Test 2 Flashcards
What environment do order primates live in?
80% rainforest, others savannah and woodlands
How many species of order primates are there?
200
List 8 distinct characteristics of OP’s:
1) opposable big toe: prehensile hands
2) flat nails and tactile pads
3) hind limb dominant loco
4) stereoscopic vision
5) reduced olfactory senses
6) small litters long gestation
7) Dentition
8) Brains
List some phenotypic characteristics of order primates
1oz-440lbs
Nocturnal or diurnal
Herb or omnivore
Diverse mating Systems
What happened 10 to 4 mya?
Climate change in Africa replaces tropical forest with open habitats
What is significance of open habitats?
Results in natural selection favoring evolution of hominins because climate cools and we have a precipitation drop so the animals forage within small food patches
5-7 mya
Hominini sep. From panini
4.4-1.1 mya
Australopithecus species
2.4-1.5 mya
Homo habilis
1.9-.3
Homo erectus
800-50
Archaic Homo sapiens
300-30
Neanderthaliensis
200-present
Homo sapien
Sahelanthropus tchadensis
Year discovered? Where was it discovers? How old was it? What is special about it? Basal Traits? Derived Traits?
- 1992
- Chad
- 6 Mya
- oldest hominin
- ape sized brain (320-350 cc)
- for amen magnum suggests upright posture, small canine teeth but larger than later hominin/ thick enamel, shorter face with massive browridge
Ardi
How old is he?
What is special?
Derived traits?
- 4.4 mya in Ethiopia
- almost whole skeleton!
- Bipedal (opposable toes, central foremen, bowl shaped pelvis)
- ARBOREAL: long arms, curved fingers, divergent/ grasping toes
What type of omnivore was ardi and how do we know?
A woodland! We know because of looking and dentition. The U shaped dental arcade similar to a chimpanzee and small incisors along with thicker enamel (showing less plant diet) proves this
What does the canine size teeth in ardi suggest?
That he was not sexually dimorphic
What is sexual dimorphism?
Aggressive mating tactics (as seen in chimps)
What was found in Laetoli?
Hominin footprints dated btw 3-3.5 mya discovered by mark Leakey. They walked bipedally!
Australeopithecus Afarensis
Nickname?
When discovered?
Where?
How old?
- Lucy
- 1973
- 3.2 Mya
- Ethiopia
What was Lucy’s brain like?
450 cc ( sim to chimp)
Lucy’s teeth?
- Had thick enamel (rapid development time for teeth)
- sexually dimorphic
- large incisors
How did Lucy stand?
Fully bipedal
-arched door, femur slanted inward, short wide pelvis
What are some commonalities among early hominins?
- small stature
- bipedal
- generalized diet
- brain size of chimp
- fast development
Common of early homo (>2.3 Mya)
- long legs and short arms
- terrestrial life
- tool use
- large brains
- human like dentition
- simple technology
How big were h. Erectus and ergaster brains?
500-1000 cc
What are some common characteristics of homo erectus and ergaster?
Long legs, narrow hips, barrel chests, long distance travel
What kind of tools are h. Ergaster using and what are they killing?
Acheulean hand axes to kill Large animals
Who are the common ancestor to the heidelbergensis?
Sapien, denisovans, Neanderthals
Where were Heidelberg found?
Africa, Asia and Europe (not sure where first appeared)
Brain size of Heidelberg?
1250 cc
Skull characteristics of heidelbergensis?
Higher foreheads, rounded backs long profile, thick, no chin, large brow
Behavior of Heidelberg
Use Achulean tools
Big game hunters
Eat nuts, fish, crabs, turtles
When comparing Chimpanzees and Australopithecine what is the difference in the skull attachment?
Chimps have skulls attached posteriorly and Aust. have them connected inferiorly
When comparing Chimpanzees and Australopithecine what is the difference in the spine?
Chimps: Slighlty curved
Aust: S Shaped Spine
When comparing Chimpanzees and Australopithecine what is the difference in the arm to leg ratio?
Chimps: Arms longer than legs (for walking)
Aust: Arms shorter than legs and not used for walking
When comparing Chimpanzees and Australopithecine what is the difference in the pelvis?
Chimps: Long, Narrow Pelvis
Aust: Bowl Shaped Pelvis
When comparing Chimpanzees and Australopithecine what is the difference in the femur?
Chimps: Femur angled out
Aust: Femur angled inward
What is the foreman magnum and what does its position indicate?
This is the whole in the skull. The opening for the spinal cord (foramen magnum) in the skull is located posteriorly in chimps and centrally in humans allowing for upright posture
Is Australopithecus afarensis more similar to chimps or humans and what does it look like?
It is more similar to humans and has a valgus angle indicating upright posture
Describe the pelvis of the A. Afarensis and what it indicates:
The laterally and ventral bending of the iliac crest in A. afarensis indicate bipedalism (sim to humans)
How do chimps walk?
With a bent knee, bend hip technique
What is occuring during the stance phase in humans? What muscles are at play? What are they preventing?
During walking, the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus muscles contract on the side that is in stance phase, preventing the pelvis from tilting down too far on the unsupported side, which is in swing phase.
Describe the muscles at play during stance phase in more detail:
Gluteus medius and minimus muscles originate laterally on the ilium and insert laterally on the femoral trochanter. Their force (angled arrow) stabilizes the pelvis (vertical arrow) during bipedal walking.
What is the positive effect of the enlarged lumbar vertebrae?
Allows them to bear more weight from upright body
Describe the S shaped spine and what it is made up of:
One in cervical vertebrae (neck), the other in the lumbosacral vertebrae (lower back to pelvis)
Results in an S-shaped spine, in contrast to the C-shaped spine of a quadruped
Describe primate feet
Flexible, nimble grasping organs, more like human hands than like human feet. Not much has changed during foot evolution of Panini.
Describe the human foot and the derived traits involved:
Tarsals and metatarsals are tightly bound by tendons, forming an arched, elastic platform.The human first toe is strong, nonopposable and non-abductible, suited for powerful push-off. Large heel for insertion of “Achilles” tendon
What type of posture did Australopithecines most likely have and why?
Bent knee bent hip because footprints at Leotili suggest so and they could not lock their knees
What are the four hypothesis for the evolution of Bipedalism?
1) Energy efficient travel between shrinking foot patches
2) Thermoregulation
3) Postural Feeding Efficiency
Describe the human hand: (Joints included for movement)
Strong muscles (adductor pollicis and abductor pollicis) move thumb towards and away from palm. Saddle joint at trapezium and 1st metacarpal allows thumb to be rotated into opposition to palm and other digits.
What muscles are unique in the thumb of a human? (3)
Flexor Brevis Superficial , 1st volar, Flexor Deep Head
What two grips does the opposable thumb allow for?
power grip and precision grip
Describe hand of Australopithecus sediba and what it suggests?
Long thumb and well-developed insertion of flexor pollicis longus (FPL) muscle suggest capability for tool making/use.
What two examples were given in class regarding the tool use in chimps?
Fishing for termites with a stick and pounding beetle nuts with a pestle
Who used oldawan tools and how old are they?
Late Australopithecus and early erectus used these tools. First appearance is 3.4 mya
Where have oldawan tools been found?
Africa and later eurasia
Describe and oldawan tool, how it is made, and what it is used for:
usually chopper and scrapers, made by striking glancing blows with a hammer stone, producing modified core stones and razor-sharp flakes, used for chopping things and scrapping at things
How early MIGHT stone tool use date back? (To which type of primate?)
A. Afarensis
What type of Stone tool use by Australopithecines in Ethiopia was discovered?
Bones of large mammals dated 3.4 mya showing cut and scrape marks that seem to have been made deliberately using stone tools
Probably scavenged, not hunted
Who used Acheulean stone tools and how old are they?
Used by homo erectus and archaic homo sapiens. They date back to 1.7mya
Describe the Acheulean tools and how they differ from oldowan:
They are larger and and more finely trimmed but other than that have the same uses as the oldowan
Describe the Acheulean cleaver and hand ax:
Bifacially trimmed from flint stone.
Small (palm of your hand) to a foot long
Standardized design w/regular proportions across tools
How long did Acheulean tools remain unchanged?
For 1 million years
Who used Middle Paleolithic tools?
Archaic homo sapiens and neanderthals
What method was used to make paleolithic tools?
Levallois Method
Describe the Levallois Method for tool making:
The core is prepared before striking off the flakes (watched a video in class)
What were Middle paleolithic tools used to kill and how?
large game by attaching tools to sticks
What is the hypothesis for why there are not any Achelean tools in asia?
The Movius Line: Hypothesis for why there are no Acheulean tools in Asia
Homo left Africa before Acheulean industry
Materials for stone tools were not available
Alternative superior material: bamboo
Who used upper paleolithic tools?
Modern homo sapiens
Describe the upper paleolithic tool:
Skillfully created blades used for attachment to sticks to hunt big game
Describe the use of a punch:
The punch was used to precisely direct the blow from a hafted hammer stone. (evident in modern homo sapiens)
Describe the modified flint blade and who made them:
Cro Magnon stone knappers were experts in striking long blades from flint cores and then modifying the blades into specialized tools.
Cooperation
Any act by one individual that benefit another
Byproduct
X donated to Y as an otherwise selfish act to Y (btw or within species)
Example of Byproduct
So long and thanks for all the fish
Kin Selection
X donated to Y (X shares genes with Y)
* within species only (nepotism)
Altruism
Benefits recipient at cost of donor
Hamiltons rule
Cost> benefit X relatedness
-only perform behavior if cost to you is less than benefit to recipient
Example of Human Kin Experiment
Burning house who do you save?
Results: lower relatedness= less likely to help and always help the younger
Directed Reciprocity
X donates to Y (Y reciprocates to X)
*within and between species
The Prisoners Dilemma
Non zero sum IS possible but you have to rat your parter out
What is the best thing to do is prisoners dilemma? Describe Tit for TAT
Cooperate, relocate your partners precious actions, forgive
*in prisoners dilemma you should tell what you did and take the little sentence
Indirect Reciprocity
X donates to Y and Z rewards X
* within and btw
Reputation
3rd party helps those who helps others and refused to help those who don’t help others
Parental Investment Theory
Sex that invests more offspring will be more selective in mate choice
Which sex invests more?
Females!
Sexual Strategy Theory
The idea that there is a short term and long term mating stategy
Describe SOI-R survey
Standard survey given to show that men are more interested in short term mating than females (we took it as a class)
What characteristics to men look for when selecting a mate?
Facial symmetry and waste to hip ratio
What is the neocortex responsible for?
Sensory perception Motor commands Spatial reasoning Consciousness Language
What two things are found in the allocortex?
Amygdalla and Hippocampus
What does corpus callosum do?
Connect two halves of brain
What does the cerebellum do ?
Motor function
Allometric Hypothesis
large brains are a consequence of having a larger body size
Ecological Brain Resource Dispersion Hypothesis
Temporally or spatially ephemeral resources select for greater cognitive function
Ecological Brain Mental Map Hypothesis
Spatial learning selects for greater cognitive function
What is the prediction for ecological brain Resource Dispersion hyp?
Primates with more frugivorous (fruit eating) diets should have a larger neocortex ratio than folivorous (leaf eating) primates
Eco Brain Mental Map Prediction:
Primates with larger home ranges should have a larger neocortex ratio
Ecological Brain Extractive Foraging Hypothesis
Complex foraging tasks selects greater cognitive function
Ecological Brain Extractive Foraging Prediction
Primates that manipulate their food (remove fruit from pulp, extract termites) should have a larger neocortex ratio
Social Brain Hypothesis
Computational demands of social complexity select for greater cognitive function
Social Brain Hyp Prediction
Primates with larger social groups should have a greater neocortex ratio
Describe individual recognition:
large neocortex enables recognition of more individuals
Group size strongly correlated with non-visual neocortex, only weakly with visual cortex
Lateral geniculate nucleus not correlated with group size
Relationship Memory
capacity for remembering faces or social interactions
Humans can remember ~2k faces,»_space; 150
Memory is not stored in the neocortex
Damage to neocortex does not affect memory of events or people
Emotional Competance
recognizing and acting on other’s emotional states
Associated with the limbic system (eg amygdala), not with the neocortex
Relationship Managment
manipulate information about the social relationships themselves
“Machiavellian intelligence”
“Machiavellian intelligence”
frequency of tactical deception behavior use is associated with neocortex size across 18 primates species
Why isn’t the human brain bigger?
Because of the mechanical and physiological tradeoff
Describe the physiological tradeoff:
the smaller gut size allows for the larger brain size (this is just a hypothesis)
*We eat a Proteinaceous diet = more energy/nutrients per unit of digestive energy expended
Cooking in Archaic Homo increased digestability
Describe cognitive buffer hypothesis:
A large brain buffers against environmental challenges through behavioral flexibility
Larger brains reduce the need for fat storage, redirecting this energy to brain development
Describe the optimal life-history strategy:
tradeoff between growth, maintenance, and reproduction
Ex: offspring size/number
Is brain mass correlated with brain function?
No number of neurons is more accurate!
Is the human brain special?
No the number of neurons is actually what you would expect for the size and the energy cost per neuron is no t unusual
Symbolic
relationships between a sound and its meaning are arbitrary
Discrete
small, repeatable units (sounds) are combined to create meaning
Semantic
specific words have specific meanings
Combinotorial
an infinite number of meanings can be generated by recombining a finite set of words, which obey a syntax
Displacment
Language can communicate ideas about things that are not immediate in time or space
Honeybee Round Dance
: The scout has found food fairly close to the hive (e.g., 50-75m away).
Honeybee Waggle Dance
what three characteristics of lang?
used to communicate the location of food sources over a much greater distance.
Distance=number or duration of waggle runs
Direction=angle of run with respect to the sun.
Symbolic
Discrete
Semantic
What is universal grammar?
the capacity to learn language is biological and is shared by all humans – a “language organ”
What is generative grammar?
grammar (not a formal grammar) that provides a basic set of rules that generates all sentences: verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc.
What is a crytpo-creationist?
A person that does not believe natural selection plays a role in human language
When studying language what do we focus on?
Not language itself but the ability to USE language
Describe the FLB:
The Faculty for Language Broad: includes the FLN plus the sensory motors and the conceptual intentional stuff
What is the sensor-motor?
capacity to perceive and produce sound
What is the conceptual intentional?
capacity to produce a mental representation of an idea
Describe Hypothesis 1:
FLB (including FLN) is strictly homologous to animal communication
Describe Hyp 2:
FLB is a derived, uniquely human adaptation for language.
Describe Hyp 3:
Only FLN is uniquely human
Describe Imitation
precondition for FLB to evolve
Imitation not unique to humans
Highly developed in songbirds and dolphins.
But virtually absent in apes and monkeys
can learn several hundred hand signs but requires years of training
Only humans and dolphins can imitate
Referential Signal Example
Vervet monkeys produce different alarm calls for different predators, and receivers respond accordingly.
Playbacks show that it was the alarm call and not the context of the alarm call that elicited the appropriate behavior.
The assignment of the call to the predator is arbitrary, and thus symbolic, but that term has been abandoned for referential or functionally referential.
Combinatorial communication
Syntax refers to the rules of ordering words within a sentence to achieve a different meaning
Theory of mind
describe chimp example
knowledge of the mental states of others
Xu’s Language Hypothesis
linguistic labels are required to differentiate “kinds” objects
Describe the XU Exp
Refer to slides
Recursion
Syntax resulting in an open, limitless system of communication
THE STANDARD SOCIAL SCIENCES MODEL (4 components)
1) Human behavior is culturally acquired during an individual’s lifetime.
2) Learning is the mechanism generating fidelity in human behavior within cultures.
3) Culture is an emergent property of the group and is external to the individual.
4) Biological evolution has been superseded by cultural evolution.
Tabula rasa
The mind is a blank slate capable of exhibiting any behavior that culture endows it with.
What must be assumed about the transmittance of culture?
That it is cross generational and trasferred within and between cultures
Adaptive Lag
We have Stone Age minds in a modern world (need for salt and fat causing obesity)
What three factors is amount of care sensitive to?
1) genetic relatedness
2) return on investment
3) energy vs opp cost
Look at bluegill example
Manipulated makes paternity
