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Trends in human evolution · Part 1 of 3
9 exam-style questions with model answers, plus 12 quick multi-choice questions — every question on this part of the standard, grouped by the 3 pages of notes they come from.
Write a full answer before you reveal the model one. That comparison is where the learning happens.
Describe four skeletal changes linked to bipedalism, comparing hominins with living hominids such as the chimpanzee.
Explain why bipedalism was favoured by natural selection in early hominins, and explain why the fossil evidence shows it could not have been a consequence of increased intelligence.
Bipedalism brought significant costs as well as benefits. Discuss these costs, and evaluate what the persistence of bipedalism despite them tells us about how natural selection operates.
Describe the trends in cranial capacity and in the face and jaws over the course of human evolution, and describe what an endocast can show.
Explain why the human chewing apparatus reduced at the same time as the braincase enlarged, and explain why these two trends are connected rather than independent.
Cranial capacity is often used as the main measure of trends in human brain evolution. Discuss the limitations of this measure, and evaluate what endocranial evidence can and cannot establish.
Describe the changes in the manipulative ability of the hand during hominin evolution, and describe the difference between a power grip and a precision grip.
Explain why improved manipulative ability was favoured by natural selection, and explain how this trend is connected to the other biological trends in human evolution.
Some fossil hominins show a mosaic of hand features — derived, manipulative thumbs alongside curved, climbing-adapted fingers. Discuss what such mosaics tell us about how evolution proceeds, and evaluate the difficulties they create for interpreting the fossil record.