Exam 10: The Origin and Spread of Modern Humans

Recent discoveries in a cave at Pinnacle Point, South Africa, suggest that humans had achieved behavioral modernity as early as 164,000 B.P. All of the following were found at this site EXCEPT evidence of

Compared to Neandertal skulls, anatomically modern specimens found at the Skhūl and Qafzeh sites in Israel have a modern shape. Their brain cases are

What is the name of the land bridge that linked the eastern tip of Siberia to Alaska?

In this chapter's "Focus on Globalization" section, scientists trace the global spread of anatomically modern humans by constructing a global phylogenetic tree based on mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA). What have we learned from this tree?

How has molecular genetics affected our recent understanding of human evolution?

With the end of the Würm glacial period, human groups shifted their subsistence strategies to a broader spectrum of species that they exploited.

According to the mtDNA analyses, when did the first modern humans leave Africa?

Recent genetic research comparing Neandertal DNA and modern human DNA supports the theory that Neandertals evolved into the European populations of anatomically modern humans.

Recent research has pushed back the probable date of the first arrival of anatomically modern humans to the Americas to

In 2003, scientists announced the 1997 discovery in an Ethiopian valley of three anatomically modern skulls-two adults and a child. Known collectively as the Herto skulls, the researchers dated them to 154,000-160,000 B.P. All of the following clues suggested that these skulls in fact were of anatomically modern humans, EXCEPT

Which of the following characterizes Upper Paleolithic traditions?

The Monte Verde archaeological site in south-central Chile dates to at least 1,500 years before the Clovis people (which date to 13,250 B.P.). This evidence for the early occupation of southern South America, along with other lines of evidence, suggests that

The Clovis tradition, a sophisticated stone technology based on a sharp point that was fastened to the end of a hunting spear, flourished (widely but briefly) in the central plains and in what is now the eastern United States. Until recently, the Clovis people were considered the first settlers of the Americas. Recent research now suggests, however, that

Anthropologists have recently recalibrated the radiocarbon dating of Neandertals and AMHs in Europe. What did they find?

What is behavioral modernity? What are some of the competing theories (and the evidence to support each) of when, where, and how behavioral modernity originated?

Although scientists agree with what behavioral modernity is, they disagree on how and where it originated.

How was the blade-core method, which characterizes the tools of Upper Paleolithic traditions, superior to Mousterian technology?

Although the debate on the origin of behavioral modernity continues, archaeological work in many world areas

Which of the following aided the rapid expansion of human populations throughout North America?

Anatomically modern humans (AMHs) evolved from an archaic Homo sapiens African ancestor. Eventually, AMHs spread to other areas, including western Europe, where they replaced, or interbred with, the Neanderthals, whose robust traits eventually disappeared.