Question 1

The recent Dmanisi fossil finds suggest a rapid spread, by 1.77 m.y.a., of early Homo out of Africa into Eurasia.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 2

Which of the following statements about H. erectus fossils is NOT true?

Accepted Answer

A)   They indicate increasing hunting proficiency.
B)   They are often found associated with Acheulean stone tools.
C)   They show an increasing reliance on cultural adaptation.
D)   They had a thicker skull bone and a very robust skeleton.
E)   They have hyperrobust chewing muscles and broad, flat molars.F) C) and D)
G) B) and C)

Question 3

Unlike the Mousterian technology, which had many different kinds of stone tools, the tool traditions of the Upper Paleolithic included only a few different types of implements.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 4

The geological epoch known as the ________ has been considered the epoch of early human life.

Accepted Answer

A)   Würm
B)   Cenozoic
C)   Pleistocene
D)   Mousterian
E)   MioceneF) A) and B)
G) D) and E)

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT associated with H. erectus?

Accepted Answer

A)   the use of fire
B)   more sophisticated toolmaking
C)   cave painting
D)   the development of Acheulean tools
E)   a massive ridge above the eyesF) A) and C)
G) C) and E)

Question 6

Climate changes had a profound impact on the hominin way of life. In southwestern Europe, for example,

Accepted Answer

A)   hominins were forced to migrate northward during the Würm glacial interval.
B)   the melting of the ice sheets with the end of the Würm glacial period gradually lured big game farther north, pressuring hominins to use a greater variety of foods.
C)   hominins began a sedentary life after the end of the Würm glacial period, forming the first villages in human history.
D)   hominins turned to a more specialized diet based on big-game meat after the glacial retreat.
E)   the melting of the ice sheets with the end of the Würm glacial period caused animal diversity to drop, challenging hominins to shift their diets from meat to coarse grasses.F) All of the above
G) A) and E)

Question 7

What is the name of the stone-tool tradition associated with Neandertals?

Accepted Answer

A)   Oldowan
B)   microliths
C)   Mousterian
D)   Acheulean
E)   bladesF) A) and D)
G) B) and C)

Question 8

The evidence from the Mount Carmel caves in Israel indicates that anatomically modern humans may have inhabited the Middle East before the Neandertals did.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 9

The stone-tool traditions of the Upper Paleolithic were based primarily on blade tools that, compared to those of the Mousterian, are made more quickly and are better at maximizing the amount of cutting edge from the same amount of stone.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 10

There is much debate among scientists about when, where, and how anatomically modern humans achieved behavioral modernity. Some researchers suggest that about 50,000 years ago a genetic mutation acted to rewire the human brain, allowing for an advance in language and other related modern behaviors. Others propose

Accepted Answer

A)   a hearth hypothesis, suggesting that the most important trigger to behavioral modernity was Homo's capacity, achieved 50,000 years ago, for manipulating fire and thus living in caves and cooking their meat.
B)   that the advent of the nuclear family within larger nomadic groups made possible intense social interactions that triggered more complex social behaviors.
C)   that instead of a sudden event in Europe due to a mutation, behavioral modernity resulted from a slow process of cultural accumulation within Africa, where Homo sapiens became fully human long before 40,000 years ago.
D)   a culinary hypothesis, suggesting that Homo's capacity to increase the range of foods in the diet triggered the necessary brain development to make modern behaviors possible.
E)   that drastic climatic changes 40,000 years ago led archaic humans to turn to ritual-a definite sign of behavioral modernity-to explain the unforeseen environmental changes that suddenly altered their way of life.F) A) and D)
G) A) and B)

Question 11

The Acheulean hand ax, shaped like a teardrop, represents a predetermined shape based on a template in the mind of the toolmaker. Evidence for such a mental template in the archaeological record suggests a cognitive leap between earlier hominins and H. erectus.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 12

In South Africa's Blombos Cave, 100,000-year-old paint was recently discovered. This find indicates that

Accepted Answer

A)   artistic behaviors developed before anatomically modern bodies.
B)   modern behavior is much older than anthropologists once believed.
C)   Neandertals used paint in different ways than anatomically modern humans.
D)   Neandertals created art and had symbolic thought.
E)   humans made red paint for functional but not symbolic reasons.F) B) and E)
G) A) and B) B

Question 13

Biological and cultural changes enabled H. erectus to exploit a new adaptive strategy-gathering and hunting.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 14

In 1987, a group of molecular geneticists at the University of California at Berkeley offered support for the idea that anatomically modern humans arose fairly recently in Africa, then spread out and colonized the world. The geneticists analyzed genetic samples of 147 women whose ancestors came from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, New Guinea, and Australia. By estimating the number of mutations that had taken place in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)  of each of these samples, the researchers concluded that

Accepted Answer

A)   establishing a "genetic clock" to model human evolution is reliable only when focusing on 50,000 years into the past.
B)   everyone alive today has mtDNA that descends from a woman (dubbed "Mitochondrial Eve")  who lived in Asia around 50,000 years ago, and her descendants left Asia 100,000 years ago.
C)   everyone alive can count the Neandertal of western Europe as their ancestor.
D)   Neandertals coexisted with modern humans in the Middle East for at least 2,000 years.
E)   everyone alive today has mtDNA that descends from a woman (dubbed "Mitochondrial Eve")  who lived in sub-Saharan Africa around 200,000 years ago, and her descendants left Africa no more than 135,000 years ago.F) A) and E)
G) B) and E) E

Question 15

What is the most likely explanation of why early Homo left Africa and spread into Eurasia?

Accepted Answer

A)   overpopulation in Africa
B)   Homo's smaller bodies, which made them more fit for long-distance travel
C)   a hyperspecialization in vegetarian diets
D)   the pursuit of meat
E)   a maladaptation to a more energy-inefficient system of locomotionF) B) and D)
G) B) and E)

Question 16

What is so significant about the recent fossil finds of an H. erectus and an H. habilis from Ileret, Kenya, east of Lake Turkana?

Accepted Answer

A)   They prove that H. erectus and H. habilis coexisted in the same ecological niche and eventually interbred to result in a single species.
B)   They prove that functional differentiation in toolmaking preceded the advent of Homo.
C)   They prove that sexual dimorphism was finally absent as a trend in human evolution by 2 m.y.a.
D)   They negate the conventional view held since 1960 that habilis and erectus evolved one after the other. Instead, they lived side by side in eastern Africa for perhaps half a million years.
E)   They confirm that H. habilis evolved from H. erectus.F) A) and E)
G) A) and B)

Question 17

At the site of Terra Amata, in southern France, archaeologists have documented human activity dating back some 300,000 years. What do findings there indicate?

Accepted Answer

A)   The site's inhabitants led an essentially human lifestyle.
B)   Homo erectus engaged in warfare.
C)   Neandertals were not fully human.
D)   Early hominids cultivated plants.
E)   Homo habilis had language.F) B) and D)
G) All of the above

Question 18

The Clovis tradition, a sophisticated stone technology based on a sharp point that was fastened to the end of a hunting spear, flourished (widely but briefly)  in the central plains and in what is now the eastern United States. Until recently, the Clovis people were considered the first settlers of the Americas. Recent research now suggests, however, that

Accepted Answer

A)   the members of the Clovis tradition depended on the domestication of horses to make travel possible.
B)   most likely the Americas were settled by several colonists who came at different times and perhaps by different routes.
C)   the wheel, which has never been found in Clovis sites, was a critical part of an even earlier arrival to the Americas.
D)   the Americas were settled by one haplogroup-a lineage marked by one or more specific genetic mutations.
E)   various groups of colonists entered the Americas, but they all used the same route.F) B) and C)
G) C) and E)

Question 19

The discovery of the jaw of a H. heidelbergensis near Heidelberg, Germany, proves that H. sapiens evolved in Europe.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 20

Biological and cultural changes enabled H. erectus to exploit a new adaptive strategy-gathering and hunting. This in turn was crucial for H. erectus to

Accepted Answer

A)   overcome its greatest challenge: an imperfect bipedal gait.
B)   bring about the onset of complex language.
C)   push the hominin range beyond Africa, into Asia and Europe.
D)   diminish the rate of mortalities due to violent encounters with large animals and other hominins.
E)   beat out H. habilis in competition for key ecological niches.F) C) and E)
G) A) and B) C

Exam 7: The Genus Homo

The recent Dmanisi fossil finds suggest a rapid spread, by 1.77 m.y.a., of early Homo out of Africa into Eurasia.

Correct Answer
verified

Which of the following statements about H. erectus fossils is NOT true?

Correct Answer
verified

Unlike the Mousterian technology, which had many different kinds of stone tools, the tool traditions of the Upper Paleolithic included only a few different types of implements.

Correct Answer
verified

The geological epoch known as the ________ has been considered the epoch of early human life.

Correct Answer
verified

Which of the following is NOT associated with H. erectus?

Correct Answer
verified

Climate changes had a profound impact on the hominin way of life. In southwestern Europe, for example,

Correct Answer
verified

What is the name of the stone-tool tradition associated with Neandertals?

Correct Answer
verified

The evidence from the Mount Carmel caves in Israel indicates that anatomically modern humans may have inhabited the Middle East before the Neandertals did.

Correct Answer
verified

The stone-tool traditions of the Upper Paleolithic were based primarily on blade tools that, compared to those of the Mousterian, are made more quickly and are better at maximizing the amount of cutting edge from the same amount of stone.

Correct Answer
verified

Correct Answer
verified

The Acheulean hand ax, shaped like a teardrop, represents a predetermined shape based on a template in the mind of the toolmaker. Evidence for such a mental template in the archaeological record suggests a cognitive leap between earlier hominins and H. erectus.

Correct Answer
verified

In South Africa's Blombos Cave, 100,000-year-old paint was recently discovered. This find indicates that

Correct Answer
verified
B

Biological and cultural changes enabled H. erectus to exploit a new adaptive strategy-gathering and hunting.

Correct Answer
verified

Correct Answer
verified
E

What is the most likely explanation of why early Homo left Africa and spread into Eurasia?

Correct Answer
verified

What is so significant about the recent fossil finds of an H. erectus and an H. habilis from Ileret, Kenya, east of Lake Turkana?

Correct Answer
verified

At the site of Terra Amata, in southern France, archaeologists have documented human activity dating back some 300,000 years. What do findings there indicate?

Correct Answer
verified

Correct Answer
verified

The discovery of the jaw of a H. heidelbergensis near Heidelberg, Germany, proves that H. sapiens evolved in Europe.

Correct Answer
verified

Biological and cultural changes enabled H. erectus to exploit a new adaptive strategy-gathering and hunting. This in turn was crucial for H. erectus to

Correct Answer
verified
C

Exam 7: The Genus Homo

The recent Dmanisi fossil finds suggest a rapid spread, by 1.77 m.y.a., of early Homo out of Africa into Eurasia.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Which of the following statements about H. erectus fossils is NOT true?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Unlike the Mousterian technology, which had many different kinds of stone tools, the tool traditions of the Upper Paleolithic included only a few different types of implements.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The geological epoch known as the ________ has been considered the epoch of early human life.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Which of the following is NOT associated with H. erectus?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Climate changes had a profound impact on the hominin way of life. In southwestern Europe, for example,

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

What is the name of the stone-tool tradition associated with Neandertals?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The evidence from the Mount Carmel caves in Israel indicates that anatomically modern humans may have inhabited the Middle East before the Neandertals did.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The stone-tool traditions of the Upper Paleolithic were based primarily on blade tools that, compared to those of the Mousterian, are made more quickly and are better at maximizing the amount of cutting edge from the same amount of stone.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The Acheulean hand ax, shaped like a teardrop, represents a predetermined shape based on a template in the mind of the toolmaker. Evidence for such a mental template in the archaeological record suggests a cognitive leap between earlier hominins and H. erectus.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

In South Africa's Blombos Cave, 100,000-year-old paint was recently discovered. This find indicates that

Correct AnswerverifiedB

Biological and cultural changes enabled H. erectus to exploit a new adaptive strategy-gathering and hunting.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Correct AnswerverifiedE

What is the most likely explanation of why early Homo left Africa and spread into Eurasia?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

What is so significant about the recent fossil finds of an H. erectus and an H. habilis from Ileret, Kenya, east of Lake Turkana?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

At the site of Terra Amata, in southern France, archaeologists have documented human activity dating back some 300,000 years. What do findings there indicate?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The discovery of the jaw of a H. heidelbergensis near Heidelberg, Germany, proves that H. sapiens evolved in Europe.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Biological and cultural changes enabled H. erectus to exploit a new adaptive strategy-gathering and hunting. This in turn was crucial for H. erectus to

Correct AnswerverifiedC

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B

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E

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C