Chapter 8

Question 1

Approximately how large is the modern human brain?

Answer 1

1,350 cm^3

Question 2

If we compare Earth’s history to a 24-hour day (with one second equaling 50,000 years)

Answer 2

Homo sapiens arrived just 6 seconds before midnight.

Question 3

In the Latin binomial system, each organism has three names, and the first letter of each of those names is capitalized.

Answer 3

false

Question 4

In the Latin binomial system, names for organisms often tell a story.

Answer 4

true

Question 5

Prognathism means

Answer 5

having a great big jutting mouth and jaw.

Question 6

Based on the skull sizes of early fossilized humans, the characteristic wish to have supportive familiar people around at childbirth probably goes back millions of years

Answer 6

true

Question 7

Bipedalism, considered a key defining characteristic that differentiated early hominins from other apes,

Answer 7

perhaps developed in the woodlands but became even more adaptive in a savanna habitat.

Question 8

Fossils of Au. afarensis are particularly significant because

Answer 8

they comprise the first fossil evidence to confirm that bipedalism preceded the evolution of a humanlike brain.

Question 9

The position of a primate fossil’s foramen magnum underneath it’s skull is evidence that

Answer 9

it was an obligate biped

Question 10

What is the term for the bony protuberance found on top of the skulls of robust australopiths?

Answer 10

sagittal crest

Question 11

Which of the following is/are evidence of robust australopiths’ adaptation to eating hard-shelled seeds and grasses?

Answer 11

the presence of very large molars and a sagittal crest on the top of the skull

Question 12

Along the path we took to humanity…there are more than 20 different relatives that have been discovered in the fossil record.

Answer 12

true

Question 13

When a skeleton (or part of a skeleton) is large, rugged, and basically just hefty looking, it is termed

Answer 13

robust

Question 14

When a skeleton (or part of a skeleton) is small in stature and relatively graceful looking, it is termed

Answer 14

gracile

Question 15

Which of the following was a key obstacle that hominins’ increase in brain size had to overcome?

Answer 15

larger skulls demanding larger birth canals, even though the requirements of upright bipedalism impose limits on the expansion of the human pelvic opening

Question 16

A characteristic trend in hominin evolution has been an increase in brain size, especially with the advent of the genus Homo.

Answer 16

true

Question 17

The footprints at the site of Laetoli in northern Tanzania were made by Au. afarensis.

Answer 17

true

Question 18

Sexual dimorphism is less pronounced in modern Homo sapiens than in the australopiths.

Answer 18

true

Question 19

The genus Homo did not appear until after all of the australopiths had died off.

Answer 19

false

Question 20

The earliest widely accepted hominin genus is

Answer 20

Ardipithecus