Exam 8: Primate and Hominin Origins

Dating methods indicating that something is older or more recent than something else

The terms Sivapithecus, Proconsul, and Dryopithecus¸ applied to different groups of Miocene hominoids, refer to a distinction made at what taxonomic level?

Relative dating techniques

Although excavations at Olduvai Gorge have yielded abundant archaeological traces, no hominin remains have ever been found there.

Remains of early genus Homo have been found in both East and South Africa.

Adaptive advantages of bipedalism include the following except

Thermoluminescence dates

_______ relies on identifying changes in the orientation of the earth's geomagnetic poles.

Where was Sahelanthropus discovered?

What is paleoanthropology?

You are a paleoanthropologist planning an excavation at a new hominin site in East Africa that is dated to about 2 mya. What fossil hominin species might you expect to find? What anatomical traits might you use to assign them to specific existing taxa?

Hominins have been variably defined as having which of the following?

Where have the fossil remains of the Miocene Hominoids not been found?

What have researchers concluded from the fossil remains of hominin feet from South Africa?

The earliest stone tools are dated to approximately

Because organic materials such as sticks and bones are usually well preserved in the archaeological record, we have good evidence of the earliest stages of hominin cultural modifications.

What is the dating method that uses the principle that undisturbed underlying geologic deposits are older than overlying geologic deposits?

Anatomical changes in hominins indicative of habitual bipedal locomotion include

Contrast obligate bipedalism with habitual bipedalism.

_________ may have been contemporaneous with australopiths but had a significantly larger brain.