Deck 5: The Primates 

Question 1

Primatology helps anthropologists make inferences about the early social organization of hominids and untangle issues of human nature and the origins of culture. Of particular relevance to these types of questions are two kinds of primates:

A) catarrhines and platyrrhines.
B) Gigantopithecus and Pierolapithecus.
C) those whose ecological adaptations are similar to our own (terrestrial monkeys and apes), and those most closely related to us, the great apes (chimpanzees and gorillas).
D) those that are in the tribe hominini, and those in the family hominidae.
E) those with whom we share the least number of homologies, and those with whom we share the most analogies.

Answer 1

those whose ecological adaptations are similar to our own (terrestrial monkeys and apes), and those most closely related to us, the great apes (chimpanzees and gorillas).

Question 2

New World monkeys are the only anthropoids that

A) are capable of brachiation.
B) have rough patches of skin on the buttocks.
C) have orthograde postures.
D) have prehensile tails.
E) exhibit sexual dimorphism.

Answer 2

have prehensile tails.

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT an adaptive trend in anthropoids?

A) stereoscopic vision
B) increased brain complexity
C) grasping hands and feet
D) decreased sociality
E) enhanced sense of touch

Answer 3

decreased sociality

Question 4

Which of the following are most closely related to chimpanzees?

A) lemurs
B) orangutans
C) humans
D) gibbons
E) siamangs

Question 5

What is the term for traits that organisms have jointly inherited from a common ancestor?

A) analogies
B) meiosis
C) homologies
D) alleles
E) phenotypes

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT considered an anthropoid trend?

A) an increase in hearing capacity at the expense of color vision
B) a decrease in litter size
C) an increase of cranial capacity relative to body size
D) the evolution of a complicated visual system
E) a shift from a moist muzzle and tactile hairs to fingers as the primary organs of touch

Question 7

What is a taxonomy?

A) an adaptive trait due to convergent evolution
B) a trait inherited from a common ancestor
C) a set of selective forces enacted on one lineage
D) a classification scheme where organisms are assigned to categories
E) a way to define an organism's repertoire of social behaviors

Question 8

The tribe hominini consists of

A) all primates that share a genetic relationship with humans.
B) all bipedal primates that are represented in living species today.
C) what scientists used to refer to as hominoids twenty years ago.
D) all the great apes.
E) all of the human species that ever existed (including extinct ones), excluding chimps and gorillas.

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT a hominoid?

A) Homo sapiens
B) orangutan
C) siamang
D) lemur
E) gibbon

Question 10

Bonobos, which belong to the same genus as chimpanzees, are exceptional among primates because of

A) their marked sexual dimorphism.
B) their male-centered communities.
C) their cannibalism.
D) their ability to withstand the pressures of deforestation.
E) the frequency with which they have sex, a behavior associated with conflict avoidance.

Question 11

Which of the following is an example of an analogy?

A) bony eye sockets in chimps and similar structures in gorillas
B) similarities in chromosomal DNA between apes and humans
C) the mammary glands of dogs and the mammary glands of cats
D) dolphin fins and fish fins
E) pentadactyly (having five digits on the hands and feet) among baboons and macaques

Question 12

Which of the following was NOT one of the trends that distinguished anthropoids from other primates?

A) a shift from reliance on smell to reliance on sight
B) improved stereoscopic and color vision
C) increased reliance on smell
D) a tendency toward being active during the day
E) None of these answers are correct, as all were part of anthropoid evolution.

Question 13

Platyrrhines are to catarrhines as

A) brachiators are to nonbrachiators.
B) terrestrial is to arboreal.
C) prosimians are to anthropoids.
D) Old World monkeys are to New World monkeys.
E) New World monkeys are to Old World monkeys.

Question 14

Ancient anthropoids began to have fewer offspring that required longer and more attentive care. What did this select for?

A) a greater reliance on nuts and tubers
B) pair bonding, which resembles the nuclear family, among 90 percent of present-day anthropoids
C) increased reliance on life in trees, which protected the young from predators
D) a greater capacity for brachiation
E) increased social complexity

Question 15

Which of the following primates is arboreal, active during the day, and has a prehensile tail?

A) Old World monkey
B) prosimian
C) gibbon
D) New World monkey
E) extinct

Question 16

Common ancestry isn't the only reason for similarities between species. Similar traits can also arise if species experience similar selective forces and adapt to them in similar ways. This process is known as

A) homology.
B) molecular convergence.
C) convergent evolution.
D) genetic evolution.
E) gene flow.

Question 17

Which of the following statements about orangutans is true?

A) As is typical of arboreal species, the orangutan exhibits little sexual dimorphism.
B) Orangutans used to live over much of Asia but now are found only on two islands in Indonesia.
C) The large size of the orangutan protects it from extinction.
D) Orangutans are less arboreal than gorillas.
E) Orangutans are the most sociable primates.

Question 18

Which of the following primate traits are believed to have been selected for life in trees?

A) larger females and gentle males
B) fingernails (instead of claws) and soft fingertips
C) meat eating and aggression
D) stereoscopic vision and an opposable thumb
E) fewer offspring and bipedalism

Question 19

Which of the following is NOT one of the general primate adaptations discussed in the textbook?

A) aquatic lifestyle
B) small litter size
C) stereoscopic vision
D) five-fingered hands
E) relatively large brain size

Question 20

Which of the following is/are shared by all anthropoids?

A) stereoscopic vision
B) bipedalism; and one offspring born at a time
C) a decrease in the size of canines and an increase in the size of molars
D) prehensile tails
E) the ability to knuckle-walk and carry tools

Question 21

Because primates are highly social animals, they provide less care to offspring over a shorter period of time.

Question 22

The study of terrestrial primates and the great apes is of particular relevance to anthropologists.

Question 23

What species do some think coexisted with Homo erectus in Asia?

A) Afropithecus
B) Dryopithecus
C) Pierolapithecus
D) Gigantopithecus
E) Sivapithecus

Question 24

Which of the following statements about the Oligocene epoch is FALSE?

A) Hominins first appeared during this epoch.
B) It belongs to the Tertiary period.
C) It was a time of major geological and climatic change.
D) This period dates to 34-23 m.y.a.
E) Most of what we know about primates from this period comes from fossils found in the Fayum.

Question 25

Opposable thumbs evolved as early primates adapted to terrestrial life.

Question 26

Most New World monkeys have a tendency to use an orthograde posture.

Question 27

The primate suborder Haplorrhini is found only in Madagascar.

Question 28

When scientists use the word hominid today, they mean pretty much the same thing as when they used this word 20 years ago.

Question 29

Based on scientific theories of evolution, humans are not descended from gorillas or chimps. Rather,

A) it is the other way around: gorillas and chimps are descended from humans.
B) they are descended from gorillas.
C) humans and African apes share a common ancestor.
D) they are descended from chimps.
E) humans are descended from Adam and Eve.

Question 30

What helped create an ecological niche that enabled primates to spread and diversify?

A) spread of flowering plants
B) separation of the primate suborders
C) long period of global cooling
D) spread of grasslands
E) extinction of primate predators

Question 31

Analogies are similarities that are shared by organisms that belong to the same genus.

Question 32

What are the eras of ancient, middle, and recent life, respectively?

A) Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic
B) Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian
C) Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary
D) Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic
E) Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Recent

Question 33

Arboreal primates tend to be smaller and more agile.

Question 34

When do the first hominin fossils appear?

A) Miocene
B) Oligocene
C) Pliocene
D) Holocene
E) Pleistocene

Question 35

A tiny complete skeleton found recently in China supports the view that

A) the first primates evolved in Asia.
B) Asian primates were the first primates to live in the Paleozoic.
C) the specimens previously thought to be primates from Europe and North Africa were actually mislabeled.
D) larger primates lived only in Europe.
E) our earliest ancestors were nocturnal, like Asian tarsiers.

Question 36

Humans and apes belong to the same taxonomic superfamily, Hominoidea.

Question 37

Homologies are similarities between two species that have been jointly inherited from a common ancestor.

Question 38

Platyrrhines are New World monkeys.

Question 39

In primate evolution, in which of the following epochs did proto-monkeys first appear?

A) Oligocene (34-23 m.y.a.)
B) Miocene (23-25 m.y.a.)
C) Eocene (54-34 m.y.a.)
D) Paleocene (65-54 m.y.a.)
E) Pliocene (5-2.6 m.y.a.)

Question 40

To what primate suborder do tarsiers belong?

A) Prosimian
B) Haplorrhini
C) Orthograde
D) Prehensile
E) Strepsirrhini

Question 41

Old World monkeys include both arboreal and terrestrial species.

Question 42

Chimpanzees' social networks involve complex systems of dominance relationships.

Question 43

Old World monkeys are both terrestrial and arboreal.

Question 44

We live in the Cenozoic era.

Question 45

Because they are predominantly terrestrial, gorillas exhibit only minor sexual dimorphism.

Question 46

Primates evolved along with the expansion of flowering plants.

Question 47

Sexual dimorphism tends to be more pronounced in terrestrial primate species.

Question 48

It was during the Oligocene that proto-monkeys became the most numerous of the primates.