Deck 11: Early Homo and H Erectus 26-1 Ma

Question 1

Acheulean stone tools were

A) varied randomly in size and shape.
B) more standardized than Oldowan tools.
C) probably used mainly for chopping.
D) a Mode 3 technology.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Homo erectus males were

A) twice as large as females.
B) 20% to 30% larger than females.
C) about the same size as females.
D) smaller than females.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Homo erectus was the first hominin known to have

A) evolved in Africa.
B) used Oldowan tools.
C) lived in Europe.
D) eaten meat.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

________ had large, robust bodies with relatively long arms and legs and may have been adapted to run long distances.

A) Homo habilis
B) Australopithecus africanus
C) Homo erectus
D) Paranthropus boisei

Question 5

Average Homo erectus brain size was

A) 500 cc.
B) 1,000 cc.
C) 1,500 cc.
D) 2,000 cc.

Question 6

Homo erectus shared important adaptive traits with modern humans, including

A) smaller teeth with fewer roots in the upper premolars.
B) fast life histories.
C) a shorter skull and prognathic face.
D) occipital torus.

Question 7

Which of the following statements is true regarding the African range of Homo erectus?

A) H. erectus specialized in the woodland forests of East Africa.
B) By 1.8 Ma, H. erectus had extended its range to the most northern and southern parts of Africa.
C) H. erectus could not colonize the high-altitude plateaus of Ethiopia or use the dry edges of the Rift Valley.
D) This species' range encompassed almost the entire continent, which means that it was adapted to a broad range of environmental conditions.

Question 8

Homo erectus possessed some primitive characteristics of earlier hominids, including

A) a chin.
B) a high forehead.
C) large browridges.
D) narrow postorbital constriction.

Question 9

Based on experiments, Acheulean stone tools were probably used

A) to dig for tubers.
B) to scrape bark from trees.
C) to butcher animals.
D) as projectiles to hunt large animals ("killer Frisbees").

Question 10

The large browridges and the ridge at the back of the skull of Homo erectus are

A) larger in females than in males.
B) needed to buttress the skull against novel stresses created by an increased emphasis on tearing and biting.
C) characteristic of australopithecines as well.
D) smaller than those seen in australopithecines.

Question 11

Homo erectus possessed many derived features shared by modern humans, including

A) a taller skull.
B) larger teeth.
C) no chin.
D) small, gracile muscles.

Question 12

A derived feature of Homo erectus NOT shared with modern humans is

A) the occipital torus.
B) smaller jaws and teeth.
C) a broad, flat face.
D) less prognathism.

Question 13

Evidence that Homo erectus ate meat includes the fact that

A) their tools were well designed for chopping.
B) their teeth were well designed for shearing.
C) they lived in Africa.
D) Homo erectus lived in areas where fruits and plant food were not always available.

Question 14

Homo erectus used ________ tools.

A) Oldowan and Acheulean
B) bone and wood tools but not stone
C) Mousterian
D) the earliest metal

Question 15

Because of the finds in Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia, paleoanthropologists know that hominins left Africa by

A) 2.8 Ma.
B) 1.8 Ma.
C) 1.8 ka.
D) 2,800 years ago.

Question 16

Studies of tooth enamel growth rate indicate that Homo erectus

A) matured faster than australopiths.
B) matured at the same rate as australopiths.
C) did not have the long childhood of modern humans.
D) had the long childhood of modern humans.

Question 17

Paleontologists state that Homo erectus was fully committed to terrestrial life because

A) the teeth of Homo erectus show evidence of meat eating.
B) sexual dimorphism is reduced in this species.
C) Homo erectus had the same body proportions as people who live in tropical savannas today.
D) their brain size is larger than the brains of other hominins.

Question 18

Homo erectus appeared in the fossil record about ________ years ago.

A) 180 million
B) 18 million
C) 1.8 million
D) 18,000

Question 19

Homo erectus and Homo habilis may have coexisted for almost ________ years in Africa.

A) 1 million
B) 500,000
C) 3 million
D) 10 million

Question 20

Which of the following is true of Homo erectus?

A) made Mode 1 technology only
B) developed more slowly than the australopithecines, but more rapidly than modern humans
C) had an apelike postcrania with longer arms than legs
D) lived in shelters made from various materials such as adobe

Question 21

________ include collected, extracted, and hunted foods in their diet.

A) Orangutans
B) Gorillas
C) Chimpanzees
D) Gibbons

Question 22

Which of the following statements is true of contemporary human foragers?

A) They take years to learn to forage and are usually adults before they are proficient hunters and food extractors.
B) They collect the majority of their food as ripe fruit or otherwise easily accessed sources.
C) They rely more on domesticated foods from their gardens than on wild foods.
D) They have almost identical diets as chimpanzees, plus meat.

Question 23

The term used for the manufacture of chipped stone tools, such as most of the Mode 1 Oldowan tools, is

A) coring.
B) flaking.
C) knapping.
D) cracking.

Question 24

By becoming proficient at making Oldowan stone tools, scientists could demonstrate that the

A) original makers must have been modern humans.
B) earliest stone tools were spheroids.
C) original makers were probably right-handed most of the time.
D) original makers were probably left-handed most of the time.

Question 25

Early Spheroids were most likely

A) used as a sort of hammer to grind and process plant foods.
B) hammer stones that were worn into a spherical shape from making tools.
C) natural rocks that happen to appear on archaeological sites.
D) used for holding down tents or other simple structures.

Question 26

The earliest Oldowan chipped stone tools in East Africa date to approximately ________ Ma.

A) 3.4
B) 2.6
C) 4.2
D) 1.3

Question 27

Which of the following statements correctly describes the first use of tools?

A) It was by australopithecine ancestors of humans.
B) It probably precedes the divergence of humans and apes.
C) It occurred after the evolution of bipedalism.
D) It involved distinctly human abilities.

Question 28

Human foragers primarily include ________ foods in their diet.

A) raw and unprocessed
B) hunted
C) scavenged
D) extracted and hunted

Question 29

The Dmanisi hominins had the same ________ as modern humans.

A) brain size
B) body size
C) limb proportions
D) growth patterns

Question 30

Chimpanzees primarily include ________ foods in their diet.

A) extracted
B) hunted
C) collected
D) provisioned

Question 31

The earliest possible evidence of chipped stone tools in East Africa date to approximately ________ Ma.

A) 3.4
B) 2.5
C) 4.2
D) 1.3

Question 32

Evidence for meat eating by Homo erectus includes

A) vitamin A poisoning in the KNM-ER 1808 skeleton.
B) controlled use of fire at Homo erectus sites.
C) carnivore tooth marks on their skeletons.
D) preserved stomach contents in some skeletons.

Question 33

The hominins of Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia, are associated with ________ tools.

A) Oldowan
B) Acheulean
C) Levallois
D) Mousterian

Question 34

Among contemporary foragers, which of the following is true?

A) Men do most of the hunting and women do most of the gathering.
B) Hunting and gathering are divided up by gender differently in each culture.
C) Most hunting is done by a combination of men and women, while all gathering is done by women.
D) Women do most of the hunting while men do most of the gathering.

Question 35

________ foods come from things that do not move but are protected or enclosed in some way.

A) Hunted
B) Extracted
C) Collected
D) Provisioned

Question 36

The site of ________ in Ethiopia has indirect evidence of chipped stone tools, while the site of ________ in West Turkana has the earliest possible chipped stone tools known so far.

A) Lomekwi; Dikika
B) Dikika; Lomekwi
C) Olduvai; Dikika
D) Dikika; Olduvai

Question 37

Among contemporary foragers, which of the following is correct?

A) Food sharing and hunting are closely linked.
B) Only plant foods are shared.
C) All types of food are shared.
D) Women share all the food they gather; men rarely share.

Question 38

Oldowan tools are quite variable in size and shape. The best explanation for this pattern is thought to be

A) the function for which the tools were made.
B) the particular method used to make the tools.
C) how toolmakers thought their tools should look.
D) the particular raw material used to make the tools.

Question 39

Which of the following statements correctly describes contemporary foragers?

A) They have food sharing and a sexual division of labor.
B) They have permanent settlements.
C) They raise domestic livestock.
D) They live in large groups of over 100 adults, most of the time.

Question 40

Scientists have established that Oldowan flakes were

A) useful for a wide range of functions, including butchering animals.
B) primarily a waste product of making Oldowan tools.
C) primarily used for hunting large game like elephants.
D) accidental by-products of using round cobbles for various purposes.

Question 41

A shift to extractive foraging and hunting would favor

A) larger brain size and greater intelligence.
B) a shortened juvenile period.
C) a shorter overall life span.
D) an improved sense of smell.

Question 42

Since hunting takes a long time to learn and can be unreliable, it favored the evolution of

A) sexual division of labor.
B) juvenile development.
C) food sharing.
D) a stronger built-in hunting instinct.

Question 43

Which of the following is true of large mammalian carnivores in Africa?

A) They never scavenge for meat.
B) They scavenge only when they are sick or old.
C) They often scavenge for meat rather than hunting.
D) They almost always scavenge for meat and vary rarely hunt.

Question 44

The difference between a stone-tool mark and a tooth mark is that

A) stone-tool marks are crooked because hominins were not skilled at using stone tools.
B) tooth marks leave smooth grooves, and stone-tool marks leave many parallel grooves.
C) stone-tool marks contain stone flake residue.
D) tooth marks occur along the entire shaft of the bone, but stone-tool marks occur only at the end of the bone.

Question 45

Taphonomists have suggested that the Olduvai bone and stone-tool sites were not the result of the mass death of a large number of animals because

A) mass deaths usually involve members of a single species, but the Olduvai sites contain members of different species.
B) there is usually evidence of dehydration when mass deaths occur, but there is no such evidence at Olduvai sites.
C) mass deaths are very rare among modern animals on the savanna.
D) there is little mixing of bones of different species.

Question 46

Contemporary foragers rely more heavily on ________ than any other primate.

A) fruit
B) agricultural products
C) meat
D) domestic animals

Question 47

Which of the following statements is likely true regarding the Olduvai sites?

A) There is definitive evidence of "home bases" at Olduvai Gorge.
B) Paleoanthropologists are not able to distinguish between animal tooth marks and stone-tool marks on animal bones from Olduvai Gorge.
C) Taphonomic evidence suggests that the Oldowan hominids were sometimes hunters and sometimes scavengers.
D) There are no sites at Olduvai that are simply carnivore kill or cache sites.

Question 48

With food sharing comes increased paternal care. Therefore, what other characteristic do we expect to evolve with this pair of traits?

A) increased sexual dimorphism
B) decreased sexual dimorphism
C) increased male-male competition
D) smaller brains

Question 49

Which of the following statements is true concerning human foraging groups?

A) Changes in human life history pattern were likely driven by humans' emphasis on collected foods.
B) Humans have been shaped by natural selection to be born able to carry out the most important foraging tasks.
C) Food sharing and division of labor lead to increased competition between males and increased sexual dimorphism.
D) Food sharing and division of labor lead to reduced competition between males and reduced sexual dimorphism.

Question 50

Taphonomists have determined that the Olduvai bone and stone-tool sites were likely not deposited by moving water because the

A) bones do not contain characteristic water markings.
B) sediments surrounding the bones do not contain water markings.
C) sediments surrounding the bones are inverted, so that the top layers are oldest.
D) sediments surrounding the bones and tools are not graded by size and weight.

Question 51

Which of the following is true of the contribution of calories from foraging among contemporary foraging groups?

A) Individuals of all ages contribute equally to the group's diet.
B) Men contribute a net surplus of food in most groups.
C) Women contribute a net surplus of food in most groups.
D) Children contribute nothing at all.

Question 52

Dependence on meat may facilitate

A) food sharing.
B) a shorter juvenile period.
C) increased competition between males.
D) increased sexual dimorphism.

Question 53

Meat eating may require food sharing because

A) sharing reduces the high degree of variation associated with hunting by averaging returns over time.
B) meat is unhealthy, so sharing spreads out the negative effects of consuming it.
C) hunting is a way of showing off.
D) food sharing reduces levels of cooperation, and hunting is a task best done alone.

Question 54

Compared with humans, after weaning, chimpanzees are

A) more dependent upon their mothers for food.
B) apt to share food more extensively with each other.
C) more self-sufficient at food acquisition.
D) no different at food acquisition.

Question 55

The association of hominin tools and animal bones is more likely to mean that early hominins were responsible for these bone accumulations if the bones

A) and stone tools are found at the same archaeological site.
B) have carnivore gnaw marks on them.
C) have possible stone-tool cut marks on them.
D) show evidence of having been moved by water.

Question 56

Which of the following occurs in contemporary foraging societies?

A) There is a great deal of sexual dimorphism.
B) There is increased competition between males for females who are good at extractive foraging.
C) Males make substantial investments in their offspring by sharing food.
D) Females are solely responsible for the food needed to feed children.

Question 57

Because humans rely on learned skills for many of the foods they eat, natural selection has favored

A) fast development.
B) an extended juvenile period.
C) a wide range of built-in skills available from birth.
D) hunting.

Question 58

Experimental analysis of bone tools from South Africa suggests that they were used to

A) dig up plant roots and tubers.
B) extract termites from their mounds.
C) dig up tree roots.
D) bury carcasses.

Question 59

Which the following statements is true concerning human foraging groups?

A) Children can obtain enough food to feed themselves by the age of 10 years.
B) Women do not forage enough food to feed themselves at any point and are entirely reliant on men.
C) Men provide the majority of calories in any given group while they are adolescents, but their production drops off after the age of 20.
D) Men frequently share the food they obtain with other group members.

Question 60

Meat is worth transporting over some distance because it

A) tastes good.
B) provides large amounts of nutrients in a small package, compared with vegetables.
C) causes a sexual division of labor.
D) attracts predators.

Question 61

Which of the following statements correctly describes what occurs at modern kill sites?

A) Hunters usually take meat from the limbs, and scavengers eat meat from the skull and vertebrae.
B) Hunters usually take meat from the skull and vertebrae, and scavengers eat meat from the limbs.
C) Hunters take almost all of the meat, and scavengers eat only cartilage and bone marrow.
D) Hunters and scavengers share all parts of carcasses.

Question 62

Explain how food sharing reduces the variation associated with hunting in contemporary foragers.

Question 63

How were the Oldowan tools manufactured? Why are they referred to as "Mode 1" tools? What does the manufacturing process tell us about the hominins who made them?

Question 64

Which of the following is an argument that early hominins may have obtained some meat by scavenging?

A) Most carnivores went through an evolutionary phase in which they mainly scavenged.
B) Cut marks can be found on vertebrae of prey, and sometimes overlap carnivore tooth marks.
C) Scavenging from large carnivores such as lions by a relatively small and slow-moving primate is easy.
D) Scavenging can only be done with advanced cognitive processing, as we see in vultures.

Question 65

What are the elements of Mode 1, or Oldowan, stone industries, and what do we know about
their use?

Question 66

Which of the following statements about early use of tools by hominins is likely true?

A) Early hominin toolmakers were most likely both left- and right-handed in equal numbers.
B) Experimental analysis of fossil bone tools from australopithecine sites in South Africa suggests that they were used as digging sticks.
C) It is clear that the australopithecines were not capable of making stone tools; the first stone tool makers were members of the genus Homo.
D) Mode 2 refers to the method used to make Oldowan stone tools.

Question 67

Why do anthropologists think hard-to-acquire food resources had such an effect on human evolution?

Question 68

What is the evidence that early hominins ate meat?

Question 69

Microscopic analysis of Oldowan chipped stone tools indicates that they were used for

A) wood working and butchery.
B) sewing and piercing hides.
C) digging in termite mounds.
D) ritual activities.

Question 70

What are the reasons for the division of labor documented in contemporary foragers?

Question 71

The Olduvai accumulation sites were probably

A) home bases, because many temporary shelters were found.
B) home bases, because fire hearths were found.
C) not home bases, because evidence of competition with other predators was found.
D) not home bases, because only short-term-use fire hearths were found.

Question 72

At modern kill sites, there is

A) little conflict.
B) conflict, but only between members of different species.
C) conflict, but only between members of the same species.
D) conflict, both between members of different species and between members of the same species.

Question 73

Which of the following statements about food acquisition is likely true?

A) Contemporary human foragers do not share meat.
B) Chimpanzees spend most of their time feeding on extracted and hunted foods.
C) Evidence suggests that the Oldowan hominins were both hunters and scavengers.
D) Juveniles in contemporary human foraging groups are responsible for finding their own food each day.

Question 74

Which of the following is evidence that early hominins acquired meat by hunting?

A) Associations of tools and animal bones have been found.
B) Cut marks are common on limb bones.
C) Tooth marks are common on the shafts of limb bones.
D) The existence of home bases has not been demonstrated.

Question 75

Taphonomy is the study of

A) how stone tools are made.
B) how to tell fossil plants from fossil animals.
C) tree rings.
D) what happens to an organism's remains from the time of death to the time scientists find the remains.

Question 76

Wrangham and his colleagues suggested that the invention of cooking at the time of the first Homo erectus was a major change affecting subsequent human evolution. What apparent facts seem to falsify this hypothesis?

A) The best evidence for the first use of fire by humans dates to at least 1 million years before Homo erectus.
B) The clearest evidence for the first use of fire by humans dates to at least 1 million years after Homo erectus.
C) Homo erectus was significantly larger than earlier australopithecines, suggesting that hunting was more important than cooking.
D) There are no changes in the diet-related physiology (teeth, gut, etc.) of Homo erectus, suggesting that something like cooking was added to the hominin toolkit.

Question 77

Modern humans, and probably Homo erectus, have much shorter intestines than expected for primates of their size. What possible change in hominin technology may account for this?

A) increased hunting of easier-to-digest mammals, such as antelopes
B) the use of fire to process food
C) a shift from some hunting but mostly scavenging to mostly hunting
D) a reduction in food sharing, which also meant a reduction in food-borne diseases

Question 78

What role did hunting and scavenging play for early hominins?

Question 79

Which of the following statements is true regarding the Olduvai sites?

A) The home bases found at Olduvai are now interpreted as spots where hominins ate their prey.
B) Paleoanthropologists cannot distinguish between animal tooth marks and stone-tool marks on animal bones found at Olduvai.
C) Taphonomic evidence suggests that the Oldowan hominins only acquired meat by scavenging.
D) Taphonomic evidence suggests that the Oldowan hominins were sometimes hunters and sometimes scavengers.

Question 80

The so-called home bases found at Olduvai are now interpreted as spots where hominins

A) cached their kills.
B) butchered animals.
C) fed on kills.
D) practiced cannibalism.