Download ANTH 171 Midterm Questions With Comprehensive Answers |2026/2027 and more Exams History in PDF only on Docsity!
ANTH 171 Midterm Questions
Homology - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ traits that are the same in organisms because of a common ancestor Analogy - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ traits that are the same in different species because of common function Different types of Homology - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ primitive and derived Primitive homology - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ refers to features that have not changes from the ancestral condition Derived homology - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ features that are changed/modified from the ancestral condition Heterodont - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Organisms with different sized teeth Homodont - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ having teeth that are uniform in form, shape, and function Shared Features of Primates - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ primitive body plan, grasping feet and hangs, binocular vision, reduced reliance on olfaction, primitive
dental cusp patterns, reduced number of teeth, relatively large brain, relatively slow life history, relatively social Primitive body plan - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ have not lost clavicles, 5 digit hands and feet, radius and ulna Grasping hands and feet - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ opposable thumbs and toes, nails instead of claws (mostly) Binocular Vison - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ orbit has moved to front of skull for better depth perception. Post orbital bar is present in primates Reduced reliance on olfaction - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ rely less on smell than other mammals Primitive Dental Cusp - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ cusps are present; closer to ancestral mammal traits Dental Formula for Ancestral Mammal - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ 3-1-4- Dental Formula for Humans - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ 2-1-2-
Dental Formula for New World Monkeys - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ 2-1-3-
Potential Costs of Group Living - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Increased completion for resources, disease transmission, chance of being cuckholded, conspicuousness to predators and prey Cuckholded - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Raising children that are not your own biologically Potential benefits of Group Living - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ foraging benefits, predation avoidance benefits and social benefits foraging benefits of group living - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ more eyes, minimize time wasted searching, share information, cooperative hunting and cooperative defense of food patches. Predation Avoidance Benefits - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Selfish herd effect, vigilance effect, confusion effect, potential for cooperative defense The "Selfish Herd" Effect - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ individuals within a large population are at lower risk from predators by chance The "Vigilance" Effect - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ individuals spend less time looking for predators
The "Confusion" Effect - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Decreases predation when predators have difficulty in picking out a prey from the crowd Social Benefits of Group Living - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Learning is easier, finding mates are easier, more sharing of information, assistance in rearing offspring, and divisions of labor -hypothetically- are possible. Noyau - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ AKA "Solidarity Foraging" a primate social group where the main family unit is a mother and her offspring, where males are typically solitary and not involved. Often nocturnal Pair Bonded Social Groups - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ One-Male One-Female family groups, transient and life-long; territorial one-male, multi-female groups - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ excludes all other males, one male mates with all females in group Multi-male multi-female groups - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ common in primates, often very large groups Fission-Fusion - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ groups that may form and break up over periods of time (multi-male multi-female groups)
Causes of High Ranking - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Resource power holding, inherited from mother, coalition formation, age of individual and length of group residence, physical prime Why Strive for High Rank? - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ High fitness, high ranking mothers' children have a lower mortality rate, better access to resources Affiliation - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ joining; associating with
Examples of Affiliative behaviors - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ grooming, proximity and physical distance Grooming - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ removes dirt and parasites; promotes bonds between individuals and reinforces dominance hierarchies. Kin Selection - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ the process by which traits or behaviors arise via natural selection through the effects on the survivorship and/or reproduction of relatives. (Preserve the bloodline) Goal of Kin Selection - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ To increase the fitness of the ones around you
Relatedness - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ the average proportion of genes shared between X individuals (passed on by kin) Inclusive Fitness - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ direct fitness + indirect fitness AKA individual fitness + reproduction of close kin Reciprocal Alturism - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ exchange of acts that are reciprocal among non-kin in different currencies Mating Systens - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Who is having sex with who? Monogamy - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ One male one female mate polgyny - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ one male, multiple females
polyandry - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ one female, multiple males Polygyandry - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ multiple males, multiple females Solidarity foraging and polygynous - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Noyau Primate Reproductive Biology - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ different individuals have many different strategies to increase fitness Key to Conception - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Food availability
Why Disperse? Negatives - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ takes time and energy and energy to move away Why Disperse? Benefits - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Inbreeding avoidance, reduce completion in groups, escape non-optimal local conditions Why do we study primates? - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ To help us understand our own evolution through our closest ancestors The General Goal of Science - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ To produce objective knowledge about the observable world Basic Science - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ the process of discovery to increase of the knowledge base of a field Natural Laws - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Discovered through external observation 4 subfields of anthropology - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ archaeology, biological, cultural, linguistic Applied Science - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ The usage of knowledge collected in basic science to solve a specific problem
The Scientific Method - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge through observation and experimentation to test a hypothesis Step 1 of Scientific Method - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Ask a question about an observation Step 2 of Scientific Method - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Propose hypothesis
Hypothesis - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ a statement about what might be true and/or a possible explantation for a phenomenon A hypothesis must be: - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ falsifiable and not made on ungrounded speculation Step 3 of Scientific Method - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Collect data to test your hypothesis Step 3 is: - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ systematic, empirical, repeatable and often, quantitive Step 4 of Scientific Method - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Interpret findings (Supported vs. Not Supported)
What is a cell? - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ There is a genome of DNA in the nucleus of every cell Gene - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ a sequence of DNA bases that codes for a protein Locus - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ a physical are in the genome where genes occur (related to specific traits); can be identified on chromosomes Diploid - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ An organism that a two sets of homologous pairs of chromosomes Allele - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Alternative versions of genes Allele Frequency - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ The percentage of all the alleles at a locus accounted for by one specific gene trait Macroevolution - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Large scale complex evolutionary change in whole systems over a long period of time (microevolution accumulation over time) Speciation - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ process by which a new species evolves from an earlier (ancestral) one
allopatric speciation - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ isolation and interruption of a gene flow followed my microevolutionary change Example of Allopatric Speciation - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Species separated by a river/mountain range Adaptive Radiation - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ The relatively rapid expansion and diversification of an evolutionary group of organisms as they adapt over time and to their environments Example of Adaptive Radiation - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Darwin's Finches Allopatry - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ species that share different geographic locations Mutation - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ a change in DNA, creates variation in the gene pool, must occur in sex cells to have evolutionary consequences Creative force in Evolution - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Mutations Types of mutations - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ deletion, insertion, point mutation, large mutations in chromosomes (fusion of chromosomes)
3 types of Systematics - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ phylogeny, taxonomy, and classification Phylogeny - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ shows the relationships and the the time scale of splitting between ancestors and descendants; evolutionary tree Taxonomy - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ The theory behind naming and categorizing biological organisms; grouped into hierarchal categories on the basis of phylogeny Classification - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species Different types of Similarities - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ homology, anaology
Female Relationships: Philopatric Societies - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ dominance hierarchies are common, females form strong bonds with each other, support from kin (important for reproductive success) Female Relationships: Dispersed Societies - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ not related and do not form strong social bonds,
dominance hierarchies if present are weak, social bonds are more commonly found between males and females Male Relationships: Multi Male Multi Female - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ males can be both dispersed or philopatric. Males typically for dominance hierarchies, can join forces to enhance rank (coalitions), fight over males and resources Male Relationships: One Male Multi Female - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ males are dispersed, lots of male-male completion, age-graded groups may form Age-Graded groups - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ where the lead male allows a less powerful mate into the group; not allowed to mate with any females Bachelor Groups - Correct Answer ✔️ ✔️ males that don't have harems, stay together and look for opportunities to overthrow male leaders for a group takeover
