Deck 11: Premodern Humans

Question 1

Dating too about 850,000 years ago, human fossils from Gran Dolina are placed within Homo

A) erectus
B) habilis
C) neanderthalensis
D) antecessor
E) heidelbergensis

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Evidence of Premodern Homo sapiens crania that show possible evidence of cannibalism in the form of cut marks is represented at

A) Broken Hill
B) Tabun
C) Bodo
D) La Chapelle
E) Swanscombe

Answer 2

C

Question 3

During glacial peaks, much of western Europe would have been

A) cut off from the rest of Eurasia
B) covered with desert
C) covered with rain forests
D) unaffected
E) glacial peaks did not occur outside of Africa

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The Middle Pleistocene began about _____ years ago and ended______years ago.

A) 125,000, 780,000
B) 500,000, 125,000
C) 10,000, 7,000
D) 780,000, 125,000
E) 180,000, 100,000

Question 5

Compared to Homo erectus, the cranium of the earliest premodern Homo sapiens exhibit

A) a lower forehead
B) a more angled occipital region
C) a smaller average cranial capacity
D) a more rounded braincase
E) a less vertical nose

Question 6

Neandertal fossil remains have been found to reach as far back as ________ years ago.

A) 100,000
B) 500,000
C) 65,000
D) 10,000
E) 130,000

Question 7

The majority of Neandertal fossils been found in _____________where they have been most studied.

A) South America
B) Asia
C) India
D) Africa
E) Europe

Question 8

Upper Pleistocene premodern Homo sapiens that have their evolutionary roots in western Europe include

A) Homo sapiens sapiens
B) anatomically modern humans
C) Neandertals
D) Homo ergaster
E) late Homo erectus

Question 9

During glacial periods, the climate in Africa became

A) colder
B) warmer
C) more arid
D) more humid
E) subzero

Question 10

African sites evidencing Neandertal fossils include

A) Olduvai Gorge
B) Broken Hill
C) Laetoli
D) Tabun
E) Shanidar Cave

Question 11

The ________ epoch has been called the "Ice Age."

A) Pleistocene
B) Paleocene
C) Pliocene
D) Miocene
E) Eocene

Question 12

Chinese paleoanthropologists argue that Asian premodern human fossils evidence both earlier and later characteristics. The more ancestral traits include

A) very large cranial capacities
B) a sagittal ridge
C) less flattened nasal bones
D) thin walls of the braincase
E) features that unquestionably substantiate that anatomically modern migrants from Africa displaced local populations

Question 13

What can be said about the dispersal of Middle Pleistocene hominins?

A) Discoveries of their presence come from North America
B) For the first time Europe became more permanently and densely occupied
C) Presence in Asia is noticeably lacking
D) Unlike their H. erectus predecessors they were widely distributed in the Old World
E) Africa was no longer a central area of hominin occupation

Question 14

Africa sites evidence premodern H. sapien fossils that range from _________ years ago.

A) 200,000
B) 400,000
C) 100,000
D) 600,000
E) 35,000

Question 15

The tool technology of premodern Homo sapiens in the Middle Pleistocene

A) carried over from the Acheulian tools of Homo erectus with little change until near the end of the period
B) continued to be mainly the Oldowan tradition
C) incorporated the sophisticated use of bone
D) discontinued the use of stone flakes
E) was the Levallois technique in Southwest Asia

Question 16

Remains evidencing Middle Pleistocene culture indicate that premodern Homo sapiens

A) did not build temporary structures
B) did not exploit different food sources
C) had not learned to exploit marine resources
D) presumably hunted large animals, perhaps horses
E) lived in caves but not open air sites

Question 17

Kabwe, Bodo, Florisbad, Elandsfontein and Laetoli are sites that evidence premodern Homo sapiens and are located in

A) Europe
B) Africa
C) Central Asia
D) China
E) Iraq

Question 18

Paleoanthropologists consider__________________ to be the immediate predecessors to modern Homo sapiens.

A) premodern Homo sapiens
B) anatomically modern Homo sapiens
C) late modern Homo erectus
D) Homo heidelbergensis from sites in Iraq
E) Individuals represented during the Early Pleistocene

Question 19

Some assumptions about the hunting capabilities of premodern humans have been challenged by an interesting archaeological find at Schöningen. What did they find?

A) a bow and arrow
B) wood spears
C) 4000 nodules from which spear points were struck
D) Use of fire
E) large flakes struck using the Levallois technique

Question 20

Dated to approximately 500,000-400,000 years ago, the site of______________has yielded a sample of 4,000 fossil fragments representing about twenty-eight premodern Homo sapiens individuals, more than 80% of all Middle Pleistocene hominin remains in the world.

A) Ehringsdorf
B) Sima de los Huesos
C) Steinheim
D) Swanscombe
E) Petralona

Question 21

Since abundant remains of animal bones are found at their sites paleoanthropologists have described Neandertals as

A) successful hunters and therefore efficient mastodon hunters.
B) successful small game hunters, but not necessarily as successful large game hunters as modern humans.
C) never gathering shellfish.
D) less prone to head and neck injuries.
E) possessing long-distance weaponry.

Question 22

Neandertal brain size

A) was smaller, on average, than that of modern humans
B) was larger, on average, than that of modern humans
C) was smaller, on average, than that of Homo erectus
D) averaged about 2,500 cm3
E) averaged about 1,100 cm3

Question 23

Shanidar cave is extraordinary in that an individual in the burial

A) is the only Neandertal remains found Israel.
B) evidences a skull having received a crushing blow, probably causing blindness, and a blow to the right side rendering the right arm useless.
C) is without the right lower arm and hand, demonstrating the results of poor preservation.
D) is an ancient member of an extinct social group in Iraq.
E) lived to approximately 80 years of age.

Question 24

Mousterian culture evidences all of the following except

A) more complex burials, with the body's position deliberately modified
B) use of pigment, perhaps as body decoration, and jewelry
C) natural pigments deliberately applied to shells and animal bones
D) clear distinctions between Neandertals and early modern humans.
E) An expanded range of foods to include marine resources

Question 25

What is the term for the stone tool technology most often associated with the Neandertals that extended across Europe and North Africa, into the former Soviet Union, Israel, Iran, central Asia and possibly China?

A) Mousterian
B) Middle Paleolithic
C) Early Paleolithic
D) Denisovian
E) Oldowan

Question 26

The evidence of deliberate burial of the dead by Neandertal is found at all the following except

A) Sima de los Huesos
B) Tabun
C) Kabwe
D) La Chapelle
E) Kebara

Question 27

The genetic evidence from Neandertal remains that is used in studying most Neandertal fossils is in the form of

A) ribosomal information
B) nuclear DNA
C) mtDNA
D) all of these
E) a and b only

Question 28

The Mousterian stone tool tradition

A) was developed by Homo erectus.
B) is associated with Neandertals only.
C) is found in Asia only.
D) is found in Western Europe only.
E) is not always associated with just Neandertals, since sometimes it is found with modern humans.

Question 29

The Middle Pleistocene humans are morphologically

A) diverse and broadly dispersed throughout time and space
B) diverse but not broadly dispersed throughout time and space
C) similar and broadly dispersed throughout time and space
D) similar and not broadly dispersed throughout time and space
E) similar and broadly dispersed through time, but not space

Question 30

Supposed grave goods found in Neandertal burials

A) have been cited as evidence for Neandertal symbolic behavior
B) include bone and stone tools, along with animal bones
C) are found less consistently and in less concentrations than earlier hominin sites
D) suggest the presence of language
E) are not significant as evidence of intentional behavior.

Question 31

Some Neandertal physical characteristics may have arisen as adaptations to a ______ environment.

A) humid
B) hot
C) cold
D) tropical
E) high altitude

Question 32

One interpretation of the genetic evidence is that the intermixing of the Neandertal and the modern human lineages

A) never occurred
B) occurred between 2 million and 1 million years ago
C) occurred between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago
D) occurred between 690,000 and 550,000 years ago
E) will be impossible to determine.

Question 33

Which is not true about the Teshik-Tash remains?

A) They show evidence of hybridization.
B) The remains are a child not considered at first to be clearly a Neandertal.
C) They include tools of the Mousterian industry.
D) They have recently been evaluated using DNA analysis.
E) They demonstrate dispersion to central Asia.

Question 34

The La Chapelle-aux-Saints skeleton is not a typical Neandertal

A) and therefore not considered to be a Neandertal.
B) because it represents what is most likely a deliberate burial.
C) because is that of an older male.
D) because, as a specimen, it is a nearly complete skeleton.
E) because the individual not only had arthritis of the spine but evidences an extreme in the Neandertal range of variation.

Question 35

Neandertal skeletal remains indicate that they extended their range to the east, far into Central Asia, but as yet no remains have been found in

A) Israel
B) Southern Siberia
C) Iraq
D) Uzbekistan
E) China

Question 36

The sum of the genetic, fossil, and archaeological evidence suggests that Neandertals

A) are closely related to modern humans
B) are a fully separate biological species
C) were probably incapable of fertilely interbreeding with modern humans
D) represent several points in the dynamic process of speciation
E) were not successful hominins

Question 37

There is some evidence to suggest that Neandertals accomplished all of the following except

A) experienced injuries while hunting
B) had language capabilities equivalent to modern humans
C) buried their dead
D) were capable of symbolic behavior
E) adapted to a cold environment

Question 38

The Neandertal site in Croatia that has produced hominin remains showing the full suite of classic Neandertal morphology is

A) La Chapelle-aux-Saints
B) Krapina
C) Shanidar
D) Arago Cave
E) Broken Hill

Question 39

Neandertal crania are characterized by which of the following?

A) small, flat faces
B) the absence of brow ridges
C) a rounded, smooth occipital area like that seen in modern humans
D) a vertical forehead like that seen in modern humans
E) a projecting midface

Question 40

Upper Paleolithic stone tools were found at the French Neandertal site of St. Césaire, dated to _______ years ago.

A) 75,000
B) 50,000
C) 100,000
D) 35,000
E) 65,000

Question 41

Recent genetic evidence confirms that some interbreeding took place between Neandertals and H. sapiens sometime between 80,000 and 50,000.

Question 42

List the similarities between early premodern Homo sapiens fossils and Homo erectus.

Question 43

The main effect of fluctuating climates in Africa during the Pleistocene was to change rainfall patterns.

Question 44

Different stone tool industries coexisted in some areas for long periods during the Middle Pleistocene.

Question 45

The Gran Dolina human remains are definitely Homo erectus.

Question 46

Homo heidelbergensis refers to finds from China dating to between 850,000 and 200,000 years ago.

Question 47

Chinese archaeologists point out that Chinese premodern H. sapiens specimens show no indications of genetic continuity with modern H. sapiens from China.

Question 48

Genetic evidence suggests that Neandertal DNA is remarkably similar to modern humans.

Question 49

Why is it difficult to get a clear evolutionary picture of Middle Pleistocene hominins?

Question 50

List five major characteristics of Middle Pleistocene culture.

Question 51

List five elements related to subsistence strategies of Middle Pleistocene humans.

Question 52

The evolutionary roots of Neandertals are shrouded in mystery because there are no fossils from western Europe.

Question 53

Describe the cranial and postcranial anatomy of Neandertal skeletons.

Question 54

When African migrants came into contact with premodern humans living in Eurasia, some interbreeding occurred.

Question 55

Describe the injuries and pathologies evident in the Shanidar I skeleton. What, if anything, does this tell us about Neandertal lifestyle and/or cultural behavior?

Question 56

Neandertals are a fully separate biological species from modern humans and therefore theoretically incapable of fertilely interbreeding with modern people.

Question 57

Contrast the morphology of the earliest European premodern Homo sapiens with that of later European premodern Homo sapiens such as Neandertals.

Question 58

Premodern Homo sapiens continued to live in caves and open-air sites, but may also have increased their use of caves.

Question 59

List two pieces of genetic evidence that will help determine when fully human language first emerged.

Question 60

The premodern human fossils from Africa and Europe are more similar to each other than they are to the hominids from Asia.

Question 61

Describe what is known about Middle Pleistocene culture. Include information about technology, settlement, and subsistence.

Question 62

Discuss the evolutionary trends in the genus Homo. Start with the transition from early Homo to Homo erectus and end with the Neandertals. Be sure to include the temporal and geographic distributions of the various species of Homo.

Question 63

Discuss the capability to conduct MtDNA analyses of fossil skeletal remains. What contributions to the understanding of what it means to be human will this capability have in the future?

Question 64

Some paleoanthropologists classify Neandertals as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis? Others disagree. What are the biological and phylogenetic arguments?

Question 65

Characterize Mousterian technology, subsistence, settlements, and symbolic behavior.