Anthropology: Ch. 8

Terms in this set (42)

the first and last appearances of species in the fossil record.
Biostratigraphic dating relies on
a decrease in temperature.
High levels of 18O in now-fossilized foraminifera shells indicate
C4 plants
Which type of plants is associated with open grasslands typical of tropical savannas?
William Smith
The English surveyor who developed the technique of stratigraphic correlation between regions was
the appearance of huge ice sheets in Antarctica.
The significant drying up of the Mediterranean Basin at the end of the Oligocene epoch was probably due to
teeth
Which of the following has the greatest likelihood of becoming fossilized?
You can research the antler bone to find out which species it belongs to and then use faunal dating.
In an excavation you find the remains of two human skeletons along with the antler of an antelope. How can you attempt to date these skeletons?
6,000
As recently as a few hundred years ago, most Westerners thought the earth was about how many years old?
carbon
The ratio of C3 to C4 plants in a paleoenvironment can be estimated using the ratio of two stable isotopes of which element derived from fossils or ancient soils?
taphonomy
The study of what happens to an organism's remains after death is called
half-life
The time it takes for 50% of an unstable isotope to decay to a stable form is called the
14C dating.
The absolute dating technique that emerged as a result of research into constructing the atomic bomb during World War II is
phylogeny
A diagram (family tree) that proposes hypothetical ancestor-descendant relationships between species is a
4.6 billion years
The earth is about ________ old.
Thomas Jefferson
Which U.S. president reported the discovery of a fossilized ground sloth in Virginia to the American Philosophical Society?
Niels Stensen (aka Nicolaus Steno).
The Danish physician who developed the geologic principle of superposition, according to which rocks (and fossils) higher in a sequence are younger than those buried farther down, was
6-8 mya.
Based on the molecular clock, it is estimated that the hominid lineage diverged from that of the chimpanzee about
very recently
In terms of geologic time, when did human beings appear on Earth?
Precambrian eon
Which geological time period is referred to by geologists as the oldest portion of Earth's history, accounting for roughly 87% of that history?
dendrochronology.
The absolute dating method that involves counting the annual rings visible in the cross-section of a tree is called
relative ages
Historically speaking, which came first in the science of giving ages to the fossil record?
isotopes
Variants of elements that differ based on the number of neutrons in the atom's nucleus are called
woodlands along both rivers and lakes.
Recent paleoenvironmental reconstructions suggest that the earliest members of the hominid lineage evolved in
superposition
If fossil species A is consistently recovered from geological deposits beneath layers containing fossil species B, then A is considered older than B. This relative dating technique is based on the principle of
temperatures have fluctuated, sometimes greatly, over time.
Studies of temperatures during the Cenozoic era suggest that
collect data that will help you to reconstruct the environment of that time.
While on a paleontological dig in the United Kingdom, you come across a completely preserved (including skin) extinct species of mammal within a bog. You note that for a mammal it is relatively hairless. In order to determine the adaptive significance of hairlessness, you must
Stratigraphic correlation
________ is the process of matching strata from several sites using chemical, physical, and other properties.
Prior to the invention of absolute dating techniques, one of the chemical dating methods useful for establishing the relative age of fossils from a single site was
fluorine dating.
Pangea
The "supercontinent" that existed about 200 mya, from which the modern continents ultimately emerged, is called
a fossilized tooth
Electron spin resonance dating would be most useful in attempting to date which object?
sedimentary rock
Fossils are typically recovered within ________ exposures.
Each can work with any type of material.
Which of the following is false regarding absolute dating techniques?
Fayum, Egypt.
One of the only fossil sites in the world that preserves a great deal of evidence for anthropoid evolution during the Eocene and Oligocene epochs is
selection and surveying of potential sites.
The first logical step in a sequence of events that leads to the discovery and analysis of primate fossils is the
stratigraphy
Which of the following is not an absolute dating method?
correlate sites across vast regions.
The chemical signature of volcanic ash layers can be used to
all of the above: A. in order to understand modern human anatomy and behavior, we must understand our evolutionary relationships to other extinct and living organisms.
B. in order to account for changes in our species over time, we need to know what processes drove natural selection.
C. it allows us to study our closest living relative in order to better understand how natural selection acted in previous environments.
Phylogeny is important to the study of human evolution because
the chemical composition of their shells records past temperatures.
Ocean-dwelling microorganisms called foraminifera are important in evolutionary studies mainly because
the periodic reversal of the earth's magnetic poles.
Paleomagnetic dating relies on
40K/40Ar dating
Which dating method would be most appropriate for establishing the age of a volcanic ash layer from an early hominid site in eastern Africa?
40K/40Ar analysis of lava flows and of ash layers
Which of the following is not one of the main methods for reconstructing ancient environments?
50,000 years ago.
With a half-life of 5,730 years, 14C dating is useful for dating carbon-bearing objects as far back as
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