Chapter 5

Question 1

For natural selection to work on a particular population,

Answer 1

there must be variety within that population.

Question 2

Why are genetics and evolution so important to anthropology?

Answer 2

They help anthropologists document and explain human biological diversity.

Question 3

Which type of cells are passed from generation to generation?

Answer 3

sex cells

Question 4

Our basic hereditary units (genes and chromosomes) are made up of which type of molecules?

Answer 4

DNA molecules

Question 5

Why are mutations vital to the process of evolution?

Answer 5

They are the most important source of variety on which natural selection depends and operates.

Question 6

The term gene pool refers to all the

Answer 6

alleles, genes, chromosomes, and genotypes within a breeding population.

Question 7

Human biology

Answer 7

is not set at birth but has considerable plasticity.

Question 8

Forces that contribute to genetic evolution are

Answer 8

natural selection, mutation, random genetic drift, and gene flow.

Question 9

During the eighteenth century, many scholars became interested in biological diversity, human origins, and our position within the classification of plants and animals. At that time, the most commonly accepted explanation of the origin of species was

Answer 9

creationism, the belief that biological similarities and differences originated at Creation and that these characteristics, once set, could not change.

Question 10

To what does the term gene flow refer?

Answer 10

the exchange of genetic material between populations of the same species

Question 11

In the debate of how speciation occurs, advocates of punctuated equilibrium

Answer 11

suggest that long periods of stability, during which species change little, are interrupted by evolutionary leaps.

Question 12

One of Gregor Mendel’s contributions to genetics was his discovery that traits are inherited as discrete units.

Answer 12

true

Question 13

Phenotype refers to the genetic makeup of an organism

Answer 13

false

Question 14

mutations introduce genetic variation into a gene pool

Answer 14

true

Question 15

Gene flow between populations works to prevent speciations

Answer 15

true

Question 16

Darwin and Wallace simultaneously proposed which of the following theoretical models?

Answer 16

natural selection

Question 17

What is the term for the belief that explanations for past events should be sought in ordinary forces that are at work today?

Answer 17

uniformitarianism

Question 18

Sir Charles Lyell, the father of geology, influenced Darwin with his principle of catastrophism, the view that extinct species were destroyed by fires, floods, and other catastrophes. His geological research was also critical in Darwin’s own formulations because it

Answer 18

cast serious doubt on the belief that the world was only 6,000 years old, allowing for a much broader time span for the gradual biological changes to take place as seen in the fossil record.

Question 19

Natural selection is the process by which the forms most fit to survive and reproduce in a given environment do so in greater numbers than others in the same population. But more than survival of the fittest, natural selection is the natural process that leads to

Answer 19

differential reproductive success.

Question 20

Our reliance on culture has increased in the course of human history. But evolution remains a key part of our human present and future because

Answer 20

people haven’t stopped adapting biologically.