Deck 12: The Origins, Evolution, and Dispersal of Modern People

Question 1

The majority of Neandertal fossils have been found in

A)India.
B)Europe.
C)northern Africa.
D)southeast Asia.

Answer 1

Europe.

Question 2

The Neandertals are last recorded in the fossil record about

A)250,000 yBP.
B)100,000 yBP.
C)75,000 yBP.
D)30,000 yBP.

Answer 2

30,000 yBP.

Question 3

In the early twentieth century, Marcellin Boule's reconstruction of the La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neandertal skeleton led many scientists to believe

A)that these hominids were almost indistinguishable from modern people.
B)that these hominids were evolutionary dead ends.
C)that these hominids had similar brain sizes to modern people.
D)that these hominids were our ancestors.

Answer 3

that these hominids were evolutionary dead ends.

Question 4

Fossil remains of archaic Homo sapiens

A)occur only in Europe and Asia.
B)show a mixture of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens traits.
C)are dated to the late Pliocene.
D)are often found with Oldowan stone tools.

Question 5

The modern human site of Skhul 5 and the Neandertal sites of Amud and Kebara are located in the same region in Asia.Based on the age estimates of these sites, scientists suggest that

A)Neandertals predate modern humans in the region.
B)modern humans predate Neandertals in the region.
C)Neandertals and modern humans existed contemporaneously in the region.
D)Neandertals and modern humans are the same species.

Question 6

The Neandertal record begins in Eastern Europe-at the site in Krapina, Croatia-at about what time?

A)1.0 mya
B)250,000 yBP
C)130,000 yBP
D)2.0 mya

Question 7

Stress markers in the teeth that reflect growth disruption due to poor diets or to poor health are called ________ .

A)Harris lines
B)porotic hyperostosis
C)hypoplasia
D)cribraorbitalia

Question 8

Broken Hill, Dali, and Atapuerca are Old World sites that contain the remains of

A)Homo erectus.
B)modern Homo sapiens.
C)archaic Homo sapiens.
D)Neandertals.

Question 9

Anthropologist Chris Ruff's research has shown that adaptation to heat and to cold is strongly related to which of the following?

A)overall height
B)body width
C)leg length
D)arm length

Question 10

The geographic range of Archaic Homo sapiens included

A)Africa only.
B)Asia only.
C)Africa and other parts of the Old World.
D)the New World.

Question 11

Anatomically modern humans are characterized by all of the following except

A)a lightly built (gracile) postcranial skeleton.
B)tiny or nonexistent browridges.
C)average cranial capacity of 750 cc.
D)a "globular" brain case.

Question 12

Which of the following statements is false?

A)Neandertals buried their dead.
B)Neandertals were hunters and gatherers.
C)Neandertals were cold-adapted people.
D)Neandertal brains were notably smaller than those of modern humans.

Question 13

Some archaic Homo sapiens specimens resemble Homo erectus in having

A)employed finely made blade technology.
B)a well-defined chin.
C)cranial capacity in excess of 1,400 cc.
D)a long, low cranial shape.

Question 14

Archaic Homo sapiens display several primitive features found in

A)Homo erectus.
B)Australopithecus robustus.
C)Australopithecus boisei.
D)none of the above.

Question 15

What evidence has led scientists to conclude that Neandertals differ more from modern humans than any one modern group differs from any other?

A)skeletal
B)mtDNA
C)nuclear DNA
D)dental

Question 16

Analyses of modern human genetic variation suggest that Homo sapiens evolved approximately

A)50,000 yBP.
B)200,000 yBP.
C)750,000 yBP.
D)1 million yBP.

Question 17

Some Neandertal skulls have cranial capacities that are ________ those of the average modern human.

A)smaller than
B)larger than
C)equal to
D)none of the above

Question 18

Which of the following statements concerning Homo sapiens is false?

A)The oldest Homo sapiens fossils are close to 200,000 years old.
B)The earliest Homo sapiens fossils are associated with cave art and other symbolic archeological remains.
C)Molecular studies demonstrate that Homo sapiens are all fairly similar genetically.
D)This is the only hominid species with a well-defined chin.

Question 19

From where was the archaic cranium, the Narmada skull, recovered?

A)Africa
B)North America
C)the Indian subcontinent
D)Asia

Question 20

The first nonmodern human fossil to be discovered and recognized as such was the

A)Taung Baby from South Africa.
B)Homo erectus skull from Java.
C)Neandertal skull from Germany.
D)Cro-Magnon skull from France.

Question 21

Human beings first arrived in the Americas approximately

A)50,000 yBP.
B)25,000 yBP.
C)15,000 yBP.
D)5,000 yBP.

Question 22

Partial skulls of two adults and of one child, dating to around 160,000 yBP and exhibiting mostly modern human features, come from

A)Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.
B)Herto, Ethiopia.
C)Border Cave, South Africa.
D)Skhul, Israel.

Question 23

The best fossil evidence to suggest that Neandertals could produce a language like that of modern humans comes from which bone(s) collected at Kebara, Israel?

A)the cervical (neck) vertebrae
B)the mandible
C)the ribs
D)the hyoid

Question 24

Middle Paleolithic prepared-core stone tools, usually associated with Neandertals, are called the

A)Mousterian.
B)Gravettian.
C)Solutrean.
D)Acheulean.

Question 25

Anatomically modern humans were found in all of the following sites except

A)Shanidar, Iraq.
B)Cro-Magnon, France.
C)Skhul, Israel.
D)Omo, Ethiopia.

Question 26

According to the out-of-Africa model, the transition from archaic to modern Homo sapiens

A)occurred in several areas simultaneously.
B)occurred only once, in Africa.
C)began in Asia.
D)took place about 500,000 years ago.

Question 27

Scientists are sure that Neandertals were efficient hunters because

A)Neandertal skeletons demonstrate a chemical signature associated with high protein consumption.
B)Neandertal bones are quite robust.
C)Neandertals used stone tools to butcher animals.
D)none of the above.

Question 28

The significance of the child's skeleton from Lagar Velho, Portugal, is that it

A)is over 100,000 years old.
B)shows Neandertal and modern human features.
C)clearly represents an intentional burial.
D)is associated with a variety of animal bones.

Question 29

The middle Pleistocene archaic Homo sapiens is credited with inventing

A)prepared core "points" that may have been hafted to spear shafts.
B)the Acheulean tradition.
C)cave art.
D)the alphabet.

Question 30

Which model of modern human origins would predict the likely discovery of modern/archaic hybrid fossils?

A)out-of-Africa
B)multiregional continuity
C)assimilation
D)None of these models would predict such a discovery.

Question 31

Burial of the dead with elaborate grave goods is attributed to

A)Homo neanderthalensis.
B)Homo sapiens.
C)Homo erectus.
D)both a and b

Question 32

Which modern human population exhibits the greatest genetic diversity today?

A)Native Americans
B)sub-Saharan Africans
C)Aboriginal Australians
D)East Asians

Question 33

All of the following traits suggest cold adaptation for Neandertals except

A)a narrow nasal aperture.
B)short limbs.
C)a wide torso.
D)a projecting midface.

Question 34

Which type of stone tool traditionally marks the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic?

A)cleaver
B)chopper
C)flake
D)blade

Question 35

The hominid skeleton (LB1) recovered from the Indonesian island of Flores

A)has a very small brain, less than 400 cc.
B)lived there about 18,000 yBP.
C)stood about three feet tall in life.
D)all of the above.

Question 36

Heavy wear on Neandertals' incisor teeth has led some scientists to conclude that Neandertals used their front teeth

A)as a kind of third hand for gripping materials.
B)for hunting and killing small animals.
C)for shaping the cutting edges of stone blades.
D)for gouging trees to extract sap.

Question 37

The archeological period in Europe starting about 35,000 yBP, marked by a great increase in technology and various kinds of art, is called the

A)later Stone Age.
B)Upper Paleolithic period.
C)Neolithic period.
D)Eurocentric period.

Question 38

The first European Upper Paleolithic site where anatomically modern human fossils were discovered was

A)Atapuerca, Spain.
B)Mauer, Germany.
C)Petralona, Greece.
D)Cro-Magnon, France.

Question 39

All of the following sites contain hominid fossils displaying stone tool cutmarks except

A)Gran Dolina, Spain.
B)Krapina, Croatia.
C)Herto, Ethiopia.
D)Klasies River Mouth, South Africa.

Question 40

The earliest well-dated remains of a modern-looking human in East Asia comes in the form of a 41,000-year-old partial skeleton from

A)Tianyuan Cave, China.
B)Zhoukoudian, China.
C)Ngandong, Java.
D)Liang Bua, Flores.

Question 41

Homo erectus and Homo sapiens are two widely recognized hominid species.In contrast, the hominids that are younger than most Homo erectus fossils but older than the majority of Homo sapiens fossils have been loosely categorized as "archaic" Homo sapiens.Why have these fossils not been given a distinct species name, and why do they remain so difficult to classify formally?

Question 42

The Paleoindian skull from Kennewick, in Washington State,

A)was recovered from an elaborate burial.
B)represents an early Eskimo population.
C)looks quite different from modern Native Americans' skulls.
D)is about 3,000 years old.

Question 43

Analysis of stress markers in dentition indicate that Neandertals

A)were highly stressed.
B)exhibited hypoplasia at a rate no different from modern humans.
C)dealt successfully with their environments.
D)b and c only.

Question 44

To test hypotheses regarding modern human origins, it is important to clearly define what we mean by "modern human." What anatomical features are typically used to contrast modern humans' physical appearance with that of similar hominids?

Question 45

The distinctive fluted spear points used by early Native Americans (Paleoindians) to hunt large-bodied Ice Age mammals are

A)Mousterian points.
B)Solutrean blades.
C)Levallois flakes.
D)Folsom points.

Question 46

A hominid fossil with a long, low skull, projecting face and occipital bone, and large nasal aperture is likely

A)to be classified as having modern characteristics.
B)to be classified as having vestigial characteristics.
C)to be classified as having archaic characteristics.
D)to be classified as having apelike characteristics.

Question 47

Using evidence from well-known sites such as Shanidar, Iraq, and Krapina, Croatia, describe the life of a Neandertal group living in Europe during the last "Ice Age."

Question 48

According to John Relethford, the most likely reason for modern-looking people to have migrated out of Africa during the late Pleistocene was

A)disease.
B)loss of food supply.
C)climate change.
D)rapid population growth.

Question 49

The great genetic diversity documented in individuals from sub-Saharan Africa is thought to have resulted from

A)the accumulation of genetic mutations over the last 10 years.
B)the small breeding population maintaining genetic diversity.
C)the accumulations of genetic mutations over time.
D)random chance.

Question 50

The Australian site where surprisingly robust 9,000-13,000-year-old human skulls were found is

A)Kow Swamp.
B)Lake Mungo.
C)Melbourne.
D)Tasmania.

Question 51

Shovel-shaped incisors are one of the most distinctive features of people from

A)East Asia and the Americas.
B)South Africa.
C)Australia.
D)India.

Question 52

Allen's and Bergmann's rules predict anatomical adaptations to environments in mammals.These results are evident in

A)the limb and trunk proportions of Neandertals.
B)the limb and trunk proportions of modern human populations.
C)the limb and trunk proportions of most mammals.
D)all of the above.

Question 53

The two traditional models of modern human origins are out-of-Africa and multiregional continuity.Briefly describe the main tenets of these, and then discuss how the more recent assimilation model differs from each.

Question 54

What "symbolic" behavior is evident in the archeological record and associated with anatomically modern humans in Europe beginning around 35,000 yBP (Upper Paleolithic)?

Question 55

After conducting genetic analysis of a newly found fossil of an early modern Homo sapiens, you find that several nucleotide sequences are the same as those documented in Neandertals.You know that this

A)suggests that the only possible explanation for the origins of modern humans is the out-of-Africa theory.
B)can be used as evidence to support both the out-of-Africa model and assimilation models for modern human origins.
C)is evidence that supports assimilation and multiregional evolution models for modern human evolution.
D)provides evidence that none of the working models of modern human origins are appropriate based on the gene flow documented in these results.