Anthro 2050 1st Edition Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 11 Lecture 1 January 27 Introduction to Biological Anthropology Describe what anthropology is and the subdivisions of anthropology 1 What is physical anthropology What areas of study does it include The study of human biology within the specific framework of evolution bioarchaeology population genetics primatology and paleoanthropology 2 What is sociocultural anthropology What areas of study does it include The study of cultures and societies 3 What is archaeology What areas of study does it include Study of past cultures through physical remains in the fossil record 4 What is linguistic anthropology What areas of study does it include Study of language and culture 5 What does anthropology mean The study of humans and our primate relatives and ancestors 6 What are the four fields of anthropology Linguistic Bio Cultural Archaeology Lecture 2 January 29 Biological Anthropology 7 What are some of the assumptions of science Things are always as they seem and scientists are 100 sure about everything they know 8 What is a hypothesis What are some of its characteristics an educated and observed statement about some phenomena in the world or of reality that is testable and falsifiable 9 There is a misconception that science is about proving things Actually science is about observation and questioning the world around us 10 A good explanation of scientific research explains how not why the results were as they were The simpler the explanation the better Parsimonious explanations all things held equal the simplest explanations are generally the best Lecture 3 January 31 Evolutionary Theory 11 What did Plato say about essentialism an ideal form exists for every organism and variations are merely flaws or deviation from that perfect form and this is true for every single creature 12 Who was James Ussher and what did he say about the age of the earth How did he figure this out used the Christian religious text the Bible to estimate the age of the Earth His calculation estimated the Earth to have been created in 4004 BCE 13 What was The Great Chain of Being Organization of life forms with humans being above all other animals and just below deities and heavenly beings 14 Who was Nicholaus Steno What was the Law of Superposition The father of Geology discovered fossils Law of Superposition states that older things will be at the bottom of the fossil record with newer things on top 15 Who was Carolous Linnaeus What were his three main accomplishments Created Binomial nomenclature to name living organisms created the nested hierarchy that put humans with animals and not above them made the first connections between humans and apes 16 Who was Buffon and what did he say about the age of the earth How did he figure this out Tested the time balls of iron took to cool after being heated and used the results to estimate the Earth s age at 75000 years 17 Who was Georges Cuvier What was catastrophism First scientist to examine the idea of extinction the idea that the Earth has withstood multiple catastrophic events which caused extinction and shaped the Earth 18 Who were James Hutton and Charles Lyell Hutton had the idea of Uniformatarianism and Lyell popularized it 19 What was Uniformitarianism Uniformatarianism Processes that are at work today were also at work in the past So wind erosion earthquakes etc gradually changed and are changing the face of Earth 20 Who was Jean Baptiste Lamarck What was his contribution to evolutionary theory Major evolutionary thinker before Darwin Developed theory on the Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics changes to an individual over their lifetime would be passed on automatically to their children 21 Who was Thomas Malthus How did his ideas effect Darwin s thoughts Interested in the relationship of human populations to resources Wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798 This essay influenced Darwin Lecture 4 February 3 Darwin and His Research 22 What was Darwin s life like prior to his discovery of natural selection Where did he go How did his travels affect his thought process He was the son of a well to do family originally studying to be a doctor Didn t become a doctor but found out about evolutionary theory of the time and joined the HMS Beagle on a world trip where his ideas on evolution and natural selection took shape 23 Who was Alfred Russel Wallace Another scientist who came up with the same ideas on natural selection as Darwin 24 What are the four main tenants of Darwin s theory of natural selection 1 In each generation there are more offspring produced than can survive 2 Offspring vary though not all the same they do resemble their parents and siblings 3 Some of these variations are better suited for survival than others 4 The competition for resources favors individuals with these variations resulting in that individual s survival 25 What does the term fitness mean Fit in Darwinian terms refers to an individual s ability to live to reproductive age find a mate and reproduce successfully 26 What is an adaptation the functional response of populations to the environment that result from natural selection 27 What qualities or characteristics must a feature have to be considered an adaptation it must be heritable functional adaptive and useful to its current function 28 What is an out dated adaptation are features that formed for a purpose but are no longer needed for that purpose Lecture 5 February 7 Natural Selection and Evolution 29 How does constraint through character correlation work selecting for one trait or character that happens to be related to another trait as well For example when selecting for beak depth in birds beak width is automatically selected for as well 30 What is a physical constraint something that can t evolve due to basic physical properties 31 What is a genetic constraint not enough genetic variance in a population to evolve or make changes 32 How is artificial selection evidence for natural selection Humans have domesticated plants and animals and chose traits in them that benefit human life Over time these plants and animals have changed just like all life changes due to natural selection 33 How does the nested hierarchy support evolution It shows the organization of living things in small groups nested inside larger groups If the natural world was random and without evolution this would not occur 34 What is homology What are the five different types of homology