1.In 1987 a group of molecular geneticists at the University of California at Berkeley offered support for the idea that modern humans (AMHs) arose fairly recently in Africa, then spread out and colonized the world. The geneticists analyzed genetic markers in placentas donated by 147 women whose ancestors came from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, New Guinea, and Australia. By estimating the number of mutations that had taken place in the mithochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of each of these samples, the researchers concluded that

A.    everyone alive today has mtDNA that descends from a woman (dubbed Eve) who lived in sub-Saharan Africa around 200,000 years ago and that her descendants left Africa no more than 135,000 years ago.

B.    everyone alive today has mtDNA that descends from a woman (dubbed Eve) who lived in Asia around 50,000 years ago and that her descendants left Asia 100,000 years ago.

C.    establishing a “genetic clock” to model human evolution is reliable only when focusing on 50,000 years into the past.

D.   everyone alive counts Neanderthals of western Europe as their ancestor.

E.    Neanderthals coexisted with modern humans in the Middle East for at least 2,000 years.

2.According to the mtDNA analyses, when did the first modern humans leave Africa?

A.    2 m.y.a.

B.    1 m.y.a.

C.    over 735,000 years ago

D.   535,000 years ago

E.    no more than 135,000 years ago

3.In 1997, ancient DNA was extracted from one of the Neanderthal bones originally found in Germany’s Neanderthal Valley in 1856. This was the first time that the DNA of a premodern human has been recovered. When comparing this DNA with that of modern humans, the researchers found

A.    27 differences between the two, many more than would be expected in closely related humans, suggesting that there may have been little interbreeding between Neanderthals and the direct ancestors to modern humans.

B.    only five to eight differences, as is typical of closely related humans, placing Neanderthals within modern humans’ direct line of descent.

C.    many more mutations in the Neanderthal DNA, suggesting that the species had been around 100,000 years longer than previously estimated.

D.   no differences, since Neanderthals and modern humans are the same species.

E.    that the two samples were not comparable, since the Neanderthal DNA was molecularly different from the DNA of the reference sample.

4.Which of the following characterizes Upper Paleolithic traditions?

A.    Hand axes

B.    Pebble tools

C.    Metallurgy

D.   Plant domestication

E.    Blade tools

5.During the Upper Paleolithic, the hominin range

A.    was limited to Europe and Africa prior to the anatomically modern humans’ stage of human evolution.

B.    moved away from the coasts because of natural disasters like flood and drought.

C.    reached its territorial maximum by 50,000 BP

D.   expanded to its maximum when Neanderthal foragers entered the New World.

E.    expanded significantly, in large part due to Homo’s increasing reliance on cultural means of adaptation.

6.Why was the broad-spectrum revolution a significant event in human evolution? It

A.    consisted of a massive fluorescence of colored cave paintings beginning about 70,000 BP, which suggests the evolution of color vision and a truly human-style brain organization.

B.    brought about a new tool tradition based on flaked tools.

C.    provided the environmental circumstances that selected for the evolution of “mitochondrial Eve.”

D.   provided new environmental circumstances that made important sociocultural adaptations, like the development of plant cultivation, more likely.

E.    led to the extinction of the Neanderthals, who had survived until then by eating big- game animals.

7.Which of the following is not a general trend in hominin evolution?

A.    a greater reliance on cultural means of adaptation

B.    an increase in the quantity and quality of tools

C.    an increase in cranial capacity

D.   a greater reliance on biological means of adaptation

E.    population growth

8.     How did modern humans take advantage of global climate change to expand their range?

A.    During major glacials, with so much water frozen in ice, land bridges formed, aiding human colonization of new areas, such as Australia by 46,000 BP and the Americas perhaps by 18,000 BP.

B.    During interglacial periods the seas rose, encouraging human exploration of the oceans, such as the case of the Pacific islands from Asia by 46,000 BP.

C.    Warmer periods forced people to adapt their diets to a smaller range of staples, forcing them to move to ensure that these staples remained part of their diet, such as the case of the colonization of Sahul by 50,000 years ago.

D.   During major glacials, with so much of the earth’s soils too frozen for agriculture, humans had to turn to hunting and foraging, which in turn forced them to be on the move once they depleted an area of its food resources.

E.    During interglacial periods the sea levels dropped, encouraging human exploration along the coasts, leading to unexpected discoveries such as the case of the Pacific islands from Asia by 46,000 BP.

9.What is the name of the land bridge that linked the eastern tip of Siberia to Alaska?

A.    Tehuantepec

B.    Pont-Terre

C.    Clovis

D.   Beringia

E.    Monte Verde

10. The Clovis tradition, a sophisticated stone technology based on a sharp point that was fastened to the end of a hunting spear, flourished (widely but briefly) in the central plains and in what is now the eastern United States. Until recently, the Clovis people were considered to the first settlers of the Americas. Recent research now suggests, however, that

A.    the Americas were settled by one haplogroup–a lineage marked by one or more specific genetic mutations.

B.    the wheel, which has never been found in Clovis sites, was a critical part of an even earlier arrival to the Americas.

C.    the members of the Clovis tradition depended on the domestication of horses to make travel possible.

D.   various groups of colonists entered the Americas, but they all used the same route.

E.    most likely the Americas was settled by several colonists who came at different times, perhaps by different routes, and had different physiques and genetic markers, which continue to be discovered and debated.