Deck 10: Early Hominin Origins and Evolution: The Roots of Humanity

Question 1

An increased ability to see greater distances is one of the adaptations to

A) bipedalism.
B) diurnal sleeping patterns.
C) improved diet.
D) becoming larger.

Answer 1

bipedalism.

Question 2

The foundational behavior of hominins was

A) hunting.
B) tool use.
C) bipedalism.
D) speech.

Answer 2

bipedalism.

Question 3

Thick dental enamel in ________ helps with crushing food.

A) apes
B) australopithecines
C) humans
D) all primates

Answer 3

humans

Question 4

Humans use their molars for

A) biting.
B) crushing.
C) shearing.
D) mashing.

Question 5

Bipedalism's advantages over quadrupedalism include

A) an increased ability to see greater distances and to carry food.
B) the ability to run faster.
C) the ability to evade detection by standing very still.
D) the more rapid evolution of a large brain.

Question 6

Speech, advanced cognition, and complex material culture

A) do not define a hominin.
B) define a hominin.
C) define a higher primate.
D) did not evolve through the primate lineage.

Question 7

Why did Louis and Mary Leakey choose Olduvai Gorge as the place to spend decades doing their research?

A) No one had worked there before, so anything they found would make them and their work famous.
B) Several skeletons of early hominins had been found there already, so they knew it was a good place to work.
C) The layers exposed by the gorge were known to include ancient stone tools and animal remains.
D) The environment around Olduvai is very wet and forested, and the Leakeys knew that early primates had evolved in a well-watered habitat.

Question 8

Using tools and toolmaking is an adaptation by hominins linked to

A) improved diet.
B) bipedalism.
C) sleeping.
D) becoming larger.

Question 9

Which of the following are among the "seven steps of bipedalism"?

A) opposable thumb, nails instead of claws, convergent eyes, longitudinal arch in the foot
B) opposable big toe, length of the leg, convergent eyes, backward-facing foramen magnum
C) opposable big toe, length of the leg, S-shaped spine, downward-facing foramen magnum
D) opposable big toe, nails instead of claws, convergent eyes, longitudinal arch in the foot

Question 10

Which of the following is an adaptive characteristic of bipedalism?

A) opposable thumb
B) permanently bent knee
C) convergent eyes
D) shape of the pelvis and spine

Question 11

Which of the following is a derived trait of Sahelanthropus tchadensis?

A) big toe opposability
B) larger body size
C) length of the calcaneus
D) nonhoning chewing

Question 12

Which of the following is an adaptive characteristic of bipedalism?

A) valgus knee
B) nails instead of claws
C) convergent eyes
D) absence of arch in the foot

Question 13

Hominins have canines that are

A) small, blunt, and nonprojecting, with no diastema.
B) large and pointed, with a diastema.
C) projecting, with a diastema.
D) part of a honing complex.

Question 14

A hominin is defined as having the following two obligate behaviors:

A) speech and advanced cognition.
B) bipedal locomotion and nonhoning chewing.
C) bipedal locomotion and speech.
D) nonhoning chewing and advanced cognition.

Question 15

The temporalis muscle

A) connects the masseter muscle to the jaw.
B) is a powerful muscle that runs from near the top of the head to the lower part of the jaw.
C) is found in hominins but not great apes.
D) is found in all of the primates except humans.

Question 16

Which of the following is an adaptive characteristic of bipedalism?

A) opposable thumb
B) nails instead of claws
C) convergent eyes
D) longitudinal arch in the foot

Question 17

Starting with the work of Thomas Huxley, Charles Darwin based his theory of human origins on which set of observations?

A) There was an excellent fossil record of human evolution from which Huxley and Darwin concluded that humans had a close evolutionary relationship with the African apes.
B) Humans are bipedal while other apes are not, humans have larger canines than other apes, humans are tool users, and humans have larger brains.
C) Humans are bipedal while other apes are not; humans have smaller canines than chimps, gorillas, or orangs; humans are tool users; and humans have larger brains.
D) Since the fossil record known at the time linked humans and orangs, both Huxley and Darwin assumed humans evolved in Asia.

Question 18

Darwin's hunting hypothesis, Rodman and McHenry's patchy forest hypothesis, and Lovejoy's provisioning hypothesis are three very different explanations for the rise of hominins, but all three invoke the same anatomical feature.What feature is this?

A) bipedalism
B) loss of diastema
C) increased brain size
D) changes in the hand that allow toolmaking and use

Question 19

The first recognizable ancestors of the lineage leading to humans are

A) Australopithecus afarensis.
B) Paranthropus.
C) Sahelanthropus tchadensis.
D) Orrorin tugenensis.

Question 20

Peter Rodman proposed that human evolution was linked to ________ while Owen Lovejoy suggested the best explanation was ________.

A) the increased efficiency in walking as forests transformed to wooded environments; the ability to carry food in order to provision family members
B) the ability to carry food in order to provision family members; increased efficiency in walking as forests transformed to wooded environments
C) the ability to make and use stone tools; the loss of the diastema and evolution of thick enamel
D) the early emergence of a large brain; the later emergence of a large brain

Question 21

Owen Lovejoy's provisioning hypothesis proposes that

A) bipedalism meant less body surface to expose to the sun, resulting in a smaller body size.
B) monogamy and food provisioning created the necessity for bipedalism.
C) bipedalism arose in areas where the forest was disappearing.
D) bipedalism arose as a result of a shift to hunting as a primary source of food.

Question 22

The diversity of the hominins included increasingly specialized

A) locomotion.
B) social patterns.
C) body sizes.
D) diets.

Question 23

Ecological evidence from the site where Ardi was found shows that early hominins

A) lived in a lush jungle.
B) lived in a savanna.
C) lived in a forest.
D) migrated out of the area due to drought.

Question 24

Ardi's intermediate form of bipedality included the use of

A) longer hind limbs for clinging and leaping.
B) palms and feet to move along tree branches.
C) long phalanges to wrap around tree branches.
D) a tail.

Question 25

Robust australopithecines are also called

A) Orrorin.
B) Sahelanthropus.
C) Gigantopithecus.
D) Paranthropus.

Question 26

Beginning more than 3 mya, at least two lineages of hominin emerged, one that led to the genus Homo and one that

A) included the now-extinct descendants of Au.afarensis.
B) gave rise to the genus Ardipithecus.
C) was an evolution of other australopithecine lineages.
D) ended with Au.africanus.

Question 27

The adaptive radiation of the australopithecines after their split from the lineage that led to early Homo seems to have focused on

A) bipedalism.
B) mastication.
C) brain size increase.
D) body size increase.

Question 28

Based on the morphology of the hand phalanx, Orrorin tugenensis lived in a

A) dry savanna.
B) woodland environment.
C) jungle environment.
D) forest environment.

Question 29

The Oldowan Complex is a part of the

A) Upper Paleolithic.
B) Lower Paleolithic.
C) Eocene.
D) Solutrean.

Question 30

Australopithecus robustus was likely the longest-surviving species of australopithecine in South Africa.It had

A) a big brain, big teeth, and a big face.
B) large molars, a big face, and a sagittal crest.
C) a large body, large teeth, and a sagittal crest.
D) a big face, large teeth, and a large body.

Question 31

Robust australopithecines were extinct by ________ mya.

A) 1
B) 3
C) 4
D) 5

Question 32

Along with other distinct traits, robust australopithecines had large ________ adapted for grinding food.

A) premolars and molars
B) temporalis muscles and a sagittal crest
C) front teeth and small back teeth
D) premolars, molars, temporalis muscles, and a sagittal crest

Question 33

The Oldowan Complex includes tools like

A) hand axes, flakes, and cores.
B) cobbles, flakes, and side scrapers.
C) choppers, cobbles, flakes, and bone tools.
D) choppers, hand axes, and side scrapers.

Question 34

The small canyon in northern Tanzania where many early hominin fossils have been recovered (often referred to as the "cradle of humankind") is

A) Lake Turkana.
B) Olduvai Gorge.
C) Swartkrans.
D) Hadar.

Question 35

Australopithecus robustus's large masticatory complex (large molars, face, and muscles) indicate an adaptation to

A) eating hard food with sand in it.
B) eating a great deal of red meat.
C) eating foods requiring heavy chewing.
D) gnawing on bones.

Question 36

Distinctive traits of robust australopithecines include

A) small front teeth and large back teeth.
B) a small brain and a large body.
C) a big face and a sagittal crest.
D) small front teeth, large back teeth, a big face, and a sagittal crest.

Question 37

The patchy forest hypothesis proposes that forests

A) became patchy and food more dispersed.
B) became lush woodlands.
C) became wet and swamp-like.
D) did not change.

Question 38

Australopithecus garhi may be the ancestor of

A) Homo habilis.
B) Australopithecus afarensis.
C) Orrorin tugenensis.
D) Homo sapiens.

Question 39

Based on the research of Philip Reno, early hominins show reduced sexual dimorphism, which is evidence for cooperation and likely for

A) monogamy.
B) multifamily grouping.
C) pair bonding.
D) multimale grouping.

Question 40

Ardi was adapted to life in trees and

A) on the ground.
B) in the desert.
C) near water.
D) on the ground and near water.

Question 41

The earliest pre-australopithecine found outside the East African Rift Valley is

A) Orrorin tugenensis.
B) Ardipithecus kadabba.
C) Sahelanthropus tchadensis.
D) Ardipithecus ramidus.

Question 42

In an ape, the gap located between the canine and the third premolar on the lower jaw and the canine and the second incisor on the upper jaw is a

A) dental gap.
B) gingival space.
C) mesial bridge.
D) diastema.

Question 43

A key finding of the study of early hominins is that

A) humans ultimately arose from a long lineage of less and less apelike forms.
B) the multiple species of australopithecines were highly diverse in locomotion, mastication, and several other aspects.
C) australopithecines were very diverse in diet and other features, but they all had almost identical postcrania, suggesting that they moved around in the same bipedal fashion.
D) there will never be enough fossils to put together a description of evolutionary patterns for premodern hominins.

Question 44

Australopithecus garhi has been proposed as an ancestor for Homo mainly because it

A) had a bigger brain than other australopithecines.
B) had smaller molar teeth than other australopithecines.
C) had longer legs relative to arm length than other australopithecines.
D) was bipedal.

Question 45

The earliest hominins probably lived in which kind of environment?

A) dense tropical forest
B) complex hybrid habitats
C) open savanna grassland
D) arid, high-altitude uplands

Question 46

The exact arrangement of the ancient hominin phylogeny is unknown, but MOST likely

A) Ardipithecus is at or near the base, and Australopithecus garhi gave rise to early Homo.
B) robust australopithecines such as Australopithecus boisei are at the base and more gracile forms such as Australopithcus africanus evolved from those early robust forms.
C) Australopithecus anamensis evolved directly into early Homo.
D) all of the different so-called species of Australopithecus are really one species, with the robust forms being males and the more gracile forms being females.

Question 47

The Laetoli footprints demonstrate that the foot of Australopithecus afarensis was humanlike in having a

A) rounded heel.
B) nondivergent big toe.
C) double arch.
D) rounded heel, nondivergent big toe, and double arch.

Question 48

Given that chimpanzees and humans are closely related, it is not surprising that early pre-australopithecines such as Ardipithecus ramidus had a

A) large brain, as Darwin predicted.
B) very humanlike skull.
C) lower body that is adapted for climbing and an upper body that is adapted for bipedal walking.
D) small brain, a long forearm, and evidence of good climbing ability in the pelvis.

Question 49

Discuss the two obligate traits, including specific anatomical features, that first emerge in the pre-australopithecines to eventually become firmly established in australopithecines.

Question 50

Fossils attributed to Australopithecus garhi were found at the Bouri site, in Ethiopia, along with

A) abundant stone tools.
B) animal bones with cutmarks.
C) evidence for early Homo.
D) fossil footprints.

Question 51

Discuss the anatomical changes that occurred in the bipedal hominin and how they reflect certain habitat adaptations, and then discuss the hypotheses that propose why the change occurred.

Question 52

The MOST obvious features defining the robust australopithecines compared to other early hominins are

A) lack of bipedalism and very small heads.
B) very thin enamel.
C) the presence of a large sagittal crest and flaring zygomatic.
D) forward-facing eyes and reduced olfactory abilities.

Question 53

A pre-australopithecine MOST likely has which of the following characteristics?

A) nonhoning dentition, primitive apelike traits, and increased brain size
B) modified honing dentition, primitive apelike traits, and increased brain size
C) modified honing dentition, primitive apelike traits, and small brain size
D) nonhoning dentition, loss of apelike traits, and small brain size

Question 54

Evidence indicating that Orrorin tugenensis was bipedal comes mainly from which part of the skeleton?

A) femur (thighbone)
B) skull
C) foot
D) pelvis

Question 55

Discuss the Ardipithecus ramidus fossil and its implications for understanding human evolution.

Question 56

The earliest australopithecines first show up in the fossil record more than ________ mya.

A) 0.5
B) 1
C) 2
D) 4

Question 57

The discovery of Kenyanthropus platyops, with its somewhat unexpected morphology for its time period, was important mainly because it

A) had a small brain like an ape's.
B) was discovered in Kenya.
C) showed diversity in the hominin fossil record 3.5 mya.
D) probably lived in woodlands.

Question 58

You find a fossil that you are sure shows evidence of bipedalism.You know this because which of the following anatomical traits is present?

A) a narrow pelvis
B) a posterior position of the foramen magnum
C) an opposable hallux
D) thighbones that angle in toward the knees