1.
Which primates are included in the Catarrhini, the apes, the great apes, and the African great apes? Outline the synapomorphies that distinguish the apes from the rest of the Catarrhini and those that distinguish the African great apes from the rest of the apes. Describe Sarich and Wilson’s early molecular analysis of great ape phylogeny; according to their analysis, when did humans and the African great apes share a common ancestor?
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2.
What is the current consensus on the evolutionary relationships among humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas? Describe the molecular and morphological evidence on which this consensus is based. Does all the evidence support the same pattern? Explain.
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3.
Based on what we know about humans, chimpanzees and bonobos (as well as other great apes), what can we (cautiously) infer about the last common ancestor between humans and chimps?
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4.
Describe the fossils Sahelanthropus tchadensis and Orrorin tugenensis (including their dates). How do their discoverers interpret their respective finds? What makes these fossils particularly important for the reconstruction of human phylogeny?
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5.
Compare and contrast the general features of the gracile australopithecines, Paranthropus, and early members of the genus Homo. What evidence suggests that bipedality arose early in our evolutionary history? Approximately when did brain size begin to increase?
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6.
According to the cladogram by Strait et al., (come back to this one)
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7.
List and briefly describe the major controversies about the taxonomy of various species of Homo. On what basic hypothesis to most paleoanthropologists agree? When and where do H. ergaster/erectus first appear in the fossil record; when and where do anatomically modern H. sapiens appear?
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8.
Compare and contrast the general features of the "African replacement", "candelabra", and "intermediate" hypotheses for the origin of H. sapiens, with special attention to the timing and location of origin and the role(s) of migration and gene flow each posits. What is “at stake” in this debate? Has any consensus on the validity of the models been reached?
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9.
Describe the phylogenetic predictions of the African replacement and multiregional models of the evolution of modern H. sapiens. Describe the archaeological and paleontological evidence that has been used to test these models. Does this evidence provide strong support for one model over the other? Explain.
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10.
Describe the genetic predictions of the African replacement and multiregional models of the evolution of modern H. sapiens. Describe the problems with using molecular data to test these hypotheses, and discuss the results of studies using mitochondrial DNA, nuclear microsatellite loci, and short-tandem-repeat polymorphisms. On balance, which hypothesis do these studies support, and why?
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11.
When do the earliest complex stone tools appear in the fossil record? Discuss the paleontological and morphological evidence for and against an early Homo as the first maker of complex tools.
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12.
Discuss the evidence that the capacity for language and a fundamental grammar are innate and universal in modern humans, and that the "language organ" (i.e., the complex neural circuitry responsible for human language) is a derived modification of neural circuits common to all primates. Outline the arguments and the evidence for both early and late origins of language in Homo. Does the existing evidence strongly support either hypothesis?
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