Human Evolution

Question 1

A morphological traits supports a close evolutionary relationship between humans and African great apes

Answer 1

Enlarged browridges and elongated skulls

Question 2

The structural change distinguishes knuckle-walking African apes from humans

Answer 2

Specialized wrist and finger anatomy

Question 3

Why some gene trees suggest a closer relationship between gorillas and chimps than between humans and chimps?

Answer 3

Incomplete lineage sorting

Question 4

Presence of shared retroviral DNA (like HERV-K) in gorillas and chimps suggest

Answer 4

Gorillas and chimps shared an ancestor after diverging from humans

Question 5

The absence of a tail and enhanced posture in apes suggest about their ancestry

Answer 5

Derived traits indicating common descent

Question 6

A type of evidence most strongly supports that humans are closest to chimpanzees

Answer 6

Molecular and morphological synapomorphies

Question 7

A skeletal trait supports the inference that humans evolved from an ape-like ancestor

Answer 7

Flexibility in the shoulder and wrist joints

Question 8

The synapomorphy that humans share with all apes, indicating descent from a common ancestor

Answer 8

Relatively large brains

Question 9

How did Dryopithecus fossils contribute to phylogenetic inference

Answer 9

They suggested gorilla traits were ancestral, not derived

Question 10

The fusion of certain wrist bones in humans and African apes provides evidence for:

Answer 10

Common ancestry within the African great apes clade