Introduction to Paleoanthropology | Biology | Quiz

Victorian paleoanthropologists theorized that ancient human species evolved _____ as the first step in becoming a modern human.

fire-making skills

walking upright

a full-sized brain

language
Charles Darwin proposed that humans and apes descended from a common ancestor in his publication _____.

Autobiography of Charles Darwin

The Descent of Man

On the Origin of Species

The Voyage of the Beagle
19th century paleoanthropologists believed _____ is where modern humans took their shape.

Africa

America

Asia

Europe
Confirmation bias is an error where only evidence that confirms a theory is believed and contradicting evidence is ignored.

true

false
We now understand that the ancestral human family tree _____.

is highly branched

is unknowable

is simple and clearly leads to Homo sapiens

progresses in a linear fashion
Which trait did Louis Leakey believe was key to distinguish a species’ emerging humanity?

An opposable thumb

Tool making

A brain slightly larger than that of a chimpanzee

Upright walking
Lucy, a specimen of A. afarensis, was an important find because it had _____.

walked on its knuckles like an ape

an extremely large brain

a locking knee joint

lived at the same time as H. erectus
The "Taung child" discovery was proven to be a hoax.

false

true