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Flashcards by Catherine Ross, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Catherine Ross
almost 6 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| Paleoanthropology | The study of disease and nutritional deficiency in prehistoric populations, usually through the examinations of skeletal material. |
| Primatology | A specialty of anthropology that studies nonhuman primates. |
| Scientific Method | The process of conducting scientific inquiry. |
| Mutation | Any mistake in an organism's genetic code. |
| Fitness | The relative adaptiveness of an individual organism, measured ultimately by reproductive success. |
| Natural Selection | Evolutionary change based on the differential reproductive success of individuals within a species. |
| Adaptation | The state in which an organism is adjusted to and can survive in its environment through its physical traits and behaviors. Also, the process by which an organism develops this state through natural processes. |
| Stratigraphy | The study of the earth's strata. |
| Mendelian Genetics | The basic laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel in the nineteenth century. |
| Macroevolution | Evolutionary change within a single species through time. |
| Meiosis | The process of cell division in which gametes are produced, each gamete having one-half the normal complement of chromosomes and, therefore, only one allele of each original pair. |
| Mitosis | The process of cell division that results in two exact copies of the original cell. |
| Evolution | Change through time, usually with reference to biological species, but may also refer to changes within cultural systems. |
| Punctuated Equilibrium | The view that species tend to remain stable and that evolutionary changes occur fairly suddenly through the evolution of new species branching from existing ones. |
| Dominant | The allele of heterozygous pair that is expressed in the phenotype. |
| Recessive | The allele of a heterozygous pair that is not expressed. For a recessive allele to be expressed, it must be homozygous. |
| Gametes | Th cells of sexual reproduction, commonly sperm and egg, which contain only half the chromosomes of a normal cell. |
| Alleles | Variants of a gene. Most genes possess more than one possible allele, the different alleles conveying different instructions for the development of certain phenotype (for example, different blood types). |
| nDNA | ??? |
| mtDNA / Mitochondrial DNA | The genetic material found in the cell's mitochondria rather than in the cell's nucleus. The mtDNA does not play a role in inheritance and thus may give a more accurate measure of the genetic differences among populations. |
| Genes | The portions of the DNA molecule that code for a functional product, usually a protein. |
| Gene Flow | A process of evolution that involves the exchange of genes among populations through interbreeding. |
| Genetic Drift | The splitting of populations to find new populations with new sets of allele frequencies (fission and founder effect) and the non-representative sampling of genes as each new generation is produced (gamete sampling). |
| Gene Pool | All the alleles in a population. |
| Breeding Populations | Populations within a species that are genetically isolated to some degree from other populations. |
| Genotype | The alleles possessed by an organism. |
| Phenotype | The chemical or physical results of the genetic code. |
| Bipedal | Walking on two legs. |
| Quadrupedal | Walking on all four limbs. |
| Prehensile | Having the ability to grasp. |
| Taxonomy | A classification based on similarities and differences. In biology, the science of categorizing organisms and of naming them so as to reflect their relationships. |
| Environmental Niches | The idea that the response of an organism to components of its physical environment, as distinct from the availability of resources, is an important component of its niche. |
| Relative Dating Technique | A dating method that indicates the age of one item in comparison to another. Stratigraphy provides relative dates by indicating that one layer is older or younger than another. |
| Absolute Dating Technique | A dating method that gives a specific age, year, or range of years for an object or site. |
| AR Model/ African Replacement Model | Homo began in Africa about 2 mya, and multiple branches has evolved, but each eventually became extinct until a branch gave rise to Homo sapiens and then spread into other parts of the world (replacing other archaic populations). |
| MRE Model/ Multi-Regional Hypothesis | Homo sapiens arose in Africa 2 mya and spread across the Old World and then on to the Pacific and the Americas. While modern humans have developed independently do to isolation, no population was isolated for long enough or to such a degree as for speciation to have occurred. |
| Hominini | In a cladistic taxonomy, the tribe for humans. |
| Hominid | Primates of the family Hominidae, which includes modern humans, extinct human species, and their direct ancestors. They are habitually bipedal. |
| Australopithecus | Some population of this genus is almost certainly our direct ancestor. |
| Lucy | The most famous of the Australopithecus is Lucy the type-specimen for Australopithecus afarensis. |
| Homo Habilis | "Handy Man"; Fossil hominid species dating from about 2.3 to 1.44 mya and found in east Africa and perhaps southern Africa. Fully bipedal and with an average brain size of 680 ml, H. habilis was the first confirmed hominid stone toolmaker. Because this was the first hominid with a brain larger than that of a chimpanzee, and because of the species' association with stone tools, H. habilis is thought to be the earliest member of our genus, Homo. |
| Homo Erectus | A fossil hominid species dating from at least 1.8 mya to 100,000 or so. First appearing in Africa, H. erectus was the first hominid spceies to expand beyond that continent. Fossils are found throughout Africa and Asia, and there is possible evidence in Europe. Members of this species, with an average brain size about two-thirds that of modern humans, made advances in stone-tool technology and were able to control fire late in their existence. |
| Homo Neanderthalensis | A proposed species from Europe and Southeast Asia, dated at between 225,000 and 28,000 ya. They had more pronounced versions of some of the cranial features of H. heidelbergensis, such as brow ridges and prognathism. The post-cranial skeletons were robust and heavy, with short arms and legs, possible adaptations to cold climates. |
| Homo Sapiens | "Wise Person";The taxonomy name for modern humans. There is debate as to whether this name covers certain other species, including H. erectus, ergaster, antecessor, heidelbergensis, and neandethalensis. |
| Ch. 12 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) | A single base pair of the genetic code that displays variable expressions among individuals. |
| Demography | The study of statistics such as births, deaths, income, or the incidence of disease, which illustrate the changing structure of human populations. |
| Melanocytes | Specialized skin cells that produce pigment melanin. |
| Melanin | The pigment largely responsible for human skin color. |
| Life History | The series of changes undergone by an organism during its lifetime. |
| Ch. 13 Sex | The biological categories and characteristics of males and females. |
| Gender | The cultural categories and characteristics of men and women. The translation of sex into a folk taxonomy. |
| Folk Taxonomies | Cultural categories for important items and ideas. Gender and race are examples of folk taxonomies. |
| Subspecies | Physically distinguishable populations within a species. |
| Races | In biology, the same as subspecies. In culture, cultural categories to classify and account for human diversity. |
| Racism | Judging an individual based solely on his or her racial affiliation. |
| Ch. 14 Forensic Anthropology | Develop methods to which they apply to older remains that are of scientific, rather than legal, interest. |
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