They are sharp-nosed as opposed to flat-nosed.

Which of the following statements correctly describe what molecular anthropologists do?

-They study the genetic relationship between apes and humans. -They reconstruct waves of human migration. -They examine evolutionary relationships among ancient and contemporary populations.

Which of the following are studied as part of taphonomy?

-the scattering of remains by carnivores and scavengers -the possible fossilization of remains -the distortion of remains by natural forces

Which of the following statements best describes the limitations of potassium-argon (K/A) dating?

It cannot be used to directly date bone or plant remains, but instead it is limited to use on ash layers that are older than 500,000 years.

Which of the following statements about dendrochronology are true?

It involves the study and comparison of patterns of tree-ring growth. It is a type of absolute dating.

Which of the following statements best describes the limitations of carbon-14 dating?

It only works on organic materials, such as plant and animal remains, and the specimens cannot be older than 40,000 years old.

Which of the following statements about New World monkeys is true?

Many have prehensile tails.

With the rising temperatures of the long period of global warming that began around 56 m.y.a., tropical forests spread throughout which of the following?

North America, Europe, Asia

How does paleoanthropology differ from paleontology?

Paleoanthropology focuses on the study of ancient human life forms, while paleontology includes the study of all kinds of ancient life forms.

Which of the following are characteristics of orangutans?

They live in jungles and feed in trees. Males typically climb, rather than swing through, trees. Adult males weigh more than twice as much as females.

If an anthropologist needs a metric (quantitative) estimate of the age of a pottery shard, which method of dating should be used?

absolute dating

There are two major types of dating techniques: one type that establishes a sequence for recovered artifacts and a second type that establishes a numeric age for them. The name for the type of dating that establishes a numeric age is

absolute dating

Volcanic ash specimens are often used to extract potassium argon samples to determine the age of layers in which early hominid fossils have been found in Africa's Great Rift Valley. This kind of dating technique, which establishes dates in numbers, is known as

absolute dating

What is the term used to describe any method of dating fossils which establishes a precise age range?

absolute dating

Similar traits can arise if species experience similar selective forces and adapt to them in similar ways. These similarities are called

analogies

Which of the following tend toward orthograde posture?

apes and humans

What is the term for locomotion that involves just two feet?

bipedal

Sometimes called the pygmy chimpanzee,________________ live in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

bonobos or bonobo

A technique called ______ measures radioactive decay and is commonly used to date fossilized plant or animal remains.

carbon-14 dating

Which of the following comprise the great apes of the hominoid superfamily?

chimpanzees orangutans gorillas

Which of the following best describes the process by which similar traits can arise if species experience similar selective forces and adapt to them in similar ways?

convergent evolution

Wood and charcoal samples from archaeological sites can be dated using tree-ring dating, also known as

dendrochronology

Which of the following have strepsirrhine nostrils?

dogs

When male monkeys kill infants after entering a new troop, they are

enhancing their individual fitness.

Among baboons, core groups tend to be comprised of

females

One technique for comparing the ages of fossilized bone fragments involves measuring the amount of a key element absorbed from the groundwater. This technique, called ______ analysis, revealed what has become known as "the Piltdown hoax."

fluorine

What is a type of primate that is a skilled brachiator and lives primarily in trees?

gibbon

Which of the following is the smallest and most agile of the apes?

gibbons

The largest primate that ever lived is

gigantopithecus

monkeys, apes, and humans are

haplorrhines

The similarities used to assign organisms to the same taxon are called

homologies

Which of the following belong to the hominoid superfamily?

humans and apes

Nyanzapithecus alesi is significant because it

is the most complete extinct ape skull known in the fossil record.

Which of the following is the broadest of the classificatory units of zoological taxonomy?

kingdom

Which of the following types of anthropology compares and analyzes DNA from various primates such as chimpanzees and other apes, extinct human groups such as Neandertals, and various modern human groups to determine evolutionary relationships?

molecular anthropology

Which of the following is the largest and rarest subspecies of gorilla?

mountain gorilla

The platyrrhines are

new world monkeys

Which of the following is the most solitary of the great apes?

orangutans

Genetic relatedness based on common ancestry is known as

phylogeny.

One commonly used radiometric dating technique is used to date layers of volcanic ash found above and below strata containing fossil remains in Africa's Great Rift Valley, especially for a significant time period in human evolution dating to around 2 million years ago. That dating technique is known as

potassium-argon (K/A) dating

The most useful dating technique to establish the age of a fossil skull identified with Homo erectus, a species that originated about 1.9 million years ago, would likely be ______ of associated rock.

potassium-argon(K/A) dating

The type of dating that establishes a sequence for the artifacts and fossils found at a site, but that does not establish a specific age for these items, is called ______ dating.

relative

At an archaeological site you discovered a stone spear point in one geologic layer and a bronze ax head in another geologic layer. Because the layer containing the stone spear point is deeper than the layer containing the bronze ax head, you conclude that the stone point is older than the ax head. What kind of dating technique does this illustrate?

relative dating

What are the two major types of dating techniques used to establish the dates of fossils and ancient artifacts?

relative dating and absolute dating

What is the term for the measure of an individual's genetic contribution to future generations?

reproductive fitness

What is the term for differences between male and female anatomy and temperament?

sexual dimorphism

A common relative dating technique that involves the study of layers of sediments is

stratigraphy

We know from geology that layers in the earth are sequenced in such a way that the oldest layers are the deepest, and on this basis we can date artifacts and fossils found in shallower layers as younger than those found in the deeper layers by using the principle of

stratigraphy

What are the two most common types of relative dating techniques?

stratigraphy and fluorine absorption analysis

The primate suborder ______ includes lemurs and lorises.

strepsirrhini

The study of the processes that affect the remains of dead animals is known as

taphonomy

The assignment of organisms to categories according to their relatedness and resemblance is known as

taxonomy

Baboons and many macaques are _______ monkeys.

terrestrial

What aspect of the fossil remains of Nyanzapithecus alesi allowed placement of it as a new species?

the teeth

Currently, there is/are ____ surviving, but critically endangered, species of orangutan.

two

Which of the following is the smallest subspecies of gorilla and the animal you normally see in zoos?

western lowland gorilla

The physical and biochemical similarities between humans and apes are recognized in which of the following?

zoological taxonomy