Deck 5: The First Humans: The Evolution of Homo Sapiens

Question 1

In the fictional scenario presented by novelist Jean Bruller (Vercors):

A) the Neandertals are still alive and living in secluded regions of the Arctic
B) human ancestors and human beings coexisted during the Miocene
C) paleoanthropologists travel back in time to study human ancestors directly
D) a population of archaic humans is found alive in New Guinea

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The scenario presented in Jean Bruller's (Vercours') novel is relevant to actual paleoanthropology. Something like it could have happened because:

A) chimp DNA and human DNA have been shown to be 99% identical
B) the production of living extinct creatures from the DNA present in their fossil bones will probably happen in the next century
C) there is increasing evidence that presumed extinct hominins are actually alive in the most remote parts of New Guinea
D) anatomically modern humans and Neandertals coexisted, and the Neandertals became extinct relatively recently

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Premodern Homo sapiens shows up in the fossil record about how long ago:

A) 1 million years ago
B) 400,000 years ago
C) 250,000 years ago
D) 100,000 years ago

Answer 3

B

Question 4

About how large is the mean cranial capacity of premodern Homo sapiens (excluding the Neandertals):

A) 1000 ml
B) 1260 ml
C) 1550 ml
D) 2300 ml

Question 5

About how much bigger (what percent) is the cranial capacity of premodern Homo sapiens than that of Homo erectus:

A) 10%
B) 15 %
C) 50%
D) 100%

Question 6

Which of the following specimens are considered to be premodern Homo sapiens:

A) Lucy, the Nariokotome Boy, and Tepexpan Man
B) A. L. 444-2, ER3733, and Jinniushan Man
C) Steinheim, Ndutu, and Narmada
D) Cro Magnon and Kennewick

Question 7

Which of the following are African representatives of the premodern Homo sapiens:

A) Ndutu, Bodo, and Kabwe
B) Arago, Vértesszölös, and Swanscombe
C) Narmada, Jinniushan, and Dali
D) Zhoukoudian, Hexian, and Yunxian

Question 8

Which of the following are Asian representatives of the premodern Homo sapiens:

A) Ndutu, Bodo, and Kabwe
B) Arago, Vértesszölös, and Swanscombe
C) Narmada, Jinniushan, and Dali
D) Zhoukoudian, Hexian, and Yunxian

Question 9

Which of the following are European representatives of the premodern Homo sapiens:

A) Ndutu, Bodo, and Kabwe
B) Arago, Vértesszölös, and Swanscombe
C) Narmada, Jinniushan, and Dali
D) Zhoukoudian, Hexian, and Yunxian

Question 10

The name for the stone tool industry associated with the premodern Homo sapiens is:

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

Question 11

The Levallois stone tool manufacturing strategy was to:

A) produce a symmetrical core tool
B) produce a series of long, thin, blades
C) produce so-called fluted spear points
D) remove a series of flakes from a carefully prepared core

Question 12

Replicative studies have shown that about how many consistently sized and shaped flakes could be removed, on average, from a single Levallois core:

A) four or five
B) one or two
C) twenty
D) none; Levallois was a technique for producing core tools, not flakes

Question 13

The currently accepted view is that the Neandertals are:

A) a variety of Homo erectus
B) an extinct race of anatomically modern human beings
C) one variety of premodern Homo sapiens
D) a hoax

Question 14

The stereotype of the Neandertals as primitive and ape-like:

A) is now known to be a rather accurate portrayal of this extinct hominin
B) was based on the mixing of its bones with those of an ancient ape by an early analyst
C) resulted from a late-nineteenth-century fossil hoax
D) resulted from a preconception of what an ancient human ancestor should look like

Question 15

The best way to describe the Neandertals is as a kind of:

A) ape
B) missing link
C) human being
D) evolutionary throwback

Question 16

Marcellin Boule's reconstruction of "Neanderthal Man" depicted the hominin as:

A) a bent-kneed, splay-toed, primitive beast
B) essentially modern in appearance
C) a gorilla
D) a large-brained quadruped

Question 17

In terms of overall shape, comparing the profile of a Neandertal cranium with that of an anatomically modern human being is like comparing the profile of a:

A) softball to a hardball
B) football to a volleyball
C) ping pong ball to a tennis ball
D) Frisbee to a boomerang

Question 18

The mean cranial capacity of the Neandertals is about:

A) 1000 ml
B) 1250 ml
C) 1480 ml
D) 2000 ml

Question 19

Compared to modern human beings, Neandertal cranial capacity is:

A) about half the size
B) about three-quarters the size
C) about the same size
D) 50% bigger

Question 20

In profile, the Neandertal cranium is:

A) flattened, with a steeply sloping forehead
B) round
C) roughly pentagonal
D) roughly trapezoidal

Question 21

Compared to modern human beings, the supraorbital region of Neandertals is:

A) smaller
B) far more massive
C) about the same
D) Neandertals had no supraorbital region

Question 22

Based on the fossil record, one key feature lacking in the Neandertal face but present in anatomically modern human beings is a:

A) supraorbital ridge
B) sagittal keel
C) chin
D) projecting nose

Question 23

CT scans tracking the development of the brains of modern human children exhibit a dramatic widening of the temporal lobes during their first year of life. When compared to endocasts made of the crania of Neandertal children, Neandertal brain development is most similar to that seen in:

A) modern human children
B) modern chimpanzees
C) Homo erectus
D) none of the above; Neandertal brain development isn't similar to any other species

Question 24

The morphology of the Neandertals from the neck down implies a biological adaptation to:

A) meat eating
B) brachiation
C) cold climates
D) warm climates

Question 25

Based on bodily proportions, researchers determined that the lower critical temperature for Neandertals was about:

A) 1º C lower than it is for anatomically modern human beings
B) 1º C higher than it is for anatomically modern human beings
C) the same as it is for anatomically modern human beings
D) 10º C lower than it is for anatomically modern human beings

Question 26

The Neandertal torso and extremities were:

A) short and broad
B) long and thin
C) highly variable
D) unknown, since only cranial fragments have been found

Question 27

Neandertal sites have been found as far north as:

A) southern Europe
B) Scotland
C) just south of the Arctic Circle
D) the North Pole

Question 28

Which parts of the Neandertal skeleton can be characterized as reflecting "musculoskeletal hypertrophy":

A) scapula
B) tibia
C) humerus
D) all of the above

Question 29

Musculoskeletal hypertrophy refers to:

A) a disease seen in Neandertal fossils in which the bones of the skeleton have atrophied as a result of malnutrition
B) the great size and strength of Neandertal anatomy
C) imperfections in tooth enamel seen in Neandertal skeletons and resulting from malnutrition
D) a genetic condition leading to great height, seen commonly in Neandertal skeletons

Question 30

The greater robusticity seen in the skeletons of Neandertals when compared to anatomically modern human beings:

A) is seen only in adult examples of Neandertals
B) shows up first in Neandertals in their teen years
C) is seen only in male Neandertals
D) is seen even in the youngest Neandertals-one as young as 6 months old when it died-yet found

Question 31

The Sima de los Huesos site is of great significance in our analysis of the Neandertals because:

A) there are several intentional graves in the cave
B) there is evidence of cannibalism at this Neandertal site
C) the more than two dozen individuals recovered represent a very early form of Neandertal or "pre-Neandertal"
D) the Neandertals found in the cave are the youngest ever recovered; they represent a population of the last Neandertals

Question 32

The pre-Neandertals found in the Atapuerca Mountains in northern Spain are about how old:

A) 32,000 years
B) 80,000 years
C) 250,000 years
D) 430,000 years

Question 33

The brain size of the crania recovered at Sima de los Huesos is about what percentage of the modern human mean:

A) 50%
B) 66%
C) 85%
D) 99%

Question 34

The pre-Neandertals at Sima de los Huesos exhibited about what proportion of the standard "classic" Neandertal features:

A) two-thirds
B) one-half
C) one-third
D) zero

Question 35

The great florescence of the Neandertals in Europe and Southwest Asia occurred about when:

A) 80,000-40,000 years ago
B) 40,000-30,000 years ago
C) 200,000-50,000 years ago
D) 27,000-16,000 years ago

Question 36

A genetic analysis performed on Neandertal remains at the El Sidrón site in Spain suggests that:

A) the males of the group were biologically related, but the females were not related either to the males or to each other
B) none of the people in the group were biologically related
C) the females of the group were biologically related, but the males were not related either to the females or to each other
D) all members of the group were biologically closely related

Question 37

The Mousterian technology focused on the production of:

A) core tools
B) precisely made flake tools
C) long, thin blades
D) bifacially retouched projectile points

Question 38

Analysis of Neandertal subsistence indicates that these hominins were:

A) hunters
B) vegetarians
C) scavengers
D) probably opportunistic foragers

Question 39

The animal bones recovered at the Neandertal site in Kobeh Cave show that the Neandertals:

A) had access to the animal carcasses only after carnivores had eaten their fill
B) practiced a simple version of animal husbandry
C) had hunted the animals and extracted the best cuts of meat for their subsistence
D) used the animals in ritual sacrifice

Question 40

Archaeologist John Shea's analysis of impact wear on some Mousterian tools indicates that these tools were used:

A) to harvest wild grain
B) as projectiles, probably in hunting
C) in ceremonies related to burial of the dead
D) all of the above

Question 41

At the 50,000-year-old Neandertal site of Um el Tlel, researchers found direct evidence of:

A) Neandertal hunting; a stone point embedded in the neck bone of a wild goat
B) a primitive ceramic industry in the form of crude clay pots
C) burial ceremonialism
D) human sacrifice and cannibalism

Question 42

Comparing the caves inhabited by Neandertals and anatomically modern human beings in the Middle East, archaeologist John Shea found:

A) no evidence of hunting tools in the Neandertal sites
B) evidence of bows and arrows at the Neandertal sites
C) more spear points at the Neandertal sites than in those produced by contemporary, anatomically modern human beings
D) fluted points at the Neandertal sites but not the sites of anatomically modern humans

Question 43

Isotope analysis of Neandertal bones from Vindija Cave in Croatia shows a diet similar to:

A) top-level carnivores
B) fruit-eating monkeys
C) herbivores
D) insect-eating chimpanzees

Question 44

One of the Neandertal skeletons from Shanidar Cave shows persuasive evidence of:

A) cannibalism
B) warfare
C) the oldest evidence of the presence of AIDS in a hominin population
D) compassion

Question 45

The practice of ceremonial interment of the dead can be traced:

A) no further back than the earliest anatomically modern human beings in Europe
B) to Homo erectus
C) to the Neandertals
D) to Homo habilis

Question 46

Neandertal burials:

A) are less complex than those of ancient modern humans but nevertheless clear evidence of a ritual disposal of the dead
B) were almost certainly only for hygienic purposes
C) are usually filled with ritual artifacts, evidence of a Neandertal belief in a life after death
D) are a fiction; a careful reanalysis of site reports shows that the burials were only in the minds of the excavators

Question 47

The first in the form of cave paintings was produced:

A) by anatomically modern human beings after 40,000 years ago
B) by anatomically modern human beings after 20,000 years ago
C) by Neandertals after 65,000 years ago
D) by Homo hablis, beginning more than 2 million years ago

Question 48

The oldest morphologically modern human crania date to is:

A) 40,000 years ago
B) 100,000 years ago
C) 195,000 years ago
D) 300,000 years ago

Question 49

The oldest morphologically modern human cranium has been found at which site:

A) Jebel Irhoud in Morocco
B) Cro Magnon in France
C) Zhoukodian in China
D) Carlbad Caverns in the United States

Question 50

The Omo I and Hereto crania have been identified as having belonged to:

A) premodern human beings
B) forms transitional between premodern and modern human beings
C) modern human beings
D) African Neandertals

Question 51

The Border Cave and Klasies River mouth sites produced fossils that appear to:

A) be those of premodern Homo sapiens
B) represent hybridization between premodern and anatomically modern humans
C) be those of the oldest anatomically modern Homo sapiens
D) be those of very recent Neandertals

Question 52

What anatomical feature does at least one of the Klasies River Mouth fossils possess that premodern humans lack:

A) a supraorbital torus
B) a maxilla
C) a chin
D) a hyoid bone

Question 53

The earliest skeletons of anatomically modern Homo sapiens outside of Africa have been found in:

A) Italy
B) Java
C) Tibilisi
D) Israel

Question 54

The sites where the earliest skeletons of anatomically modern Homo sapiens outside of Africa have been found are:

A) Skhul and Qafzeh
B) Amud and Tabun
C) Shanidar and St. Césaire
D) Kent's Cave and Howe Caverns

Question 55

The oldest skeletal remains of anatomically modern Homo sapiens found outside of Africa date to about:

A) 35,000-40,000 years ago
B) 55,000-65,000 years ago
C) 75,000-80,000 years ago
D) 177,000 years ago

Question 56

The oldest skeletal remains of anatomically modern Homo sapiens outside of Africa have been found in:

A) Spain
B) Israel
C) Germany
D) Italy

Question 57

The most recent dates for the Neandertals fall in the range of:

A) 80,000-70,000 years ago
B) 60,000-50,000 years ago
C) 36,000-30,000 years ago
D) 25,000-20,000 years ago

Question 58

Neandertals and anatomically modern Homo sapiens overlap in time for about how long in southwest Asia:

A) at least 40,000 years
B) about 10,000 years
C) less than 1,000 years
D) they don't overlap; the last of the Neandertals died out before the first of the anatomically modern human beings appeared

Question 59

Neandertals and anatomically modern Homo sapiens overlap in time for about how long in Europe:

A) at least 40,000 years
B) about 10,000 years
C) fewer than 1,000 years
D) they don't overlap; the last of the Neandertals died out before the first of the anatomically modern human beings appear

Question 60

The fossils from the sites of St. Césaire and Zafarraya are both:

A) the earliest evidence of anatomically modern human beings in Europe, dating to about 100,000 years ago
B) the latest evidence of Neandertals in Europe, dating to after 36,000 years ago
C) the best evidence yet for hybridization between Neandertals and anatomically modern humans
D) the best evidence yet for the presence of Homo erectus in Europe at about 1 million years ago

Question 61

Neandertal mtDNA recovered from bones found at the original Neandertal site, Krapina in Croatia, and Mezmaiskaya Cave in Russia:

A) was too deteriorated to offer any conclusion about genetic affinity
B) all showed substantial differences when compared to modern human mtDNA
C) looked remarkably similar to modern human mtDNA
D) no mtDNA was found in these bones because they were all fossilized

Question 62

Comparing the reconstructed Neandertal genome with that of a modern human being, researchers have concluded that modern humans and Neandertals were genetically:

A) quite similar
B) quite different
C) identical
D) none of the above

Question 63

About what percentage of the genome of modern human beings in Europe and Asia can be traced to Neandertals:

A) 20%-25%
B) 10%-12%
C) 1%-4%
D) 0%

Question 64

About what percentage of the genome of modern human beings in Africa can be traced to Neandertals:

A) 20%-25%
B) 10%-12%
C) 1%-4%
D) 0%

Question 65

Key differences in the Neandertal genome, when compared to the modern human genome, involve:

A) muscle strength
B) cranial capacity
C) eye color
D) cranial morphology

Question 66

In the consensus view, anatomically modern human beings evolved in:

A) Africa
B) Southwest Asia
C) southern Europa
D) Java

Question 67

In the consensus view, anatomically modern human beings moved into Southwest Asia sometime between:

A) 1 million and 2 million years ago
B) 500,000 and 250,000 years ago
C) 150,000 and 100,000 years ago
D) after 50,000 years ago

Question 68

Anatomically modern human beings expanded into mainland China as much as sometime between:

A) 1 million and 2 million years ago
B) 500,000 and 250,000 years ago
C) 150,000 and 100,000 years ago
D) after 50,000 years ago

Question 69

At least in some cases, when the geographically expanding population of anatomically modern human beings encountered local groups of premodern varieties of humans, especially the Neandertals, the premoderns:

A) killed them off
B) cannibalized them
C) enslaved them
D) mated with them and produced offspring

Question 70

About what percent of the reconstructed Neandertal genome is preserved across the modern human genome:

A) 20%
B) 10%
C) 1-4%
D) 0%

Question 71

If about 2% of your genome is Neandertal (which is common among Europeans) than you share as much DNA with a Neandertal as you do with your:

A) grandmother
B) great-grandmother
C) great uncle
D) great-great-great-great-grandmother

Question 72

Why don't the native people of Africa have any Neandertal DNA?

A) they evolved after the Neandertals became extinct
B) the Neandertals didn't live in Africa
C) the mtDNA of the native people of Africa was incompatible with Neandertal DNA
D) the assertion in the question is false. In fact, native Africans exhibit high levels of Neandertal DNA

Question 73

The stone tools of the first anatomically modern human beings:

A) are far more sophisticated and advanced than those of their premodern ancestors
B) ironically, less sophisticated than those made by the premoderns
C) anatomically modern humans did not work in stone; they made bone tools
D) are very similar to those of the premoderns

Question 74

The Denisovans were:

A) Neandertals
B) anatomically modern human beings
C) an extinct variety of premodern human beings
D) a surviving group of premodern human beings living in New Guinea

Question 75

When comparing the DNA of anatomically modern human beings, the Neandertals, and the Denisovans, which groups are most similar:

A) Neandertals and Denisovans
B) Neandertals and anatomically modern humans
C) Denisovans and anatomically modern humans
D) all three are equally similar to one another

Question 76

Denisovan DNA is found in its greatest concentration among modern humans in which geographical area:

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

Question 77

The highest percentage of Denisovan DNA in modern human populations is about:

A) 1%
B) 5%
C) 10%
D) 25%

Question 78

The bone tools from the Katanda sites in Zaire are significant because they show:

A) that the stone tools of premodern and anatomically modern human beings are virtually identical
B) that the stone tools of the first anatomically modern human beings are far more sophisticated and advanced than those of their premodern ancestors
C) the earliest anatomically modern humans relied on bone rather than stone for their tools
D) a sophisticated tool making technology 90,000 years ago and associated with anatomically modern humans

Question 79

The Aurignacian tools of Europe's first anatomically modern human beings:

A) slowly evolved from the earlier Mousterian industry of the Neandertals
B) are derived from the Katanda bone tools of Africa
C) are derived from the stone tool industries of the earlier anatomically modern humans of Skhul and Qafzeh
D) appeared rather suddenly in Europe at about 40,000 years ago

Question 80

The Châtelperronian industry appears to have been:

A) a late industry of the Neandertals
B) the earliest industry of anatomically modern Europeans
C) derived from the stone tool industries of Africa
D) related to the Clovis spear points of North America