Chapter 1-4 Textbook

Question 1

What order are humans?

Answer 1

The Primate order

Question 2

What are some characteristics of Primates?

Answer 2

Primates have excellent color vision, eyes in the front of the face to enhance depth perception. They use their vision to guide their hand movements

Question 3

What are some characteristics of female primates?

Answer 3

They usually have one infant per pregnancy and spend a lot of time caring for their young than other animals

Question 4

How do Primate brains relate to other animals?

Answer 4

Primate brains are on average larger than those of other animals and they are larger than the brains of animals with comparable body size

Question 5

Which Ape are we most closely related to?

Answer 5

The Chimpanzee

Question 6

What are Homonids?

Answer 6

Primates that walk upright

Question 7

What was improved tool use by homo erectus attributed to?

Answer 7

Their larger brain

Question 8

What, aside from brain size, is important to explain more complex animal behavior?

Answer 8

The number of brain cells and the connections that those cells make

Question 9

What does it mean if an animals EQ falls below the trend line?

Answer 9

It has a smaller expected brain size for the size of its body

Question 10

Why is the behavior of modern humans more complex in terms of brain density?

Answer 10

Because humans have a large brain size with a very large number of densely packed neurons

Question 11

How are neurons representing primary functions organized?

Answer 11

Neurons representing primary functions aggregate in order to keep their connections short

Question 12

What do Topographic maps represent?

Answer 12

The different functional areas ex. Vision, hearing, touch, olfaction and movement

Question 13

What doe Connectome maps represent?

Answer 13

The connections through which each of these regions influence each other

Question 14

How are Hominid brain growth and climate related?

Answer 14

Climate changes have driven many physical changes in homonids ranging from brain changes to the emergence of human culture. This can be due to selective environmental pressures

Question 15

What made Homo sapiens the sole survivor of climate changes?

Answer 15

Modern humans evolved to adapt to change itself and that this adaptability has allowed us to populate every region on earth

Question 16

What did Dunbar argue about Primate lifestyle?

Answer 16

He said that primate groups favour an average group size of 150 which explains their large brains

Question 17

What is the relationship between eating fruits and brain size?

Answer 17

Researchers found that primates who eat more fruits have larger brains because of the skills that they develop and use to access the fruit

Question 18

How do scientists hypothesize smaller more delicate bones in the head came about?

Answer 18

When hominids began to cook food it made it easier to chew which allowed for more genetic mutations to do with the muscles in the head to be more prominent and allowed changes in diet

Question 19

How does brain cooling relate to the size of the brain of Homo skulls?

Answer 19

Researchers suggest that because the brains activity generates a lot of heat the holes in the skull that allow for blood vessels to pass had a better cooling system allowing for brains to grow larger than australopith skulls

Question 20

What is Neoteny?

Answer 20

When characteristics that are similar to juvenile animals become prevalent in adult animals. This is a suggestion for how hominids changed their physiology