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Flashcards in Final Exam Deck (68)
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1
Q

Why Bipedality?

A

Energy Efficiency
Ecological Influences
Dietary Influences

2
Q

Energy Efficiency

A

bipedality decreases risk of overheating

maintains group size while also increasing access to resources

3
Q

Ecological Influences

A

Standing up right in grasslands and predation

4
Q

Dietary Influences

A

Feeding on fruit trees?

Standing upright on limbs?

5
Q

Origins and evolution of primate intelligence: 3 schools of thought

A

Technical intelligence and tool use
Ecological intelligence
Social intelligence

6
Q

Technical Intelligence

A

Tools and access to food

The ability to use/construct tools uses sophisticated cognitive skills

7
Q

Technical Intelligence Problem

A

There were bipeds 6 MYA but tools weren’t until 2.5 MYA and brain size didn’t change dramatically until 300KYA

8
Q

Ecological Intelligence

A

Navigate and find food in highly complex environments and remember patchy distribution

9
Q

Ecological Intelligence Problem

A

Other organisms did just fine, and it appears that our early fossils appear in forest, not savannah, environments

10
Q

Social Intelligence

A

Large brain size allows apes to cope with and exploit increasingly complex social relations

11
Q

Social Intelligence Problem

A

Brian to body ratio of early homo similar to great apes, other animals with regular brains also live in complex groups (wolves)

12
Q

Characteristics of Hominins

A

bipedal
smaller canines
slightly larger brain to body ratio

13
Q

Australopithecus

A

anamensis(oldest), afarensis, africanus

14
Q

Afarensis and “Lucy”

A

Biped
Small Brian
Small Body
Adult

15
Q

Africanus and Taung Child

A

baby teeth
placement of FM argument for bipedality
no flared zygomatics

16
Q

Robust Australopithecines

A
Wide flaring zygomatics
Heavy molars
Large teeth 
Sagittal crest
Dished face
Extreme specialization
17
Q

Homo erectus: time frame

A

1.7 to 1.8 MYA

18
Q

Pleistocene

A

Characterized by CHANGE and MASSIVE CLIMATIC OSCILLATION

19
Q

What would we see in the fossil record after glacial change?

A

Massive extinction events
Massive speciation
Larger warm blooded organisms

20
Q

What made H. erectus so special?

A

Had extreme variation in morphology and potentially behavior (maybe onset of culture)

21
Q

Asian archaics

A

1150-1400 cc

Coexisting with H. erectus

22
Q

African archaics

A

large cc, but not very neanderthal like

23
Q

European archaics

A

larger cc than H. erectus

24
Q

Neanderthals

A

30-15 KYA
Europe, northern climates
Overlap with anatomically modern humans
Not sure if separate species or not

25
Q

Neanderthals distinguishing characteristics

A
heavy ROBUST bones
large brow ridges
OCCIPITAL BUN
barrel chest
larger cranium than H. erectus
large nose
no chin
shorter limbs
26
Q

Human Characteristics

A
high forehead
mental eminence
smaller teeth
gracile features
symbolic culture
27
Q

Bergman’s rule

A

Stipulates that body size is larger in colder climates to conserve body temperature

28
Q

Allen’s rule

A

Stipulates that in warmer climates, the limbs of the body are longer relative to body size to dissipate heat

29
Q

Neanderthal Life History

A

similar to humans

30
Q

Neanderthal Behavior

A

Few are found with upper paleolithic tools

31
Q

Upper paleolithic tools

A

characterized by blade-based technology

32
Q

Blades

A

flakes that are twice as long as they are wide

33
Q

Neanderthals are cold adapted:

A

hearth has been found
ate alot of meat (cannibalism?)
probably mobile

34
Q

How are Nean. related to sapiens? Lumpers

A

Argue that archaic H. sapiens and Neanderthals were a part of the same potentially interbreeding species

35
Q

How are Nean. related to sapiens? Splitters

A

Argue that Neanderthals are separate and distinct species that rarely interbred with H. sapiens

36
Q

Sapiens dispersal: Replacement prediction

A

See modern human fossils in Africa
2 distinct hominids in old world
they overlap in time/space but not in genetics
abrupt changes in technology and behavior

37
Q

Sapiens dispersal: Multiregional prediction

A
Single evolving lineage
slightly different trends in each region 
intermediate fossils
behavioral continuity
all contribute to gene pool
38
Q

developmental plasticity

A

is a general term referring to changes in neural connections during development as a result of environmental interactions

39
Q

What defines australopithecines from earlier forms?

A

earliest hominids 6 MYA, australo 4 MYA
increased cranial capacity
bipedalism
smaller teeth

40
Q

allometric effects

A

larger brains, larger bodies

41
Q

prognathism

A

projection of the face well in front of the brain case

42
Q

Homo habilis

A

‘handy man’

2.5 MYA

43
Q

Oldowan industry

A

“old one” characterized by

44
Q

Homo erectus

A

1.8-1.9 MYA
Major adaptive shift
body/brain increase
tooth size decrease

45
Q

First homonid to leave Africa?

A

H. erectus

46
Q

Acheulean Industry

A

bi-facial hand-axes and cleavers

H. erectus and sapiens

47
Q

Movius line

A

division between hand-axe bearing and those without hand axes

48
Q

Why does Movius line exist hypotheses (2)

A

1) Absense in Africa reflects loss of technology caused by differences in selective pressures and raw materials between Asia and Africa
2) Hominids who left Africa left before Acheulean tools were developed

49
Q

What are some things that may have increased dietary quality?

A

More meat
Higher quality plant foods
Cooking

50
Q

How would you expect H. erectus life history to change?

A

longer life span

greater juvenile period

51
Q

Archaic Homo sapiens

A

Intermediate between H. erectus and H. sapiens

52
Q

What is language? (5)

A
spoken
semantic
phonemic
grammatical
has recursion
53
Q

sematic

A

have meaning and represent real-world objects

54
Q

phonemic

A

sounds make up words and there is no intrinsic association between a word and its concept

55
Q

recursion

A

the ability to string together sentences, imbed clauses, imbed levels of ideas

56
Q

When cave art?

A

End of pliestocene

57
Q

Why did language evolve? (4)

A

throwing ability, handedness
replacement for grooming
symbols and sex
gesture and spoken language

58
Q

4 approaches of evolution of human behavior

A

Paleontological reconstructions
biocultural approach
human evolutionary ecology
evolutionary psychology

59
Q

Paleontological reconstructions

A

using fossils etc. to reconstruct behavior of earlier hominids and then extrapolating them to modern humans

60
Q

Biocultural Apporaches

A

How human cultural behavior has influenced biological change (lactase persisitance, sickle cell)

61
Q

Evolutionary Psych

A

behavior should be interpreted through the terms of EEA

62
Q

EEA

A

Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness

63
Q

Human Evolutionary Ecology

A

Reproductive success in existing hunter-gatherer societies

64
Q

Intensification

A

Increase in productivity of the same amount of land -> leads to surplus

65
Q

Consequences of the rise of food production

A

Declining health

Elaboration of material possessions

66
Q

What happens when you get a bunch of organisms living together?

A

Disease

Dependence on crops for food

67
Q

Focal Sampling

A

1 subject for amt of time

68
Q

Scan Sampling

A

Multiple subjects