Lec. 7 Extractive Foraging

Question 1

Humans are the only animals that combine the use of different tools for a given task. True /False?

Answer 1

False, chimpanzees can combine the use of different tools (hammer and stick) to get to endosperm of seeds.

Question 2

Do chimpanzees in the wild break stone to use the sharp edges of broken stone?

Answer 2

So far there is no evidence that they do so.

Question 3

What is the evidence that 4000 year-old stone tools were used for cracking nuts??

Answer 3

Starch granules characteristic of local nuts.

Question 4

Give two examples of commonly used human tools from before farming and metallurgy that chimpanzee have never been seen using.

Answer 4

1. string, 2. containers

Question 5

Do complex knowledge niches favor larger brains across mammals, say primates and carnivores?

Answer 5

No, apparently only in some primates.

Question 6

African hunting dogs live in the African Savannah. Do chimpanzee and hunting
dog ranges overlap?

Answer 6

Yes, in places like Southern Tanzania.

Question 7

How were tannins traditionally removed from acorns?

Answer 7

By leaching with lots of water

Question 8

How can one remove tannins from acorns without the use of pots?

Answer 8

By using (mortars), gourds, sand or animal skin.

Question 9

How many principle modes of stone tools have been identified across human
evolution?

Answer 9

Five

Question 10

The oldest stone tools found correspond with the age of the genus Homo.
True/False?

Answer 10

False, stone tools that are 3 million years old prove that such tools were already made and used by the genus Australopithecus.

Question 11

Why is the name Acheulean hand axe somewhat unfortunate?

Answer 11

Because the oldest examples of these tools appeared over a million years earlier in Africa.

Question 12

Briefly describe the five types of stone tools made by human ancestors:

Answer 12

1. rock with few ridges for smashing and cracking things.
2. bifaces,
   3.hand axes, symmetrical cores giving rise to multiple blades
3. smaller flakes combined with wood and bone tools
4. tiny blades hafted into projectile weapons

Question 13

What is the great advantage of Levallois type stone tools”

Answer 13

“Levallois” Cores, allow to generate new sharp blades with a single strike.

Question 14

What are the three major periods of stone age called?

Answer 14

Early, Middle, Later Stone age.

Question 15

When you eat peanuts, do peanut proteins appear in your blood after you have digested them?

Answer 15

Mostly not, although larger protein fragments can appear in the blood.

Question 16

What monosaccharides does the digestion of starch, sucrose and lactose give you in each case?

Answer 16

starch->glucose; sucrose->glucose and fructose; lactose-> glucose and galactose.

Question 17

How many different amino acids make up our proteins?

Answer 17

About twenty

Question 18

Which sources of energy are used by the brain and liver for energy supply respectively?

Answer 18

Glucose and ketone bodies, liver fatty acids.

Question 19

How is breast feeding akin to an “across the board immunization”?

Answer 19

The maternal antibodies taken up from breast milk attenuate the infections in the infant (they do not block infection but limit disease) and thus act like immunizations

Question 20

How can functioning antibodies from breastmilk pass into the circulation of the infant, given that digestion usually takes apart proteins?

Answer 20

The neonatal stomach is much less harsh and infants express special receptors in their gut that can mature maternal antibodies and transport these into the blood.

Question 21

How can breast mill influence the microbiome of the newborn?

Answer 21

Direct delivery of microbes (milk is not sterile), delivery of milk oligosaccharides that favor good microbes and block bad microbes.