ANT 103-Spring 2011 STUDY OBJECTIVES FOR EXAM 1 The exam material is pulled from all class lectures and lecture handouts, as well as the following chapters in your text: Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1. What is hominid, what are three main components of the anthropological approach, what are the four subfields of anthropology? Hominids: a group of extinct and living bipedal primates in the family Hominidae; includes all human-like beings that postdate the split between the evolutionary lineage that led to modern humans (Homo) and the lineage that led to living chimpanzees (Pan). Four subfields of anthropology: Cultural- the study of cultures and societies of human beings and their very recent past; traditional cultural anthropologists study living cultures and present their observations in an ethnography. Archaeology-the study of past societies and their cultures, especially the material remains of the past (tools, food remains, and places where people lived). Linguistic- the study of language, especially how language is structured, evolution of language, and the social/cultural contexts for language. Physical- also called biological anthropology; the study of human evolution and variation, both pastand current. Three components of the Anthropological approach: holistic, scientific, biocultural2. What are the various steps of a scientific study? What makes Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection “scientific”? Darwin employed The Scientific Method: 1) Identifying the problem based on some earlier observations 2) Stating the hypothesis 3) Collecting the data-observations 4)testing the hypothesis-rejection, acceptance, or modification. 3. What are the theories of “catastrophism”, “uniformitarianism”, “inheritance of acquired characteristics”, “blending inheritance”? Catastrophism: the doctrine asserting that cataclysmic events (volcanoes, earthquakes, and floods), rather than evolutionary processes are responsible for geologic changes throughout Earth’s history. Uniformitarianism: natural processes that are happening today, are the same natural processes that happened in the past. Inheritance of acquired characteristics: an organism can pass on features acquired during its lifetime. Blending inheritance: an outdated, dis-reputed theory that the phenotype of an offspring was a uniform blend of the parent’s phenotypes. 4. Who are Lyell, Lamarck, Malthus, Linnaeus, Mendel, Darwin, Wallace? In what year was On the Origins of Species published? Lyell: “Principles of Geology’ (1830) Uniformitarian, first geological estimate of the Earth’s age; Lamark: coined the term “biology” organisms are adjusted to “a particular set of environmental circumstances” inheritance of acquired characteristics-use + disuse: organism changes (acquires a new trait and passes to offspring) Malthus: (economist) plants and animals produce more offspring than can survive. However, population sizes remained stable (competition for resources limits population size). Linnaeus: comparativeapproach to the study of organisms; Linnaen system- universal binomial nomenclature, natural system of classification (tree of life), nested hierarchies (shared physicalcharacteristics). Mendel: theory of particulate inheritance (discrete “factors”). Darwin/Wallace: natural selection and adaptation- struggle for survival, organisms withinpopulation vary; this variation affects ability of individuals to survive/reproduce, this variability is transmitted to offspring. On the Origins of Species published 1859. 5. How is evolution defined? What is “natural selection”? What three criteria are involved in the process of natural selection? What is “reproductive fitness”? What is the only difference between artificial selection and natural selection? Natural Selection: the process by which some organisms, with features that enable them to adapt to their environment, preferentially survive and reproduce, thereby increasing the“fitness” of those features in the population. Three criteria of natural selection: 1) variability 2) heritability 3) differential success in surviving/reproducing Reproductive Fitness: probability that a given trait will spread in the population (relative to the present environment) 6. What are: Directional selection, disruptive selection, stabilizing (balancing) selection? How does each affect genetic variability in a population? Directional selection: selecting for one allele over another, causing the allele frequencies to shift in one direction. Disruptive selection: selection for both extremes of the phenotypic distribution. Stabilizing (balancing) selection: selection against the extremes of the phenotypic distribution, decreasing the genetic diversity for this trait in the population. Individuals at both extreme ends of the range produce more offspring than dothe remainder of the population. Given enough time, this pattern can result in a speciationevent, as those in the middle fail to survive and reproduce and the two new species arise at the extremes. 7. What are the four “forces” of evolution? How does each contribute to variability within and between populations? What is a cline? What is sexual selection? Sexual dimorphism?What are endogamy/exogamy? The four forces of evolution: 1) mutations- the only source of new variation (alteration of DNA sequence~change in resulting protein). 2) natural selection-types of selection (directional, stabilizing, disruptive). 3) genetic drift-small population size or “Founder’s effect” (random shift in allele frequencies). 4) gene flow- exchange of genes between populations (exogamy:reduces variation between populations; endogamy: increases variation between populations ~inbreeding). Clines: gradual geographic distributions of allele frequencies. Sexual selection: the frequency of traits that change due to those traits’attractiveness to members of the opposite sex. Sexual dimorphism: a difference in a physical attribute between the males and females of a species. 8. Be familiar with the terms from the Genetics Handout “Terms and concepts you should be familiar with”. LOOK AT HANDOUT. 9. What is a structural gene? What is a regulatory gene? How do regulatory genes account for the evolution of the vertebrate eye? Why are Hox genes important? Structural gene: aresponsible for body structures (hair, blood and other tissues) Regulatory gene: turns other genes on and off, an essential