Biological Anthropology Exam 3
Questions with Complete Solutions
Locomotion First View of Evolution - Answer-Ape-Bipedal Ape-Intelligent Bipedal Ape-
Human
Brains First View of Evolution - Answer-Ape-Intelligent Ape-Bipedal Intelligent Ape-
Human
Piltdown Gravels - Answer-Sussex Gravels; Charles Dawson, fossil remains unearthed
in 1908; 2 human skull fragments
Sir Arthur Smith Woodward - Answer-1864-1944; British Paleontologist, reconstruction
of find; Plio-Pleistocene age of Piltdown vertebrae assemblage; multiple individuals.
Eoanthropus dowsoni (Piltdown Man) - Answer-Woodward, 1912; Dawson's Dawn Man;
dethroned Neanderthals and Java Man; Late Pliocene into early Pleistocene. Cranial
capacity about 1070 cc; several people did not accept authenticity and reconstruction;
ape-like jaw with human cranium. Questioned Woodward's legitimacy.
Sir Arthur Keith (1866-1955) - Answer-human anatomist; believed in big brain
hypothesis
Piltdown Hoax - Answer-was the deliberate fabrication of a fossil involving an ancient
human cranium and a modern orangutan jaw; 1950s chemical analysis revealed it was
a hoax, 40 yrs later; fluorine dating revealed different dates for cranium and mandible.
Stained and modified to hide info, molar filed down. Fueled a racial bias in Britain, and
was forged by someone working on museum, trunk found years later.
Raymond Dart (1893-1988) - Answer-Australian anatomist; chair of anatomy in South
Africa; student of Arthur Keith, but did not like each other. Interest in anthropology.
Received a crate of bones from Taung, a limestone mine; finds cranium of speical
interest among bones.
Australopithecus africanus - Answer-Taung Child; high forehead, no brow ridge, flat
orthognathic profile; deciduous teeth, no diastema (CP3); gracile build (cheekbones,
mandible, brow ridge); foramen magnum anteriorly placed; endocast reveled 405 cc
juvenile, 450 cc as adult.
Robert Broom (1866-1951) - Answer-Scottish-trained medical doctor, interest in
paleontology; supporter of Dart's Taung Child, but once found another specimen,
named it something else.
,Plesianthropus transvaalensis - Answer-actually A. africanus, found at Sterkfontein,
STS5- Ms Ples. was the name of specimen; undoubtedly bipedal, 3-2 MYA (Robert
Broom); discovered in 1930s, adult version of Taung child.
Australopithecus africanus traits - Answer-adult individuals discovered; human-shaped
neocranium; brain size greater than chimp, but smaller than modern human; small
canines, big molars; bipedal according to postcranial remains. Fossils found in "Cradle
of Mankind"
Limestone Caves - Answer-Solution cavity, creates weak crystallization of calcium
carbonate; breccia is like cement; crack and fissures are death traps, anything that falls
in is trapped, concretized.
Osteodontokeratic Culture - Answer-Dart's notion of human tool use; based on finds
from Makapanghat; bone, tooth, and horn culture; fossils and associated fauna; inspired
by African Genesis by Robert Audrey, which featured killer apes. Not a lot of facts to
support theory.
C.K. Brain - Answer-taphonomic study of cave sites to see how bones assemble in
caves; bones don't end up in caves because of hominins; hominins are killed/scavenged
by carnivores and rodents, owl regurgitating pellets.
Paranthropus robustus - Answer-Broom, 1938; tiny anterior dentition, very large molars;
heavy chewing muscles; sagittal crest; Swartkrans, Kromdraii; 2-1.5 Ma.
Australopithecus sediba - Answer-Lee Berger, 2010; 1.98-1.7 Ma; cranial and
postcranial material in cave site near Malapa; adults and juveniles; small brain: 430 cc;
long arms.
Traits of Homo: dentition, broad frontal bone, derived face and pelvis.
Australopiths in East Africa - Answer-2 genera: Australopithecus and Paranthropus;
Kenyanthropus as well; 4.2-1 Ma; all bipedal; some large teeth; thick enamel, big
chewing structures; chimp-size brains; Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania.
South Africa for Fossils - Answer-less geologically active, older, Karst Cave Systems
The Leakey Family - Answer-Louis and Mary Leakey in 1930s; Richard, their son, and
his wife continued work; their daughter Louise does work now. Continue to work to
preserve resources for countries in E Africa.
Paranthropus boisei - Answer-discovered by many in 1959; very large cheek teeth;
small anterior dentition; lots of muscular dentition, megadont teeth. Called ancestor to
all humans by Louis Leakey; thought they found stone fools associated with this
hominin, but probably not. 2.3-1.2 Ma
, Lucy - Answer-1974 discovery; never something so complete or old; 40 percent
complete skeleton (47/207 bones); all one individual; mature adult, 1 meter tall; studied
and reconstructed. Hadar put on map by this discovery.
Hadar Stratigraphy - Answer-Basal Member about 4.2 Ma ash; Sidi Hakoma Member;
Denen Dora Member about 3.24 Ma ash; Kada Hadar Member about 3.20 Ma ash.
Donald Johanson - Answer-not friends with Richard Leakey; discovered Lucy; one of
Lucy's vertebrae recently identified as gelada baboon which is also extinct.
Laetoli, Tanzania - Answer-Mary Leakey started site after death of husband; 1978
discovery of footprints; 3.6 Ma; fossils similar to Hadar finds. Clear heel strike, evidence
of bipedal locomotion; 2 individuals walking side by side, one walking in footprints on
the others. Arch, heel, lots of evidence. Also found LH 18 here (120 ka).
Australopithecus afarensis - Answer-new species combined hominin assemblages from
two sites: Laetoli and Hadar; 4-3 Ma; "tall" canine and diastema; cheek teeth like A.
africanus; thick enamel; tooth row shape unlike apes; primitive skull and dentition;
bipedal; P3 has single cusp; Holotype: LH4
Dikika, Ethiopia - Answer-well-preserved 3 yo child of A. afarensis; right on surface of
earth, exposed to elements.
Australopithecus deyiremeda - Answer-An australopithecine, overlapping in time with
Au. afarensis in East Africa; 3.5-3.3 Ma; new species announced in 2015, not far from
Hadar; close relative in Afar language; different morphology.
Australopithecus anamensis - Answer-The oldest species of australopithecine from East
Africa and a likely ancestor to A. afarensis; 1994 by Mary Leakey; 4.2-3.9 Ma; 2 sites
near Lake Turkana. Postcranial remains: advanced biped, sexually dimorphic; Cranial
remains: small brain, thick enamel, ape-like dental arcade, sectorial P3. Fits well
between Ardipithecus and later Australopiths. New skull found in 2016 in Ethiopia, male
skull, first face, very well preserved.
Australopithecus bahrelghazali - Answer-discovery in 1993; central Chad; Bahr el
Ghazal region; 3.4-3 Ma; mandible fragment and P3; suggested derived bicuspid P3
and divergent tooth row; contemporary of Lucy; showed possibility of other deposits
outside of Rift Valley.
Australopithecus garhi - Answer-1999 Tim White
2.5 MYA Middle Awash Ethiopia
garhi= surprise
craniodental and post cranial remains
small brain, prognathic face with very large teeth
long legs, long forearms, <5 feet tall
cut marks on fossils