Deck 5: Primates: Past and Present

Question 1

Which of these is a special dietary adaptation of the colobines?

A) they have an extended gut to help them digest leaves
B) they have modified incisors to help them gouge trees for sap
C) they have very long tongues so they can reach nectar inside flowers
D) they have developed immunity to most plant toxins

Answer 1

they have an extended gut to help them digest leaves

Question 2

As with humans,other primates need play time to help develop normally.This is because play __________.

A) provides a way to learn social skills
B) creates a status-free social system
C) is a necessary activity in adult primate life
D) determines one's place in the social hierarchy

Answer 2

provides a way to learn social skills

Question 3

What is one simple distinction between lorises and bush babies?

A) Lorises move much more slowly than bush babies.
B) Lorises are more terrestrial than bush babies.
C) Lorises eat insects, and bush babies are vegetarian.
D) Lorises are diurnal, and bush babies are nocturnal.

Answer 3

Lorises move much more slowly than bush babies.

Question 4

The Y-5 pattern of hominids refers to a feature on the __________.

A) molars
B) cerebral cortex
C) femur
D) pelvis

Question 5

Which of the following is absent among hominoids?

A) a tail
B) thumbs
C) forward-facing eyes
D) toenails

Question 6

How are primate teeth specialized?

A) The front teeth are often highly specialized, but the chewing teeth are unspecialized.
B) The chewing teeth are often highly specialized, but the front teeth are unspecialized.
C) The back teeth are completely absent, allowing for the primate's distinctive flat face.
D) The front teeth are completely absent, allowing for the primate's distinctive flat face.

Question 7

Which of the following traits do most primates share?

A) two bones in the lower portion of the forelimbs
B) cold-blooded
C) short infant dependency period
D) monoscopic vision

Question 8

Which of these is a late Miocene ape?

A) Dryopithecus
B) Pierolapithecus
C) Aegyptopithecus
D) Kenyapithecus

Question 9

Where is the best record of Oligocene anthropoid fossils located?

A) the Fayum
B) Olduvai Gorge
C) the U.S. southwest
D) the Gobi desert

Question 10

All primates have prehensile __________.

A) hands
B) tails
C) feet
D) elbows

Question 11

Which recently discovered species is providing a glimpse into the poorly understood period of hominoid evolution?

A) Sahelanthropus tchadensis
B) Homo floresiensis
C) Homo sapiens
D) Paranthrobus robustus

Question 12

Captive bonobos show language comprehension abilities similar to that of a(n)__________.

A) two-year-old child
B) adult
C) parrot
D) domestic dog

Question 13

With whom do social relationships begin for all primates?

A) the mother
B) the father
C) siblings
D) cousins

Question 14

Which of these features is characteristic of New World monkeys?

A) three premolars
B) terrestrial
C) solitary
D) carnivorous

Question 15

From what group of animals do scientists believe primates developed?

A) insectivores
B) carnivores
C) reptiles
D) amphibians

Question 16

When did the hominoids first appear?

A) Miocene
B) Eocene
C) Oligocene
D) Holocene

Question 17

How do primates differ from other mammals?

A) There is a set of physical traits that, as a group, are unique to the primates.
B) Primates have a number of traits that are not found in other mammal groups.
C) There is no way to distinguish a primate from other orders of mammals.
D) Primates have fewer distinguishing features than other orders of mammals.

Question 18

Primates have a stronger sense of __________ and a weaker sense of __________ than other mammals.

A) sight; smell
B) hearing; sight
C) taste; sight
D) hearing; taste

Question 19

Hominins have a division of labor based on __________.

A) gender
B) birth order
C) body size
D) intelligence

Question 20

The oldest definite primates,adapids and omomyids,are classified as early __________.

A) prosimians
B) hominins
C) cercopithecines
D) anthropoids

Question 21

The traditional explanation for the emergence of primates relates to an adaptation for __________.

A) tree living
B) life in the savannah
C) toolmaking
D) nocturnal activity

Question 22

Why is so little known about the transition to early hominins?

A) There are few Miocene ape fossils from Africa, which is where the earliest hominin fossils have been found.
B) There are hardly any hominin fossils with which we can compare ape fossils.
C) The Miocene ape fossils overlap with early hominins, and there are many intermediate forms.
D) The transition to hominins happened very suddenly, and there are few comparable skeletal traits between them and the apes.

Question 23

A dish-shaped pelvis,curved spine,and arched feet are all related to the hominin trait of __________.

A) bipedalism
B) big brain to body size
C) social living
D) hunting

Question 24

How does the rafting hypothesis propose that anthropoid primates migrated to the New World?

A) they were carried across the ocean on drifting mats of vegetation
B) they built simple rafts to travel from island to island
C) the New World monkeys evolved separately from the Old World monkeys
D) they migrated across southern land bridges

Question 25

Which of these is an example of primate tool use?

A) chimpanzees termite fishing
B) baboons baring their canine teeth
C) howlers calling to other monkey troops
D) marmosets sleeping in the trees

Question 26

Hominin females can have sex __________.

A) at any time during the year
B) only when they are likely to conceive
C) only when there is a new male present in the group
D) at any time the males allow it

Question 27

Which of these animals contradicts the arboreal theory of primate evolution?

A) tree squirrel
B) rabbit
C) fox
D) raccoon

Question 28

Which of these animals could be described as quadrupedal?

A) horse
B) chicken
C) human
D) snake

Question 29

Why are plesiadapiforms not considered true primates?

A) They lacked stereoscopic vision and grasping hands.
B) They were not mammals.
C) They had highly mobile elbow joints.
D) They appear too early in the fossil record to be related to primates.

Question 30

Which of these is a part of the hominoid group?

A) hylobates
B) atelines
C) cercopithecines
D) colobines

Question 31

Which of the following animals is a prosimian?

A) lemur
B) baboon
C) spider monkey
D) chimpanzee

Question 32

As far as we know,hominins are unique in their ability to __________.

A) use one tool to make another
B) use found objects as tools
C) modify objects to be used as tools
D) copy toolmaking behavior by observing others

Question 33

Because of its facial and other skeletal features,Sivapithecus is believed to be __________.

A) ancestral to modern orangutans
B) ancestral to modern humans
C) closely related to the old world monkeys
D) closely related to the prosimians

Question 34

What is the relationship between the terms hominoid and hominin?

A) All hominins are hominoids, but not all hominoids are hominins.
B) All hominoids are hominins, but not all hominins are hominoids.
C) Hominoids are all extinct, but there are many living hominins.
D) Hominins are all extinct, but there are many living hominoids.

Question 35

Why do most scholars classify Aegyptopithecus as a primitive catarrhine?

A) While the skull has some apelike characteristics, most of the skeleton is monkeylike.
B) Aegyptopithecus had cheek pouches and ischial callosities like some modern catarrhines.
C) The skeleton of Aegyptopithecus looks remarkably like that of a modern baboon.
D) There is evidence of a prehensile tail, which is only found in catarrhines.

Question 36

If you are trying to classify an unknown primate as either a prosimian or an anthropoid,what features should you examine?

A) facial features and ear mobility
B) number of fingers and toes
C) patterns of locomotion
D) social group size and structure

Question 37

If you are in Africa and you see a large monkey with downward-facing nostrils,you are likely looking at a __________.

A) catarrhine
B) platyrrhine
C) anthrorrhine
D) strepsirrhine

Question 38

The propliopithecids are most like __________.

A) orangutans
B) rhesus monkeys
C) squirrel monkeys
D) ring-tailed lemurs

Question 39

What group of primates would be classified as prosimians in one classificatory system,and haplorhines in another?

A) tarsiers
B) lorises
C) bush babies
D) lemurs

Question 40

What other development around the end of the Cenozoic plays an important role in early primate evolution?

A) the emergence of angiosperm
B) the transition from dinosaurs to birds
C) the disappearance of mammoths
D) the dispersal of human populations

Question 41

How do you distinguish between an anthropoid and a prosimian primate? What is the importance of the differences between the two?

Question 42

What phenomenon does continental drift explain?

A) different climates in the past
B) much larger animals in the past
C) greater biodiversity in the present
D) greater specialization in the present

Question 43

Of the physical traits that distinguish hominins from other hominoids,which do you think is most critical for the identification of a fossil species as a hominin? Explain your answer.

Question 44

Why are we so unsure about the adaptations of the earliest primates?

A) We still have very little fossil evidence of these animals.
B) The diversity of primates is too big to study the animals efficiently.
C) The animals were wiped out suddenly in an environmental catastrophe.
D) The fossil remains are nearly identical to the skeletons of modern primates.

Question 45

Although it was a hominoid,in what way was Proconsul unlike any living ape?

A) It was primarily an arboreal quadruped.
B) It had a tail.
C) It was nocturnal.
D) It had a mostly solitary lifestyle.

Question 46

What evidence is there that humans share a suspensory past with other hominoid primates?

A) We have highly mobile shoulder joints.
B) Our arms are longer than our legs.
C) We have fully opposable big toes.
D) Our knees lock so they cannot hyperextend.

Question 47

What is the relationship between brain size and the life cycle?

A) Animals with big brains tend to mature slowly and live longer than other animals.
B) Animals with big brains tend to mature slowly but die earlier than other animals.
C) Animals with big brains have average life spans, due to the pressure of normalizing selection.
D) Animals with big brains develop quickly but live much longer than other animals.

Question 48

List and explain the key traits that are characteristic of the order Primates.

Question 49

None of the Middle or Late Miocene apes seem to be particularly good candidates for the ancestor of the hominins.What evidence would be needed to identify a possible ancestral ape for our lineage?

Question 50

What is the key feature that distinguishes hominins from other primates?

A) consistent erect walking on two feet
B) the ability to use tools
C) a long infant dependency period
D) lifelong pair-bonded mating

Question 51

Compare and contrast the arboreal theory with the visual predation theory for the emergence of the first primates.

Question 52

How does Sussman's theory agree with Cartmill's ideas about early primate evolution?

A) both accept that early primates probably used small branches for travel and foraging
B) both accept that early primates were most likely nocturnal
C) the two theories reject the idea of primates living in trees
D) the two theories reject the idea that early primates ate insects

Question 53

What is the most likely explanation for the disappearance of most Miocene apes from the fossil record?

A) They went extinct due to environmental change.
B) They evolved into later hominin species.
C) The apes migrated north, and fewer digs are conducted in Europe.
D) They are easily mistaken for later ape species.

Question 54

What might explain the fact that hominins are completely terrestrial?

A) cultural advances such as weapons or fire may have eliminated the need for nightly shelter in trees
B) hominins, unlike other primates, have no natural predators and thus no need to seek protected sleeping sites
C) hominins lost the anatomical adaptations required to allow them to climb trees
D) hominins are simply too large to move safely through the trees

Question 55

What is the evidence that parapithecids were diurnal?

A) The fossil record shows they had small eye sockets.
B) There were only diurnal primates around at this time.
C) Their teeth were adapted for eating insects, which are active during the day.
D) Their remains are found near their nighttime sleeping trees.