Evolution Test - 34

Many people would say its the close genetic similarity between humans and chimpanzees. Proponents of the evolutionary paradigm assert that the structure of human chromosome 2 provides axiomatic evidence that humans evolved from a shared ancestor with chimpanzees and bonobos. Each species has a characteristic number of chromosomes differing in size and shape. For example, humans have 46 chromosomes, chimpanzees and other apes have 48. When exposed to certain dyes, chromosomes will stain in unique ways yielding a pattern of bands along their length. The bands vary in number, location, thickness and intensity. And the unique banding profile of each chromosome helps geneticists identify them under a microscope. In the early 1980s, evolutionary biologists compared the chromosomes of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. These studies revealed an exceptional degree of similarity between human and chimp chromosomes. When aligned, the human and corresponding chimpanzee chromosomes display near-identical banding patterns, band locations, band size, and band stain intensity. To evolutionary biologists, this resemblance reveals powerful evidence for human and chimpanzee shared ancestry. So, common origin of man and chimpanzee is best shown by chromosome number and not by binocular vision, cranial capacity and dental formula.

Homo habilis is one of the earliest members of the genus Homo, has a slightly larger braincase and smaller face and teeth than in Australopithecus or older hominin species. But it still retains some ape-like features, including long arms and a moderately-prognathic face. Its name, which means handy man, was given in 1964 because this species was thought to represent the first maker of stone tools. Currently, the oldest stone tools are dated slightly older than the oldest evidence of the genus Homo. A team led by scientists Louis and Mary Leakey uncovered the fossilized remains of a unique early human between 1960 and 1963 at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania (Africa).

Java Man (Homo erectus erectus) is the popular name given to early human fossils discovered on the island of Java (Indonesia) in 1891 and 1892. Led by Eugene Dubois, the excavation team uncovered a tooth, a skullcap, and a thighbone at Trinil on the banks of the Solo River in East Java. Arguing that the fossils represented the "missing link" between apes and humans, Dubois gave the species the scientific name Anthropopithecus erectus, then later renamed it Pithecanthropus erectus.
Therefore, the correct answer is option C.

Like most early humans, the Cro-Magnons were primarily big-game hunters, killing mammoth, cave bears, horses, and reindeer. They hunted with spears, javelins, and spear throwers. Archery had not yet been invented. They would have been nomadic or semi-nomadic, following the annual migration of their prey and also have eaten plant materials. Finds of spun, dyed, and knotted flax fibers among Cro-Magnon artifacts in Dzudzuana shows they made cords for hafting stone tools, weaving baskets, or sewing garments. 

Ardipithecus is a genus of an extinct hominine that lived during Late Miocene and Early Pliocene in Afar Depression, Ethiopia. Originally described as one of the earliest ancestors of humans after they diverged from the main ape lineage, the relation of this genus to human ancestors and whether it is a hominin is now a matter of debate. Two fossil species are described in the literature - A. ramidus, which lived about 4.4 million years ago during the early Pliocene and A. kadabba, dated to approximately 5.6 million years ago (late Miocene). Behavioral analysis showed that Ardipithecus could be very similar to those of chimpanzees, indicating that the early human ancestors were very much like chimpanzees in behaviour. It is the last common ancestor between the African apes and hominids.

Neanderthals apparently coexisted with anatomically modern humans beginning some 100,000 years ago. However, about 45,000 years ago, at about the time that stoneworking techniques similar to those of Cro-Magnon people appeared in Europe, Neanderthals began to be displaced. The Cro-Magnons shared the European landscape with Neanderthals for some 10,000 years or more, before the latter disappeared from the fossil record. The nature of their co-existence and the extinction of Neanderthals has been debated. Suggestions include peaceful co-existence, competition, interbreeding, assimilation and genocide.

The Pleistocene Epoch is typically defined as the time period that began about 1.8 million years ago and lasted until about 11,700 years ago. The Pleistocene Epoch is the first in which Homo sapiens evolved and by the end of the epoch humans could be found in nearly every part of the planet. The Pleistocene Epoch was the first epoch in the Quaternary Period and the sixth in the Cenozoic Era. It was followed by the current stage, called as the Holocene Epoch.

Gibbons are rare, small, slender, long-armed, tree-dwelling man like apes. They are arboreal, they spend most of their lives in trees. They live in old growth tropical rain forests in southeast Asia. Hence, option D is correct.

There is some evidence of ritual cannibalism in Peking man. Peking Man skulls had been smashed at the base, possibly by other Peking men to gain access to the brains, a practice common among cannibals. Evidences reveals that Java man. Peking man and Cro-magnon man are cannibals in old world. Indications of Homo habilis eating hedgehog and using tools to eat them has already been identified. They are not cannibals.