Arch 131 - Final Questions with 100%
Correct Answers
plesiomorphic trait Correct Answer: A primitive trait inherited by a species from
an ancestor
Primitive traits have bene around for awhile, in old fossils
Ex prehensile feet in living apes
Lack of tail in humans, from our ancestors, tailless has been around for awhile
When researchers dig up a new fossil ...
They need to decide if it is Correct Answer: • just another example of something
we've already found before?
• or a new species?
• or even a new genus?
= Evolutionary Systematics
Trying to figure out where that fossil fits in our evolutionary tree, the process
Apomorphic Traits Correct Answer: New or 'derived' trait. It first appears in the
species in question.
,Advanced trait
First appear in the species
First ape that doesn't have a tail
Humans not having prehensile feet
Phylogeny and Taxonomy Correct Answer: Phylogeny refers to the actual
evolutionary relationships between different organisms.
Taxonomy* is the process of classifying organisms, based on available data,
about their phylogenetic relationships.
- With living organisms (and a few fossil species) we can use DNA to get a more
accurate idea of actual evolutionary relationships (as we saw with the living
primate taxonomy)
- This is mainly based on how different or similar two fossils are in their
morphology - e.g., what plesiomorphies do they share and what apomorphies
distinguish them?
* different groups in the taxonomic system (different species or different genera)
are referred to as different taxa (singular = taxon)
,Want to reconstruct their phylogeny as accurately as possible
Phylogeny is the goal, taxonomy is the practice
Hard to be confident of phylogenetic relationships with fossils
Easy with living organisms, can use DNA to get almost 100% accuracy
Don't have DNA from these early Hominin fossils, must compare the fossils to
make an educated guess about what their phyogeny is
Evolutionary Systematics => Phylogenetic trees
Cenozoic Era Correct Answer: 4 periods
- Quarternary:
Holocene Epoch started 12,000 y
Pleistocene Epooch started 2.6 mya
-Tertiary -> Neogene:
Pliocene Epoch started 5 mya
, Miocene Epoch started 23 mya
- Tertiary -> Paleogene:
Oligocene started 34 mya
Eocene started 56 mya
Paleocene started 65 mya
Cenozoic period - when most of primate evolution occurs
Miocene when early apes emerge like giganthropithicus
Most of the Cenozoic is the Tertiary, from 65 million years ago to 1.8 million years
ago
Interested when humans split, last 6 or 7 my
Includes end of the miocene
Important geologic time periods: Correct Answer: The last 7 million years ...
Quaternary Period
- Holocene Epoch - 12 kya
Correct Answers
plesiomorphic trait Correct Answer: A primitive trait inherited by a species from
an ancestor
Primitive traits have bene around for awhile, in old fossils
Ex prehensile feet in living apes
Lack of tail in humans, from our ancestors, tailless has been around for awhile
When researchers dig up a new fossil ...
They need to decide if it is Correct Answer: • just another example of something
we've already found before?
• or a new species?
• or even a new genus?
= Evolutionary Systematics
Trying to figure out where that fossil fits in our evolutionary tree, the process
Apomorphic Traits Correct Answer: New or 'derived' trait. It first appears in the
species in question.
,Advanced trait
First appear in the species
First ape that doesn't have a tail
Humans not having prehensile feet
Phylogeny and Taxonomy Correct Answer: Phylogeny refers to the actual
evolutionary relationships between different organisms.
Taxonomy* is the process of classifying organisms, based on available data,
about their phylogenetic relationships.
- With living organisms (and a few fossil species) we can use DNA to get a more
accurate idea of actual evolutionary relationships (as we saw with the living
primate taxonomy)
- This is mainly based on how different or similar two fossils are in their
morphology - e.g., what plesiomorphies do they share and what apomorphies
distinguish them?
* different groups in the taxonomic system (different species or different genera)
are referred to as different taxa (singular = taxon)
,Want to reconstruct their phylogeny as accurately as possible
Phylogeny is the goal, taxonomy is the practice
Hard to be confident of phylogenetic relationships with fossils
Easy with living organisms, can use DNA to get almost 100% accuracy
Don't have DNA from these early Hominin fossils, must compare the fossils to
make an educated guess about what their phyogeny is
Evolutionary Systematics => Phylogenetic trees
Cenozoic Era Correct Answer: 4 periods
- Quarternary:
Holocene Epoch started 12,000 y
Pleistocene Epooch started 2.6 mya
-Tertiary -> Neogene:
Pliocene Epoch started 5 mya
, Miocene Epoch started 23 mya
- Tertiary -> Paleogene:
Oligocene started 34 mya
Eocene started 56 mya
Paleocene started 65 mya
Cenozoic period - when most of primate evolution occurs
Miocene when early apes emerge like giganthropithicus
Most of the Cenozoic is the Tertiary, from 65 million years ago to 1.8 million years
ago
Interested when humans split, last 6 or 7 my
Includes end of the miocene
Important geologic time periods: Correct Answer: The last 7 million years ...
Quaternary Period
- Holocene Epoch - 12 kya
