Chapter 1-4 Textbook Flashcards
What order are humans?
The Primate order
What are some characteristics of Primates?
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
What are some characteristics of female primates?
They usually have one infant per pregnancy and spend a lot of time caring for their young than other animals
How do Primate brains relate to other animals?
Primate brains are on average larger than those of other animals and they are larger than the brains of animals with comparable body size
Which Ape are we most closely related to?
The Chimpanzee
What are Homonids?
Primates that walk upright
What was improved tool use by homo erectus attributed to?
Their larger brain
What, aside from brain size, is important to explain more complex animal behavior?
The number of brain cells and the connections that those cells make
What does it mean if an animals EQ falls below the trend line?
It has a smaller expected brain size for the size of its body
Why is the behavior of modern humans more complex in terms of brain density?
Because humans have a large brain size with a very large number of densely packed neurons
How are neurons representing primary functions organized?
Neurons representing primary functions aggregate in order to keep their connections short
What do Topographic maps represent?
The different functional areas ex. Vision, hearing, touch, olfaction and movement
What doe Connectome maps represent?
The connections through which each of these regions influence each other
How are Hominid brain growth and climate related?
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
What made Homo sapiens the sole survivor of climate changes?
Modern humans evolved to adapt to change itself and that this adaptability has allowed us to populate every region on earth
What did Dunbar argue about Primate lifestyle?
He said that primate groups favour an average group size of 150 which explains their large brains
What is the relationship between eating fruits and brain size?
Researchers found that primates who eat more fruits have larger brains because of the skills that they develop and use to access the fruit
How do scientists hypothesize smaller more delicate bones in the head came about?
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
How does brain cooling relate to the size of the brain of Homo skulls?
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
What is Neoteny?
When characteristics that are similar to juvenile animals become prevalent in adult animals. This is a suggestion for how hominids changed their physiology
