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Biological Anthropology > Final Exam > Flashcards

Final Exam Flashcards

1
Q

the Principle of Superposition

A

Rock layers at the bottom are older than the higher layers (undisturbed low rock strata are older than the strata above)

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2
Q

Biostratigraphy

A

Using the dating of one site to infer the dating of another cite (this is used when none of the layers have isotopes for dating)

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3
Q

How does fossilization occur? How does it tell us anything?

A

After death occurs on the surface, it is buried naturally which leads to absorption of minerals and replacement of organic compounds (calcium of bone replayed by material from the rock). Soft tissues and behaviors cannot fossilize, but tissues can leave imprints that do fossilize. Fossil records tend to be only bones and teeth, but they can lead us to overestimate and underestimate timing, taxa organization, and we don’t know every species that was around because not everything fossilizes.

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4
Q

Paleocene fossil record

A

Plesiadapiforms
- 65-54mya; undecided about whether or not they are primates
- No binocular vision, small brain, some nails and some claws, some had grasping hands and feet
- Provides evidence (likely) for an intermediate form between primates and non-primates

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5
Q

Eocene fossil record

A

Adapids (Like lemurs) and omomyids (like lorises)
- 40-50mya, found in North America and Europe (which suggests the spread of tropical forests)
- Have a full suite of primate characteristics (grasping hands/feet, nails, forward facing eyes, etc)

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6
Q

Oligocene fossil record

A

Anthropoids (proteopithecus and aegyptopithecus)
- 35 mya; found mostly in Africa
- Proteopithecus is like NWM, aegyptopithecus is like catarrhines

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7
Q

Miocene fossil record

A

Proconsul (Beginning)
- Warm and wet climate that became cool and dry over time
- 17-23 mya; Africa
- Frugivorious, forest environments
- Apelike skull and teeth, but quadrupedal, no tail
Oreopithecus, sivapithecus, gigantopithecus (Middle)
- 10-15mya
- Oreopithecus 7-8mya found in Italy; folivore
- Sivapithecus; tall narrow orbits, dished face, ape head, non-ape body
- Gigantopithecus; found in China, larger than Gorillas, ate bamboo, we only have their skulls though
After these, apes diappeared in Europe and only really appeared in Asia and Africa afterwards

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8
Q

Hominins (and their unique traits)

A

Belonging to the subtribe hominina; creatures more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees – hominids are different, those are African apes
- Unique traits: bipedalism, small canines, large molars, large brains, slow life histories, long juvenile periods, overlapping offspring and cooperative breeding

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9
Q

Bipedalism

A

Walking on two legs

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10
Q

Obligate bipedalism

A

Animals who have to walk on two feet, they have no other efficient choice (like humans)

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11
Q

Habitual bipedalism

A

Animals that can walk on two feet efficiently and can “make a habit of it” (like most human ancestors)

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12
Q

Facultative bipedalism

A

Animals that could walk on two legs if they needed to but don’t (chimps, gorillas)

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13
Q

Traits of bipedalism

A
  1. Skull – position of the foramen magnum (where the skull attaches to the head) on the bottom center for bipedals, but at the back for quadrupeds
  2. Vertebrae – Bipeds show lumbar lordosis (S-shaped curve in spine) that allows the head, neck, pelvis, and knees to be aligned (non-bipeds have a C-curve)
  3. Pelvis – Bipeds have short, stout pelvisees and the iliac blades face to the side so that bipeds can have abductor muscles that join the femur to the ilia to stabilize the body when your weight is on one leg
  4. Femoral neck – Uneven thickness of dense cortical bone in the neck of the femur prevents stress on it to support extra weight; its also longer to allow for abductor muscle attachments
  5. Long femurs and legs compared to the rest of the body to be more efficient when walking (decreases locomotor costs)
  6. Knees – bicondylar angle more slanted from where the femur attaches to the pelvis
  7. Feet – Non-grasping big toes (that move up, not to the side); arches of the feet cushion them
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14
Q

Why bipedalism?

A

Advantages: When environments changed from rainforest to woodland environments (drier), there was a lower abundance of food and bipedalism allows you to travel between patches of forests faster to get your food.
Feeding: Arboreal bipedalism and ground feeding (stretching for foods in trees)
Carrying: carrying babies and provisioning is easier on hind legs
Thermoregulation: Walking upright leads to less solar radiation (head and shoulders rather than entire back which affects proportion of body hit by the sun) and allows for more wind since wind is higher up
Energetics: Bipedalism is energetically favorable so you keep calories which help for babies – chimps have higher costs to move their bodies around than humans (but they still are quadrupeds because they need to climb trees to get food)

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15
Q

Sahelanthropus tchadensis

A

Found in Chad (Africa); around 6-7mya
- Lived in a mix of woodland and savanna habitat
- Foramen magnum and long bones suggests bipedality (and more human like than chimp); it had a chimp-sized brain, small canines, flat face, and large brow-ridge

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16
Q

Orrorin tuegensis

A

Found in Kenya (Africa); around 6mya
- Curved fingers suggest tree living, but its femurs suggest bipedality; chimp-like teeth
- Tree climbers

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17
Q

Ardipithecus kadabba

A

Found in Ethiopia; around 5.2-5.8mya
- Toe bone suggests bipedality; had sharp canines
- Fossils of this one are rare

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18
Q

Ardipithecus ramidus

A

Found in Ethiopia (Africa); around 4.4mya
- Bipedal based on skull, pelvis, and foot
- Has incisors smaller than frugivorous chimps, molars with thicker enamels than apes but thinner than humans, canines not sharpened and NOT dimorphic
- Not knuckle walking, had grasping toes, stiff foot (suggests bipedalism), illium adapted for bipedalism but lower parts apelike

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19
Q

Australopithecines (basic features)

A
  • About 4mya
  • Small brains (like chimps)
  • Skilled upright walking (so we walked before our brains got big)
  • Chimp-sized with pronounced body dimorphism
  • Large molars (relatively)
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20
Q

Australopithecus anamensis

A
  • Kenya and Ethiopia; 3.9-4.2mya
  • Grassy, dry, woodland environment
  • Bipedal (tibia - shin bone); flat and wife top of tibia
  • Long arms and curved fingers
  • Canines smaller than modern apes
  • Thick enamel on molars (to protect from hard foods)
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21
Q

Australopithecus afarensis

A
  • Lucy
  • Ethiopia and Tanzania; 3-3.6mya
  • Smaller canines, larger molars than anamensis
    – More U-shaped dental arcade than humans; means more snout; smaller diastema (space b/w canines and molars for slotting to close mouth); chimp like molars, some dimorphism in canines
    -Slightly larger brains than a chimps (450cc)
  • Bipedal
    – Some tree climbing based on curved finger bones and shoulder blade like that of a gorilla, but bipedal based on pelvis, footprints (stride lengths), and feet (big toes like humans)
  • Body size dimorphism
  • Slower brain maturation (more human like)
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22
Q

Australopithecus garhi

A
  • East Africa; 2.5mya
  • Small brain, present sagittal crest, large teeth
  • Fossils found suggest longer legs
  • Stone tools found nearby
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23
Q

Australopithecus africanus

A
  • South Africa; 2.2-3mya
  • Fossils like the Sterkfontein cave, Taung child
  • Woody grassland
  • Cranially like afarensis, but bigger molars, smaller canines
  • Bipedal
  • Large size dimorphism
  • Rapid tooth development (suggests crappy diet)
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24
Q

Australopithecus sediba

A
  • Malapa Cave, South Africa; 1.98mya
  • Smaller brains (420cc), small teeth, reduced musculature for chewing
  • Phytolith diet (fruit, leaves, bark)
  • Humanlike hands/pelvis, relatively long arms, apelike thorax
  • Primitive foot suggests a unique form of bipedal walking like hyperpronation
    – Food is like a chimp, which suggests it walked on the outer edges of its feet
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25
Q

Paranthropus

A

Robust australopithecines – their premolars look like molars and have hugely expanded surface area of molars and big jaw muscles

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26
Q

Paranthropus aethiopicus

A

Found in Kenya about 2.5mya

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27
Q

Paranthropus boisei

A
  • Kenya, Tanzania (Olduvai Gorge), Ethiopia; 1.3mya
  • Ate seeds, tubers, roots; large nutcracker teeth
  • Enormous back teeth, present sagittal crest (large temporal and masseter muscles), huge cheekbones and zygomatic arches
  • Postcranial anatomy suggest bipedalism
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28
Q

Paranthropus robustus

A
  • South Africa, 1-1.8mya
  • Brain about 530cc
  • Cranial and dental adaptations for heavy chewing
  • Bipedal
  • Found that males kept growing throughout their adult life
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29
Q

What were the features of early Homo?

A

They were found about 2.3mya in Africa, they had larger brains, smaller teeth, Australopithecus limb proportions, and somewhat rapid development

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30
Q

Homo habilis

A
  • East and South Africa; 1.4-2.3mya
  • Brains about 600cc
  • More rounded skull
  • Less prognathic face
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31
Q

Origins of tool use

A

Tool use is probably ancient, but its methods change over time.
Mode 1/The Oldowan Tool Industry: Homo habilis, fairly simple tools like flakes and hammer stones; makes edge sharp by putting two rocks together; complex foraging methods (central place foraging)

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32
Q

Homo ergaster

A

Evolved from early Homo
- 1.8mya to 600kya in Africa
- Skull – postorbital constriction, no chin, receding forehead, taller skull, less prognathic skull, larger brain, unique brow ridge and occipital torus
- Long legs, narrow hips, barrel chest, modern human body proportions (shorter arms longer legs), reduced sexual dimorphism, limited language – we have found the hyoid bone but we don’t know a lot about its language
- Terrestrial biped (runner)
- Mode 2 tools – specifically designed tools like hand axes (this mode went unchanged for a while)
- Some of these fossils show Vitamin A poisoning which suggests meat eating; also human specific tapeworm evolve

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33
Q

Homo erectus

A

Early homo erectus: Asia (first hominin species to leave Africa) in Indonesia, Georgia; 1.8mya
- Brains range from 546-775cc
- Postcrania homo-like
Homo erectus: larger brains (940cc), bipedal
- Homo erectus and ergaster are likely variants of the same species

34
Q

Homo florensis

A
  • Found in Flores, Indonesia (about 11 of them); 16-74kya
  • Small bodies and brains (about 3ft tall, 400cc brains)
    – Still has large feet close to size of humans
  • Used sophisticated mode 5 tools
  • Pelvis similar in size and shape to australopithecines
  • Primitive hands and wrists
35
Q

What are the three hypotheses that explain why Homo florensis are short but developed?

A
  1. Island dwarfism strand of Homo erectus – resource availability makes things get smaller (though this doesn’t explain the brain shrink)
  2. Microcephalic strand of Homo sapiens – Microcephaly is when brains don’t fully develop; but there is no known disease that leads to individuals with small brains, so this is unlikely also because humans were not in Indonesia
  3. Ancestral lineage of early Homo – maybe they are just a surviving remnant from an earlier migration out of Africa; this solves the brain scaling issue, but we don’t have intermediate fossils that should exist
36
Q

Homo heidelbergensis

A

Evolved from Homo ergaster in Western Eurasia; 1mya to 400kya
- Larger brains (1200-1300cc)
- Larger brow ridge and no chin
- Ancestor of H sapiens (Africa) and H neanderthalensis (Europe)
- Large game hunting with spears (mode 3)
- European H heidelbergensis found about 500kya in Sima de los Huesos Spain, features indicate proto-Neandertals
- Asian H heidelbergensis 200kya

37
Q

Homo neandethalensis

A
  • Europe, 200 to 40kya (first found in Dusseldorf)
  • General cooling trend but fluctuating environment of Eurasia with frigid grassland and large mammals
  • Larger brain than Homo sapiens (up to 1740cc)
  • Oblong skulls with occipital bun and big nasal cavity
  • Unique teeth – massive roots and heavily worn incisors
  • Shorter and stockier (likely for heat) and a deep ribcage/wide torso
  • More robust limbs with better-developed muscle attachments
  • Short arms and legs
  • Mode 3 tools (finer flake tools, jabbing spears), large game hunters
  • Possible burial of dead
  • Personal ornaments like necklaces and body pigmentation
  • Have a hyoid bone like modern humans and have a human-like version of FoxP2
  • Lived short, difficult lives (many injuries and gum disease)
  • Red hair
38
Q

Homo sapiens

A
  • Less robust, in Africa about 250kya
  • H erectus does not evolve into H sapiens
  • Large, round skull with high forehead
  • Small face and teeth
  • Protruding chin
  • Less robust postcranial skeleton
  • Long limbs
  • Dispersed out of Africa about 60,000 years ago
  • Genetic difference among humans is not that different (relatively)
  • Humans have higher population densities, live longer lives, and are healthier than neanderthals
39
Q

What are the tool kits of Homo sapiens?

A
  • Stone tools modes 3-5; blades and microliths
  • Bone tools
  • Engraved tools
  • Possible boats (since we have found Tuna which shouldn’t be near shore)
  • Symbolic behavior
40
Q

How did cooking evolve?

A

We cook our food to get more calories out of it – the raw food diet has shown more women who stop ovulating which is bad for fitness
- We cannot use raw food as effectively because our molars and guts are too small (to make up for our large brains)
- Cooking leads to about a 50% increase from all major macronutrients and higher energy gain; it also increases digestibility and decreases digestion costs
- Known antiquity of cooking is recent (like late middle paleolithic era) but we appear to have controlled fire 1mya
- Homo erectus had obligate terrestrially so they must’ve slept on the ground which is inherently dangerous without fire
- Cooking likely evolved before meat eating (1.8mya)

41
Q

Explain the evolutionary theories behind running

A

H-G lifestyles require a lot of travel; humans can run long distances regardless of heat and age
- We have cooling mechanisms (sweat glands, no fur, ability to breathe while running)
- Human running is very efficient – at 2m/s, running is more energetically efficient than walking
- Humans pay the energetic costs of our large brains with running because running costs less

42
Q

The Persistence Hunting Hypothesis

A

We develop spears about 200kya, but Homo ergaster could not hunt with sophisticated tools. The hypothesis is that in the absence of sophisticated tools, they could out-run herbivores who would die of overheating before they would

43
Q

How do humans vary genetically?

A

We are all genetically very similar to each other, but we look very different (physical appearance like skin color and height, skills, preferences, tendency for disease). Gene variations influenced by single genes are somewhat rare, but many traits are influenced by many different genes. Genetics and environmental factors play large roles in variation, but we don’t know the relative contributions of each.

44
Q

How does geographic variation change skin color?

A

Most darkly pigmented people live at the equator, and most lightly pigmented people live closer to the poles, which highlights that there is a relationship between the intensity of the sun and the darkness of the skin; and the sun and the temperament of the people living under it

45
Q

How did natural selection occur regarding skin color? Why are some people not dark skinned if it protects them?

A

6mya – Light skin and black hair, 1.8mya less body hair and dark skin
- At the equator, lots of UVA and UVB get through the ozone layer (and UV radiation accounts for 86% of total variation in skin color)
- Darker skin is more protective against UV because melanin inside your skin cells absorbs UV radiation so it does not penetrate and damage your folate metabolism
- UVB triggers your body to produce vitamin D, so once Homo sapiens moved out of Africa, they were protected from UVB but for almost no reason and then were vitamin D deficient, so the UVB threat is just a tradeoff
- The Inuit and other cultures obtain vitamin D from meat and diet
- Current/historic voluntary and involuntary migrations resulted in people living in regions in which they are not adapted; urban living is a mismatch since we live inside and block sunlight

46
Q

How did the concept of race come about?

A

Carl Linnaeus grouped people based on color and Immanuel Kant argues that this correlates to capacities for developing civilization –> continued recognition of some races inferior than others
- Race is not a biological concept, but it can cause stress which impacts our biology (ex. mortality rates)
- Racial bias is learned, not inherent

47
Q

What are the biological differences between males and females?

A

Males produce small, motile gamete; females produce relatively immobile gametes

48
Q

human sex

A

Sex often refers to a combination of biological and physical characteristics (chromosomes, anatomy, hormones), and is often assigned on the basis of external genitalia at birth
- human sex is not binary – those with different chromosome combos can still struggle to produce the right amount of testosterone/estrogen

49
Q

human gender

A

Gender often refers to identities based on social/cultural characteristics and can encompass gender identity, gender perception, and gender expression

50
Q

Environment of Evolutionary Adaptiveness

A

Our minds/brains evolved to deal with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle on a wild landscape, and the recent lifestyle we have is not what our brains are adapted for (Ex. phobias)
- Many of our problems are due to this mismatch

51
Q

How have we developed to avoid inbreeding?

A

Many diseases are homozygous recessive, and each person has 2-5 fatal alleles, and relatives are likely to share the same fatal alleles, so inbreeding increases chances of having a child with a fatal condition. There is a human universal tendency to avoid inbreeding (psychologically, not just culturally).

52
Q

What makes someone attractive? How does jealousy serve an evolutionary function?

A

Though most still value mutual attraction and love the most, mate preferences vary. Women (limited by resources) should favor those who can provide, and men (limited by females) should favor healthy, fertile women (men and women have different peak fertility ages though).
Jealousy limits the risk of infidelity (both sexual and emotional infidelity – having sex or emotionally investing in someone else), and infidelity reduces fitness. Upset by infidelity varies among cultures, but men are more affected by the risk of infidelity.
Attractive faces motivate sexual behavior and activate reward centers in the brain. Beautification varies across cultures and attraction tendencies are innate. We prefer averageness, symmetry, ovulation, and neotenous females/masculine males – these tend to consider health or genetic normalcy.

53
Q

What are human family structures like?

A

Humans are in ethno-linguistic units that are generally not stationary; marriage is a typical practice across most societies (though it differs between cultures, 10-20% follow polygyny). There is a lot of cross-cultural variation in whether married couples stay with maternal, paternal, or both kin – a lot of fluidity occurs.
Kinship organizes a foraging society’s social world (though kin can mean different things to different people) – kinship and reciprocity/need impact food distribution
Pair bonds allow us to track both maternal and paternal kin

54
Q

How did homosexuality evolve?

A

Homosexual behavior has been documented in at least 450 different species of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, etc. Sex can function for conception, paternity confusion, practice, or communication. Homosexuality is an alternate strategy for instance when diseases are more prevalent in more males than females, females will form pair-bonds with another female to reduce the chance of that. Homophobia usually stems from those with a conception-based view of life and use that to argue it unnatural.

55
Q

What are the two types of between-group aggression?

A
  1. The Balance of Power: mutual fear of intense aggression, begins with a mild threat and escalates slowly if at all; both fighters survive
  2. Imbalance of Power: Aggressors are disinhibited, begins with a strong attack and escalates rapidly, victim can die if power imbalance is large
56
Q

The Imbalance of Power Hypothesis

A

Ecology –> fission fusion grouping –> imbalances of power –> low cost lethal aggression –> increased inter-group dominance –> increased access to resources and mates
Predictions of the hypothesis:
1. Power asymmetry between opponents provokes attack
2. Power asymmetry suppresses attack
3. Victims of aggression tend to be male (females are always potential mates)
4. Inter-group dominance –> resources

57
Q

Is there a human tendency for war?

A

A tendency for warfare is adapted to context. In isolated foraging societies, there is little warfare. When foraging societies are surrounded by other foragers, there is a lot more war. People outside the group tend to be killed quickly. Between group aggression is cooperative because success and survival depends on strength in numbers (imbalance of power) and trust that other raiders will not defect.

58
Q

How did humans get low reactive aggression and high proactive aggression?

A

This is because we are self-domesticated. Language based cooperation leads to development of capital punishment (that gets rid of those with high reactive aggression) to lead to self domestication syndrome which leads to tolerance and cooperation which leads to both more language-based cooperation and behavioral modernity. It reduces within-group aggression and increases our within-group cooperation.

59
Q

The Capital Punishment Hypothesis

A

Capital punishment is used (usually) against people who are inappropriately reactively aggressive in a small-scale society. Capital punishment is the ultimate mechanism behind the evolutionary reduction of reactive aggression in humans because it takes away reactive aggressive individuals from the gene pool. We have capital punishment because we have language that allows us to talk/negotiate with one another.

60
Q

Shaman

A

A practitioner who uses trance to provide services (like healing or divination)

61
Q

Shamanism

A

A set of practices adapted to psychology to convince observers they can influence uncertain outcomes; it appears to be ubiquitous. Its universal features are trance, dramatic initiations, chanting/drumming/dancing, displays (fire-walking, pain), costly prohibitions (sex, food, social isolation, etc), and peculiarity (epileptic, intersex, additional finger, etc).

62
Q

Trance

A

A temporary state that appears psychologically and behaviorally distinct from normal human functioning. It could be violently shaking, acting like a demon, etc. It is a drama of strangeness to support claims of supernatural powers that often includes displays of superhuman abilities.

63
Q

The Subjective Model of Shamanism (why do we do it)

A

The idea that shamanism adapts to our beliefs and cognitive architecture to find the most plausible means of controlling uncertainty. It has three major components:
1. Psychology of superstition: humans are predisposed to adopt erroneous techniques to influence important uncontrollable and random outcomes (which results in use of magic/superstition for these uncontrollable events)
2. Selective retention of intuitive magic: As specialists compete in markets for magic, magic evolves to become maximally effective-seeming; as people look for best ways to control, they selectively retain the cultural evolution of compelling magic
3. Shamans transform into entities distinct from humans to claim special powers – sometimes they are invisible forces (humans are predisposed to believe that invisible forces control random, uncontrollable events) and some involve transformations (people attribute superhuman powers to people who seem non-human – claims of power more credible when something has happened to them; shamans have initiation processes that function this way

64
Q

Subjective Cultural Selection

A

Cultural patterns may occur/recur because of their subjective appeal, which crafts traditions to form cognitive architecture. Humans have goals, and they selectively retain variants subjectively evaluated as satisfying those goals, so we form technologies that appear to best achieve regular goals

65
Q

What is self-denial? What is its purpose?

A

The act of prohibiting oneself from something (like sex, food, friends, etc) in order to signal an underlying trait. It can signal cooperation (by doing something that hurts them, observers infer cooperativeness), credibility (observers should infer belief from self denial), or supernatural otherness (by diverging from norms, observers should infer difference in supernatural power).

66
Q

What are taboos? What are their purpose?

A

The act of prohibiting discussion of a specific topic (usually sex or food, especially during initiation periods. A self-denying individual is more likely to be chosen with regards to cooperativeness, difference, and power (regardless of the category of self-denial like food vs sex).

67
Q

Culture

A

Information or behavior acquired from conspecifics (people of the same species) through some form of social learning

68
Q

What are the two units of culture and their definitions?

A

Memes: An idea, behavior, or style that spreads from individual to individual within a culture (passed through non-genetic means - internet memes are specific to the culture of the internet)
Tradition: Enduring behavior patterns shared among members of a group that depend to a measurable degree on social contributions to individual learning

69
Q

Do animals have culture?

A

Yes, animals do have culture at a broad definition. It is important to look at possible ecological explanations for these behaviors, however, because then it would not be culture.

70
Q

What is unique about human culture?

A

Human culture accumulates. It is an accumulation of ideas over generations – we can engage in behaviors more complex than what a single individual used to do on their own (which build the ideas and make them better)

71
Q

What are the three ways information can be transferred? How does the likelihood of these three ways change as we age?

A

Vertical – parent to offspring
Horizontal – among peers
Oblique – older to younger (not a parents, probably an expert)
As humans grow older, we turn more to oblique transmission of culture (from experts)>

72
Q

What are the three mechanisms of social learning?

A
  1. Social facilitation: an animal INDIRECTLY increases the likelihood that another will learn a behavior on its own (like they draw attention to a thing but not necessarily a specific solution)
  2. Observational learning: An animal watches another solve the problem and uses that method to solve the problems (imitation – an animal copies the exact actions of another individual; humans are particularly good at this) – this also involves goal emulation – the animal observes the final outcome and copies the outcome rather than the entire sequence of events
  3. Teaching: The active involvement of experienced individuals in facilitating learning to naive conspecifics
73
Q

How does language affect social learning?

A

Language is a part of our culture, but it also allows for cumulative culture and facilitates our social learning because it is easier to tell people rather than learn through observation. Culture is a part of our biology because their beliefs are deeply intertwined with the physiology of brains, hormones, etc (ex. culture of honor in the south and hormone levels).

74
Q

How has language evolved?

A

Chimps and bonobos can understand language, but they cannot produce grammar. Humans make sentences using grammar, and our languages are translatable into one another with good efficiency. Some capacity for language acquisition seems to be innate. We have the emergence of syntax (rules about sentence structure) and recursion (phrases within phrases). We also have a language for numbers which allows us to understand complicated long-term reciprocal actions.

75
Q

The FOXP2 gene

A

The gene associated with language. Mutations in this gene affect the articulation of speech, upper body coordination, some manual dexterity, and some aspects of grammar production

76
Q

Mismatch disorders

A

Illnesses that occur when our bodies are not well-suited to the environments we live in today
1. Obesity - we have developed to store fat and prefer high quality foods for survival, but now we live with an abundance of calories. Furthermore, it usually happens later in life, and fewer things are selected against if they occur after reproduction.
2. Stress - It was an adaptive response to crisis, but now stressors are less related to basic survival functions and it can lead to negative health outcomes
3. Reproductive cancers (breast and prostate) - breast cancer is because we want to have more menstrual cycles, but this leaves susceptibility to more mutations because it leads to higher estrogen levels which leads to cell division)

77
Q

Give one example of recent human evolution

A

Starch and amylase – our modern agriculture leads to increased amounts of starch in our diets, though the amount of starch varies. When you digest starch, your body releases amylase that breaks down the bonds in starches to turn it into digestible sugar. There is a gene that affects amylase production – some people have more copies of it than others, and those from high starch populations have more copies of amylase genes

78
Q

How has Earth’s environment changed over time?

A

As a result of continental drift, there have been changed continental positions which change ocean currents which affect climates. There is a lot of fluctuation of global climate change but there is a general cooling trend in the past 65mya.

79
Q

Potassium-Argon Dating

A

For a rock younger than 1.25 billion years, we can look at the ratio of radioactive potassium to argon to date it

80
Q

What are the trends from lab 9 on hunter-gatherer diets?

A
  • There is a higher percentage of gathering in warm vs cold climates.
  • Diets are split relatively evenly between hunting, gathering, and fishing
  • As effective temperature increases, percent meat-eating generally decreases
  • Men proportion our each action somewhat evenly, women spend more time gathering and less time hunting, with a little bit of time fishing.
  • With greater sexual-division in labor, there was more net primary production

Biological Anthropology (2 decks)

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