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 A105 Human Origins and Prehistory
A105 Exam 1 Answer Key

Best answers to the multiple choice questions are italicized.  The answers given for the short answer questions are very complete answers -- you don't necessarily have to put in everything I mention to get full credit.  However, they are your most reliable guide to what I'll be looking for should those questions show up again on the final :-). 

 
                 A105 Human Origins and Prehistory, Spring 2002
                                               Exam 1

Part I, Multiple Choice.  Choose the best answer to each question.  (1 point each.)

1.  A scientist who excavates and studies the physical remains of past human behavior is 
        a.  a sociocultural anthropologist
        b.  an archaeologist
        c.  an anthropologist
        d.  a palaeoanthropologist
        e.  a linguist

2.  The official position of the Catholic Church regarding evolution is
      a.  evolution did not occur.
      b.  evolution can explain small changes but not new species.
      c.  evolution is responsible for all species but humans.
      d.  evolution is no longer “just a theory;” evidence shows it occurred.
      e.  evolution is a sinful subject to investigate.

3.  Evolution is defined as a change in the genetic structure of a population over time, which we can sometimes see reflected in the phenotype.  Which of the following changes IS NOT an example of evolution in action?
     a. Dog breeders produce a variety of dog that has a totally black coat.
     b. One species of finch diversified into several when colonizing islands that had previously lacked birds.
     c. Over many generations, giraffes developed long necks through selection for the ability to reach leaves on high branches.
     d. Tree leaves change color before falling to the ground.
     e. All of these are examples of evolution in action.

4.  The pre-Darwinian worldview among most Europeans was that
     a. the earth has been changing constantly since creation.
     b. the earth has a young age.
     c. the earth is very ancient and has always been the same.
     d. the plant and animal species we see around us are fixed.
     e. both b and d.

5.  Plato’s contribution to evolutionary thought was the eidos.  This means that things in our world 
     a.   come from ideals in the mind of God.
     b.   are imperfect reflections of ideals that exist in an ideal world.
     c.   are constantly changing.
    d. are perfect.
    e. are real.

6.  Which of the following statements best characterizes the relationship between religion and science (defined as the study of nature) in the 1700s and early 1800s?
    a. Science and religion were seen as equally valid ways to explain the world.
    b. Scientists and religious people ignored each other.
    c. Relations were very tense, with armies marching to defend these beliefs.
    d. Creationists and evolutionists were constantly arguing over school curricula.
    e. Science and religion were not in conflict, because studying nature was a way to know God better.

Match each of the following scientists with their most important contribution.

7.  Cuvier  B                a.  uniformitarianism
8.  Malthus   D             b.  catastrophism.
9.  Lyell   A                  c.  inheritance of acquired characteristics.
10.  Linnaeus  E           d.  struggle for survival
11.  Lamarck  C          e.  binomial nomenclature

12. When medieval clerics and their successors ranked monkeys below apes, and apes below humans based on their degree of similarity to humans, this was part of which concept?
    a. fixity of species.
    b. the eidos.
    c. the Great Chain of Being.
    d. uniformitarianism.
    e. creationism.

13.  Which component of his theory did Darwin obtain from reading the work of Lyell?
    a. uniformitarianism and a longer history for the earth
    b. that parents pass characteristics to their offspring
    c. overproduction of offspring (more born than survive)
    d. the large amount of variation in living things
    e. he discovered that Lyell was a terrible writer

For the next two questions, assume that C is the allele for yellow seeds and c is the allele for green seeds.

14.  When Mendel performed his experiments with true-breeding yellow and green pea plants, he found that when these two lines were mated, all of their offspring (the F1 generation) had yellow seeds.  However, when individuals from the F1 generation were mated to each other, some of their offspring had green seeds, and some had yellow seeds.  This implies that green seed color is:
    a. heterozygous
    b. adaptive
    c. dominant
    d. recessive
    e. unfit

15.  In the experiment described above, what would the genotype be for the offspring of the true-breeding yellows and greens (the F1 generation)?
    a. Cc
    b. CC
    c. cc
    d. yellow
    e. green

16.  What was Darwin missing from his theory of natural selection?
    a. He didn’t understand the importance of variation.
    b. He didn’t have a mechanism for inheritance.
    c. He didn’t realize that traits are inherited.
    d. He didn’t know about “survival of the fittest.”
    e. His theory was complete and is still used today in its original form.

17.  How does evolution act on the overall design of bodies?
    a. joints evolve to have lots of mobility in all directions.
    b. limbs evolve to put most of the body weight on muscles to prevent bone breakage.
    c. bodies evolve to conserve energy by taking weight off muscles and putting it on bones.
    d. both a and b.
    e. Evolution only changes the outer appearance of animals.

18. When we speak of an individual’s fitness in an evolutionary sense, we are talking about
    a. how fast he/she can run a mile.
    b. how healthy he/she is.
    c. how many offspring he/she has in relation to how many offspring others have.
    d. how “worthy” the individual is.
    e. how intelligent he/she is.

19.  The four forces of evolution include
    a. gene flow, mutation, dominance
    b. natural selection, convergence, gene drift
    c. parallelism, gene flow, mutation
    d. mutation, genetic drift, independent assortment
    e. genetic drift, gene flow, natural selection

20.   At what level does natural selection operate?
    a. it acts to preserve species.
    b. at the level of local populations.
    c. it operates on individuals.
    d. at the level of the nation or continent.
    e.   at the level of single family groups.

21.  What is the first step in most modern archaeological projects?
    a. Applying for grant money
    b. Surveying the landscape to find sites in the project area
    c. Excavation of your site
    d. Literature search and defining your hypothesis to investigate
    e. Surface collection of archaeological materials

22.  If you were dating an archaeological site with materials consisting ONLY of faunal remains, stone artifacts, hearths, and human bones, in sediments with no volcanic materials, what would be the best method to use to get a relative date for your site?
    a. biostratigraphy/faunal dating
    b. radiocarbon (C-14)
    c. thermoluminescence (TL)
    d. potassium-argon (K/Ar)
    e. dendrochronology

23.  Based on what you know about taphonomy and the information given below, which of the following sites would be most likely to preserve useful behavioral information?
    a. A cluster of faunal bones and stone tools out on the open savanna
    b. A cluster of bones including ribs, pelvis, and vertebrae with stone tools near a lakeshore
    c. A temporary campsite with some food debris and a shallow fire pit on a beach
    d. A cluster of bones including jaws, teeth, femurs, and stone artifacts near a lakeshore
    e. A few piles of stoneworking debris at a quarrying site near the top of a steep hill.

24.  The main drawback to using radiocarbon (C-14) dating in human origins research is
    a. It’s only a relative technique
    b. Organic materials are almost never preserved at sites
    c. Its range only extends to about 40,000 years ago
    d. It’s the very most expensive dating method there is
    e. None of these; radiocarbon is widely used at most palaeoanthropological sites

25.  As an order, Primates
    a. have little variance in social behavior.
    b. retain some skeletal parts lost in more specialized animals.
    c. show little species diversity.
    d. have similarly sized brains.
    e. are not well adapted to their environments.

26.  The primate evolutionary trends discussed in class are commonly explained as the result of
    a. better avoidance of predators
    b. selection for increased intelligence
    c. metabolic rates
    d. adaptation to a dry environment
    e. adaptation to arboreality (life in the trees)

27.  Primates are described as “K-selected” animals.  Which primate characteristics are indications of this trend towards K-selection?
    a. speeding up the life cycle and having very mature offspring
    b. having few offspring who are given much attention and resources
    c. having offspring that take a long time to mature (long infant dependency)
    d. having many offspring but investing little in each
    e. both b and c.

28.  Which of the following is a correct statement regarding primate senses?
    a. Primates lack an effective sense of touch.
    b. Most primates rely heavily on their sense of smell.
    c. Primates are mostly color-blind.
    d. Most primates show a trend towards forward-facing eyes.
    e. Very little is known about primate senses.

29. Which of these animals IS NOT an example of an Old World monkey?
    a. vervet
    b. rhesus macaque
    c. Hanuman langur
    d. gorilla
    e. baboon

30.  What form of locomotion is almost exclusively associated with prosimians (such as the sifaka)?
    a. vertical clinging and leaping (VCL)
    b. knuckle-walking
    c. four-handed climbing
    d. quadrupedalism
    e. brachiation

31. Many lorises are nocturnal.  In lecture and in the film Life in the Trees, what possible explanation was given for this characteristic?
    a. Better food is available at night.
    b. They need to avoid direct competition with monkeys.
    c. Their eyes are too sensitive to handle daylight.
    d. Darkness provides camouflage.
    e. Too hung over to forage during the day.

32. If a primate is large bodied, with mobile shoulders, a frugivorous diet, and no tail, what type of primate is it?
    a. Prosimian
    b. Old World monkey
    c. New World monkey
    d. Ape
    e. Tamarin

33.  Male and female primates must maximize different things to enhance their fitness.  What must females maximize?
    a. number of copulations
    b. amount of food eaten (energy intake)
    c. amount of help from males in raising offspring
    d. size to fight off predators
    e. all of these

34. Natural selection can explain many behaviors, even those that appear to be very detrimental.  How has infanticide in primates been explained in adaptive terms?
    a. It occurs as a response to environmental stress, such as overcrowding.
    b. Infanticide removes unfit infants.
    c. It discourages inept mothers from reproducing.
    d. Males kill infants to bring females into estrus sooner.
    e. It is a result of the actions of pathological individuals

II. Short Answer.  Answer any FOUR of the following six questions in your blue book.  Depending on the question, each answer will require a few words to a few sentences.  (2 points each.) Careful -- some of you answered more than four; I graded the first four.

1.  The study of human origins is called __palaeoanthropology      ; the two anthropological subfields most involved in it are archaeology and _biological/physical anthropology_.

2.  Briefly describe the contribution of one of these scientists to evolutionary thought (what was his “big idea,” and why was it important?).  Your choices: Lyell, Linnaeus, Cuvier

Lyell: Main contribution was uniformitarianism, the idea that processes we see operating today also operated in the past, allowing us to make inferences on the past based on the present.  Also advanced the idea of a very long history for earth.

Linnaeus: Main contribution was the system of binomial nomenclature for the classification of organisms, giving each species a unique, two-part name.  Also came up with the "killing feature" (unique feature possessed only by one species) and the practice of keeping a type specimen.

Cuvier: Main contribution was catastrophism, the idea that earth's history was marked by repeated catastrophic events that wiped out all or most of the planet's life, followed by repopulation via migrations and/or successive creation events.  Accounted for fossils while still allowing for a young earth.

3.  Briefly define two of the four forces of evolution. 

     Natural selection -- Creates adaptations and eventually new species through the differential survival and differential reproduction of individuals who are best suited to their environments.
    Mutation -- Simply defined, mutation is a change in the DNA, which may or may not be expressed in the phenotype.  Most of the mutations that are noticeable are deleterious (bad for the organism).
    Gene flow -- The movement of genes into a population, whether or not individuals move into the population permanently.
     Genetic drift -- Random change in allele frequencies; an example is founder effect, where allele frequencies may shift dramatically in a small, newly isolated population, simply due to the randomness of which alleles the small group of founders pass on to their descendants.

4.  Taphonomy.  Name at least two factors that can produce bone accumulations at a site, and describe how you might recognize ONE factor’s influence at a site.

Carnivores: Some carnivores tend to scavenge certain bones and transport them in a patterned manner; you would also look for carnivore fossils at the site, carnivore coprolites (fossilized feces), and carnivore toothmarks on bones.

Hominids: Using analogy from modern hunter-gatherers, you could see if the pattern of bones is similar (be careful for extremely ancient sites -- behaviors may not be comparable).  Also, you'd look for stone tools at the site, and tool cutmarks on bones.

Rivers/other moving water:  Water-transported bones tend to be weathered and damaged, with some broken edges rounded.  They also may be sorted by size (smaller elements travel further) and oriented according to the direction of water flow.

5.  Briefly describe how prosimians differ as a group from anthropoids.

There are a number of characteristics you could have mentioned: smaller body size, smaller brains, greater reliance on smell, wet nose, long snout, nocturnal activity pattern, twin births, VCL locomotion, postorbital bar but no postorbital closure, colorblind, shorter lifespan, quicker maturation.  If you mentioned a few of these, you got full credit.

6.  Describe an absolute dating method, including material dated, how it works, and range of time covered.

There are a number of these; I'll refer you to your textbook and lecture notes for descriptions, materials, and ranges.  Acceptable choices include: K/Ar, radiocarbon, TL, ESR, dendrochronology, fission track.

7.  What does the term primitive mean in the context of this class?  Give an example of a primitive primate and say why it is considered primitive.

A primitive animal more closely resembles its ancestors than does a derived animal.  A primitive characteristic is something that has not changed much over time.  Examples of primitive primates include any prosimian (lemurs, lorises, tarsiers; to explain why it's considered primitive you could have used a couple of the prosimian traits listed in #5).  You might also have chosen marmosets and tamarins, the most primitive monkeys.  Some of their primitive traits include their small body size, twin births, relatively short lifespans, having claws on their toes instead of nails.

III.  Very Short Essay.  Answer one of the following two questions in your blue book.  A short paragraph or two should be sufficient.  (3 points.)  Again, if you answered both, I graded the first one.

1. If you were given an animal you had never seen before and asked to classify it, how would you determine whether or not it was a primate?  Include information from three of the groups of primate evolutionary trends discussed in class in your answer (primate senses, skeleton and locomotion, diet and teeth, brains and social behavior).

In general, each group of trends mentioned was worth one point.  Many of you
gave me a list of questions you would ask, but didn't mention what answers would lead you to conclude you had a primate.  This was only a minor deduction this time, but if I asked a similar question in the future, it would cost more.  You  needed to cover three of the four groups of trends to get full credit. 
        Primate senses: A primate would have forward facing eyes (stereoscopic vision), color vision, would probably rely more on sight than on smell, and would have a developed sense of touch. 
         Skeleton and locomotion. A primate would have a generalized skeleton, possessing some skeletal parts missing in more derived animals.  It would have a
tendency to hold its upper body more upright than your average mammal.  Its
locomotion might be vertical clinging and leaping, arboreal quadrupedalism, or
arm-swinging. 
         Diet and teeth: A primate would have generalized teeth, appropriate to a varied diet.  It would have rounded molar cusps to aid in eating fruit; most likely, it would be a frugivore or would include insects and leaves in its diet as well. It would have all four tooth types, and its dental formula would probably be 2.1.3.3 or 2.1.2.3.
        Brains and social behavior: A primate would have a larger brain than expected for its body size.  It would be more intelligent than a similar mammal of another type. A primate would also probably be found in a complex social organization. 

2.  Describe the major elements in Darwin’s theory of natural selection – i.e., what observations and ideas did he draw upon in formulating his theory?  

In this case I was looking for Darwin's influences in particular, but I also gave
credit to those who described the principles of natural selection instead; the
question could have been interpreted that way as well.  The most important
influences were the four listed below, but I also gave credit if you mentioned
Darwin's upbringing.  Either a list or a paragraph would have been fine. 

                   1. Voyage on the Beagle.  Darwin's trip on the Beagle as ship's naturalist gave him an appreciation for the variation present in nature, both within species and between them, and in both fossil and living organsims. 

                   2.  Lyell's Principles of Geology. Darwin was impressed by Lyell's theory of  uniformitarianism, which provided the time depth needed for evolution to have occurred. 

                   3.  Breeding of domestic animals.  Darwin observed that traits, thus variation, is  passed down from parents to offspring -- variation is inherited. 

                   4.  Malthus' Essay on Population.  Darwin obtained the final piece of the puzzle here, in Malthus' essay describing the struggle for survival and making the point that there is an overproduction of offspring -- more are born than can survive. 

Extra Credit.  

1. Who discovered natural selection independently of Darwin? (1 point.)
        Alfred Russel Wallace

2. The tarsier has caused controversy concerning which primate suborder it belongs to, because it is a mix of primitive and derived traits.  Give one primitive tarsier trait and one derived tarsier trait.  (Up to 2 points.)

Primitive: Nocturnal, small body size, quick maturation, short life, insectivorous, VCL
Derived: Single births, anthropoid-like reproductive system, larger brains, nose not wet, totally forward-facing eyes and bony orbits.

3.  What is convergent evolution?  Give an example.  (Up to 2 points.)

Convergent evolution is when animals share similar characteristics without having recent common ancestry -- they've developed the traits independently, not inherited them from a common ancestor.  Examples you might have given include wings on birds and bats; fins on dolphins/whales and sharks.