Exam 1 Study Guide for Biological Anthropology | GANTH 196, Study notes of Physical anthropology

Download Exam 1 Study Guide for Biological Anthropology | GANTH 196 and more Study notes Physical anthropology in PDF only on Docsity! GANTH 196 Fall 2008 Exam 1 Study Guide As mentioned on your syllabus, exams cover lecture material, assignments, readings, activities – anything is fair game. In general, the best way to begin studying is to go over your notes, because it’s the most important things that get mentioned and emphasized in class. Your text will be helpful in terms of firming up your understanding of topics that emerge as problematic from your notes. It’s likely that you’ll see a couple of questions from the Annual Editions readings, which will require substantial familiarity with these readings (so be sure to review them!). As I finish composing the exam, I may post additional hints as to what will be important from the Annual Editions readings, so keep checking Blackboard! The exam will consist entirely of multiple choice items; unlike the quizzes, there will be five answer choices for each question. In some cases you may have to interpret a figure or other illustration to answer a question or two, but you won’t need to do any complicated math. In terms of content, here are some suggestions of things to focus on – these are topics that have a high probability of appearing on the exam.  Know what the four fields of anthropology are, and know the subdisciplines within biological anthropology (enough to be able to recognize/define them).  The scientific method: how it works (i.e., hypothesis testing)  Know the difference between science and non-science explanations for the world/natural phenomena, focusing on creation science/intelligent design. How can religion and science coexist? This is one area where you may find it beneficial to spend some extra time reviewing the Annual Editions readings on the topic.  Of course, you should be able to define evolution!  History of evolutionary thought o Major elements of the pre-evolutionary world view that made it difficult for Darwin’s theory to be accepted (fixity of species, young Earth): How these elements developed, including the major people responsible for them. You will also want to review what the 17th-19th century naturalists did/how their work fit in. o Challenges to this world view – extinction (disappearance of dodo), discovery of fossils – and the attempt to reconcile these challenges with the old world view (catastrophism) o Lamarck: 1st explicitly evolutionary, though non-modern, framework (inheritance of acquired charateristics) o Uniformitarianism (Lyell) and its importance  Charles Darwin and the development of evolutionary theory o Know Darwin’s major influences – observations made on the Beagle voyage, domestic animal breeding, Malthus, Lyell’s uniformitarianism – and what he got from each o 3 key observations (and where they came from): variation is the norm, variation/characteristics are inherited, overproduction of offspring o 4 principles of natural selection: there is a struggle for survival; some individuals have an advantage due to characteristics that suit them particularly well for the environment; these characteristics become more common in populations due to differential survival and reproduction of individuals that have them; over time this change can produce new species. Don’t forget that Lyell’s work allowed for the long spans of time necessary for this process to occur. o What does fitness mean in the context of natural selection? o What was missing from Darwin’s theory? (mechanism of inheritance) Know some of the then-current ideas about this, especially blending inheritance  Types of natural selection – know the definitions and examples o Directional, stabilizing, and disruptive selection o Sexual selection as a special case, acting on ability to get mates (usually through competition with others of the same sex) rather than just on ability to survive (which includes everyone in the same boat). What have some results been?  Mendelian genetics and the reaction to the rediscovery of his work o What were Mendel’s experiments, and what did they show? o Law of Segregation, Law of Independent Assortment – define, why are they important? o Be able to use a Punnett Square to work out genotypes; you might be asked to do this for a single-trait problem o Rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900: why did some scientists initially consider genetics and evolution to be incompatible, and how was this problem resolved?  DNA and its function – review the material, but not too many questions on this o DNA structure: double-helix o Functions: replication for accurate transmission of genetic information; protein synthesis o Mitosis and meiosis – why is meiosis important? o Have a very basic idea of how protein synthesis works and why it is important  The Modern Synthesis o Define: Darwin + Mendel + mutation, enriched by our understanding of DNA. o Leads to a more specific definition of evolution: change in allele frequencies over time  The Four Forces of Evolution – the factors that cause, at minimum, changes in allele frequencies o Mutation : define, remember that it’s random, and that it’s the only source of new genotypic variation o Genetic drift : define, know founder effect and genetic bottleneck as examples o Gene flow : define, know that it can add new alleles or change the frequency of alleles already present. Admixture and migration. o Natural selection : define, know that it’s the most important force and the only one that produces new adaptations and, over time, new species. Know how it works.  Scale of evolution – microevolution and macroevolution. Includes species definitions. o Know the difference between the two levels.