Human Osteology
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Course Introduction
Human Osteology is the scientific study of the human skeleton, focusing on the identification, analysis, and interpretation of skeletal remains. This course covers skeletal biology, bone growth and development, methods for aging and sexing skeletons, and the recognition of human versus non-human bone. Students will learn to distinguish individual bones, identify anatomical features, and understand the functional morphology of the skeleton. Applications of human osteology in forensic, archaeological, and medical contexts are also explored, providing foundational knowledge for careers in biological anthropology, archaeology, forensic science, and related fields.
Recommended Textbook How Humans Evolved 7th Edition by Robert Boyd
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Chapter 1: Adaptation by Natural Selection
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Q1) Species are best described as populations of organisms that A) are best adapted to their environment.
B) assume some fixed characteristics.
C) are dynamic.
D) cannot be modified or go extinct.
Answer: C
Q2) What does the Grants' study of medium ground finches tell us about evolution by means of natural selection?
A) New species cannot form.
B) A new species can form only when natural selection operates consistently in one direction for a few million years.
C) Evolution can change only single traits within a species.
D) New species normally take thousands to millions of years to arise because natural selection pressures operate in fits and starts.
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: Genetics
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Q1) Describe the structure of DNA.
Answer: DNA is a double helix. It is like a twisted ladder, with the sides of the ladder, or backbone, made of alternating phosphate and sugar molecules. The rungs of the ladder are made up of nucleotide bases, of which there are four: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. The two sides of the ladder are joined by hydrogen bonds between complementary nucleotides: adenine always bonds to thymine, and cytosine always binds to guanine.
Q2) Homologous chromosomes
A) come in pairs.
B) move together into the gametes during meiosis.
C) are found only in mammals.
D) have three codons.
Answer: A
Q3) The structure of DNA is that
A) of a series of intertwining chromosomes.
B) of a double-stranded molecule, consisting of four bases.
C) of a series of bases: adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine.
D) both b and c are correct.
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: The Modern Synthesis
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Q1) For most continuously varying characters, offspring are intermediate between their parents because
A) of blending inheritance.
B) genetic transmission involves faithful copying of the genes themselves and their reassembly into different combinations in zygotes.
C) mutation is constantly introducing new alleles, some of which will produce new phenotypes.
D) natural selection reduces variation.
Answer: B
Q2) Which of the following cannot cause evolutionary change within a population?
A) Natural selection
B) Hardy-Weinberg forces
C) Mutation
D) Random genetic drift
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Speciation and Phylogeny
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Q1) How do genetic distance measures work? How have genetic distance measurements been applied to the primate fossil record to reveal information about the divergence of primate groups?
Q2) Allopatric speciation occurs when
A) gene flow is maintained between two subgroups of a mother population.
B) two morphologically different subgroups of a species share the same habitat.
C) gene flow prevents genetic variants from being exchanged between subgroups.
D) a subgroup is physically isolated from the mother population and gene flow can no longer occur.
Q3) Explain the difference between ancestral and derived characters.
Q4) Explain why shared ancestral characters do not yield good information about relationships between species.
Q5) When scientists use phylogenies to name species and classify them into hierarchical categories, they create
A) systematics.
B) taxonomies.
C) macroevolution.
D) character displacement.
Q6) Give a hypothetical example of parapatric speciation.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Primate Diversity and Ecology
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Q1) Discuss the main factors contributing to the endangerment and extinction of primates.
Q2) Imagine you discover a new species of primate. It has a large body size (about 35 lbs.), is sexually dimorphic, appears to spend much of its time in the trees, lives in dense tropical forest, and has longer arms than legs. Based on this information only, what can you hypothesize about this new species' behavior and ecology?
Q3) Resource-defense territoriality occurs when
A) resources are distributed over a wide area.
B) resources are abundant and thus worth defending.
C) food is clumped in a space.
D) females are clumped in space.
Q4) Compounds found in foods that are essential in regulating many of the body's metabolic functions are A) proteins.
B) fats and oils.
C) vitamins, minerals, and trace amounts of certain elements.
D) carbohydrates.
Q5) Summarize the changes in manual dexterity and sensory reorganization that accompanied the evolution of primates.
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Chapter 6: Primate Mating Systems
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Q1) Male primates commit infanticide in one-male, multifemale groups because A) it enhances male attractiveness to females.
B) females without nursing infants resume sexual receptivity.
C) females do not want infants sired by a nonalpha male.
D) they want to limit the number of males in their group.
Q2) Because behavioral strategies are thought to be the product of natural selection, they should increase
A) reproductive success.
B) the cost-to-benefit ratio.
C) adaptations.
D) trade-offs.
Q3) Males can reduce the cost of dispersal by
A) dispersing with peers or joining all-male groups.
B) dispersing alone but staying close to their original groups.
C) dispersing at night close to other groups.
D) dispersing far from their natal group.
Q4) How does the threat of infanticide influence male-female relationships in baboons? Include in your answer a discussion of mating effort and parenting effort.
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Chapter 7: The Evolution of Cooperation
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Q1) Which of the following is true regarding parent-offspring conflict?
A) Weaning is an example of parent-offspring conflict, and this transition reflects a fundamental symmetry in the genetic interests of mothers and offspring.
B) A mother is equally related to each of her offspring; in contrast, an offspring is at most 25% related to its siblings but is 100% related to itself.
C) A mother is motivated to wean her current infant so she can begin investment in her next infant, but the infant will resist its mother's attempts at weaning because it is not in its genetic best interest.
D) Parent-offspring conflict only occurs in primates because reproductive costs are higher than for other mammals.
Q2) In a study done with vervets, researchers found that
A) genetic relatedness is necessary for contingent reciprocity to occur.
B) they responded to recruitment calls from other monkeys after receiving grooming bouts from them.
C) contingent reciprocity can evolve as confederates react appropriately to the presence and absence of reciprocity.
D) agemates were more likely to be reciprocal.
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Chapter 8: Primate Life Histories and the Evolution of Intelligence
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Q1) A link between social complexity and cognitive ability is predicted using A) a standardized measurement of cognition.
B) absolute forebrain size.
C) absolute neocortex size.
D) a standardized measure of group size.
Q2) There are two chimpanzees in an experimental design: a dominant one and a subordinate one. The subordinate can see two caches of food, but the dominant can see only one. If chimpanzees have a theory of mind, which of the caches of food do you predict the subordinate chimp will attempt to acquire?
A) The one in view of the dominant chimpanzee
B) The one hidden from the dominant chimpanzee
C) Neither
D) Both
Q3) Primates who understand the nature of third-party relationships may
A) have a good idea about who will support them in a conflict.
B) enlist aid from the most dominant male in the group.
C) follow basic social rules, including supporting subordinates against dominants.
D) recruit allies who are close to their opponents.
Q4) Explain why coalitional behavior may require sophisticated cognitive abilities.
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Chapter 9: From Tree Shrew to Ape
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Q1) Plesiadapiforms had several primitive features, including A) nails instead of claws.
B) eyes that were placed on the sides of their heads.
C) the presence of a postorbital bar.
D) habitual terrestrial behavior.
Q2) The hominoid radiation occurred during the A) Eocene.
B) Oligocene.
C) Miocene.
D) Pliocene.
Q3) Which of the following derived characteristics did the earliest oligopithecid primates share with modern haplorrhines?
A) Their eye sockets were fully enclosed by bone.
B) They had a 2.1.3.3 dental formula.
C) They were nocturnal.
D) They had prehensile tails.
Q4) Why did the radiation of hominoids come to an end?
Q5) Multiple hypotheses seek to explain how New World monkeys arrived in South America. According to the chapter, what are some of these hypotheses?
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Chapter 10: From Hominoid to Hominin
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Q1) Surprising findings regarding Ardipithecus ramidus include
A) limb proportions like those of modern great apes.
B) specialization for below-branch feeding.
C) limb proportions like those of monkeys.
D) hands that are similar to those of African apes.
Q2) Studies of tooth enamel tell us that
A) C4 plants are woody plants while C3 plants are grasses and sedges.
B) Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus shared a variable diet that may have included animals that fed on C4 plants.
C) chimpanzees feed mainly on C4 plants.
D) Paranthropus boisei ate mostly C3 plants.
Q3) Australopithecus afarensis was
A) sexually dimorphic.
B) a stone-tool manufacturer.
C) monogamous.
D) older than Ardipithecus ramidus.
Q4) Why might there be uncertainties about the relationship of different hominins to each other?
Q5) Discuss three hypotheses concerning the evolution of bipedalism.
Q6) What is the anatomical evidence that early australopithecines were bipedal?
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Chapter 11: Oldowan Toolmakers and the Origin of Human
Life History
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Q1) Contemporary foragers
A) have food sharing and a sexual division of labor.
B) have permanent settlements.
C) raise domestic livestock.
D) live in large groups of over 100 adults, most of the time.
Q2) Which of the following is true of the contribution of calories from foraging among contemporary foraging groups?
A) Individuals of all ages contribute equally to the group's diet.
B) Men contribute a net surplus of food.
C) Women contribute a net surplus of food.
D) Children contribute nothing at all.
Q3) Which the following statements is NOT true concerning human foraging groups?
A) Children are able to obtain enough food to feed themselves by the age of 10 years.
B) Women do not forage enough food to feed themselves until they are in their late 40s.
C) Men provide the majority of calories over time in all foraging groups.
D) Men frequently share the food they obtain with other group members.
Q4) Why is it difficult to determine which early hominin species may have invented the use of chipped stone tools?
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Chapter 12: From Hominin to Homo
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Q1) Which of these is the most widely supported explanation for the small body size and mixture of primitive and derived traits of Homo floresiensis?
A) H. floresiensis is a result of evolutionary dwarfism.
B) H. floresiensis had microcephaly.
C) H. floresiensis had an ancestor older than Homo erectus.
D) H. floresiensis is a hoax.
Q2) The first Neanderthal findings were thought to be
A) diseased modern humans.
B) an extinct prehuman animal.
C) an undiscovered living race of people.
D) evidence of H. erectus in Europe.
Q3) The lifeways of Neanderthals probably included
A) burial of the dead and hunting large game.
B) primarily scavenging for meat, and very little use of plant foods.
C) permanent settlements.
D) limited planting of crops.
Q4) Why do anatomists think that Homo ergaster did not have spoken language?
Q5) What is the evidence that Neanderthals took care of the sick and buried their dead?
Q6) Discuss the differences between Mode 1, 2, and 3 stone tool technologies.
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Chapter 13: Homo sapiens and the Evolution of Modern
Human Behavior
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Q1) When sites and remains of Upper Paleolithic populations and Neanderthal populations are compared, a greater percentage of the Upper Paleolithic people's remains are from older individuals. This implies that
A) Neanderthals lived longer lives.
B) modern humans lived longer lives.
C) Neanderthals buried fewer of their dead than modern did humans.
D) modern humans buried fewer of their dead than did Neanderthals.
Q2) Which tool industry indicates that Neanderthals may have tried to copy modern human tools?
A) Aurignacian
B) Mousterian
C) Solutrean
D) Châtelperronian
Q3) The fossil evidence suggests that modern humans evolved in
A) Africa.
B) Northern Asia.
C) Southern Asia.
D) Europe.
Q4) Who is mitochondrial Eve? Did all humans evolve from mitochondrial Eve? Why or why not?
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Chapter 14: Human Genetic Variation
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Q1) An increase in stature coincided with modernization for many groups of people. This increase may be related to
A) less poverty.
B) more control of childhood diseases.
C) less environmental pollution.
D) both a and b
Q2) The evolution of lactase persistence in Africa and Europe was the result of A) convergent adaptation.
B) drift acting on isolated populations.
C) gene flow between Africans and Europeans.
D) the retention of an ancestral trait.
Q3) We know that milk production played an important role in early pastoral communities in northern Europe because
A) analyses of their pottery show residues of compounds found only in milk.
B) isotopic analysis of the teeth of people shows they drank milk.
C) the amount of genetic diversity for milk proteins in domesticated cattle indicates that people kept small herds.
D) the amount of genetic diversity in domesticated cattle is greatest in southeastern Europe.
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Chapter 15: Evolution and Human Behavior
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Q1) Which of the following is evidence that psychological mechanisms reduce the chance of close inbreeding?
A) Taiwanese minor marriages
B) First-party attitudes toward incest
C) People who move to a kibbutz in their teens
D) Domestic situations where the wife moves to the husband's group after marriage
Q2) Offspring of outbred matings have ________ offspring of inbred matings.
A) lower fitness than
B) the same fitness as C) higher fitness than
D) more variable fitness than
Q3) In Buss's cross-cultural survey, which of the following traits did females value more than males?
A) Ambition and industriousness
B) Good looks
C) Virginity
D) Youth
Q4) Discuss the evidence supporting incest avoidance in nonhuman primates. Please give examples.
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Chapter 16: Culture Cooperation and Human Uniqueness
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Q1) Large-scale cooperation can be maintained through A) punishment of free-riders.
B) prosocial sentiments.
C) enforcement of moral normal by third parties.
D) All of the above.
Q2) Most mammals and birds attain appropriate behaviors matched to their environment through A) personal experience alone.
B) information passed on from other individuals alone.
C) information encoded in their genes alone.
D) a combination of innate, genetic behaviors and personal experience.
Q3) According to your text, humans owe much of their success to all the following EXCEPT
A) culture.
B) intelligence.
C) individuality.
D) cooperation.
Q4) In what ways is human cooperation different from that of other mammal species?
Q5) How does culture differ between human and nonhuman primates? How is it similar?
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