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 A105 Human Origins and Prehistory
Final Exam Review

During the review session Monday evening, I answered questions and also presented the following list of reminders -- things you should remember to study, some of which we haven't talked about in quite some time.  Of course, you can still come to my office hours Tuesday morning, or e-mail me with any further questions until 6 p.m. Wednesday.

                            Final Exam Review Suggestions
 

  • What are the four fields of anthropology, and where does palaeoanthropology fit?
  • What are the four forces of evolution, and which are most important in producing new adaptations?
  • What was most people's worldview prior to the time of Darwin and his colleagues?  Important names include Linnaeus, Cuvier, Plato
  • Know Darwin's influences in developing his theory of natural selection, and the theory itself.  How did genetics affect this?
  • Know that natural selection acts on individuals, and know the difference between fitness and inclusive fitness.
  • Archaeology: the most important things will be dating techniques (especially K/Ar and radiocarbon) and taphonomy.
  • Which species are seen in South Africa?  Also, it's good to know that South African sites have generally been dated only through relative techniques.
  • Modern nonhuman primates: Know the differences between apes, monkeys, and prosimians, and know what group the primates we've mentioned in class belong to.  Primate social systems will also be covered; you should focus on the apes.  Chimps are the most important primates in this class...
  • For both fossil primates and especially hominids, it will probably be a good idea to become familiar with evolutionary trends (i.e., how brain size changes, how teeth change, etc., and how fast) rather than try to memorize everything about each species.  In terms of fossil primates, you should definitely know the ones thought to be last common ancestors of later groups (i.e., Aegyptopithecus as the LCA of all apes and Old World monkeys, etc.). For hominids, you'll probably benefit from drawing a simple phylogeny (family tree) to look at while you review the different species and trends.
  • You will want to know more detail about A. afarensis and Neandertals than about other hominids, but H. erectus will be important too.
  • It would be a good idea to look over the various theories about how bipedalism evolved.
  • Building on the trends mentioned above, you should also be sure to review technological trends (especially the stone tools) and think about the change in diet and subsistence (use of food resources) over time.
  • On the last exam I asked about why 1470 and 1813 were separate species.  This time, you should also be thinking about which one is more likely to be ancestral to H. erectus.
  • Material covered since the last exam is more heavily covered than material from earlier exams.  So, some highlights from the past few lectures:
  • The possible hunting adaptation of H. erectus
  • The first migration out of Africa, and the occupation of Europe
  • Technology: the Acheulean and contemporaneous non-handaxe industries; then the Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian); then the Upper Palaeolithic -- what innovations occurred, and what were the toolkits like in a very general sense?
  • Modern human origins -- as I said before, you'll need to choose a model and explain your choice using the evidence.
  • A point of clarification about the Neandertal fossil, Shanidar 1: this individual was intentionally buried; it is not known how he sustained many of his injuries.
Of course, all material is fair game, but these were the main points that occurred to me looking back over the semester.  Don't forget to check the end of the Lecture 13 outline for more study advice (that was presented in class last week).
 

Happy studying!!