Problem 1: Clearly describe the fossil evidence for the evolutionary transition to modern Homo sapiens. In what ways foes this species differ from Neanderthals?
Problem 2: Outline the hypothesis for the African hybridization and replacement model of the origin of modern Homo Sapiens. What evidence do biological anthropologists use to defend this model? How does this model contrast with the earlier replacement model and the regional continuity model?
Problem 3: Biological anthropologists have been studying Neanderthals for hundreds of years. What do we know about them, and how does this knowledge influence how we think about human society and culture?
Problem 4: Summarize the features anthropologists emphasize in distinguishing anatomically modern humans from other archaic populations of Homo. Why are these features important?
Problem 5: Choose and defend one of the proposed explanations for the extinction of Neanderthals. Explain why you choose this hypothesis. Refer to April Nowell's hypothesis regarding play in your answer
Problem 6: How do archaeology and biological anthropology contribute to our understanding of the evolution of a modern human capacity for culture?
Problem 7: Describe the evidence that archaeologists, biological anthropologists, and other use to identify when the first people arrived in the Americas and who these people were. Are there any contradictions between different sets of data? Explain
Problem 8: Outline the distinctive characteristics of hominin dentition. What can our teeth tell us about our diet?
Problem 9: Describe how time, soil, and weather conditions might affect the evidence that paleoanthropologists (and archaeologists) study. What methods and tools might researches use to understand these natural processes?
Problem 10: Summarize what is known about Homo eractus, morphologically and culturally.