Question 1

When we examine sexual anatomy and basic sexual behavior, we can reveal information about the evolutionary past of the animal. Adaptations to different ancestral mating systems produce different contemporary anatomies and behaviors. Based on what we learned regarding the speed of evolved sexual behaviors, what can we conclude from our comparison of the sexual behavior of humans and the other apes?

a. Sexual anatomy and behavior evolve very slowly so that humans share essentially all these features with all the other primates, including the other apes.

b. Sexual anatomy and behavior evolve moderately slowly so that humans share essentially all these features with the apes, but not with non-ape primates.

c. Sexual anatomy and behavior evolve very rapidly so that humans display many important differences even when compared to our closest living relatives, chimps.

d. Male sexual anatomy evolves rapidly, but female anatomy and behavior is very conservative, differing little among humans and the other apes.

e. Female sexual anatomy evolves rapidly, but male anatomy and behavior is very conservative, differing little among humans and the other apes.

Question 2

We argued in TOPICS 11 and 12 that human reproduction involved a single, universal strategy. Which of the following best describes this universal, uniquely human strategy?

a. Humans always mate monogamously, allowing the formation of pair-bonded couples that are essential to raising uniquely human youngsters.

b. Humans always mate monogamously within the context of the cooperative human village essential to raising uniquely human youngsters.

c. Humans always mate promiscuously within the context of the cooperative human village essential to raising uniquely human youngsters.

d. Humans mate in different ways depending on adult mortality risk, but always within the context of the cooperative human village essential to raising youngsters.

Question 3

The structure of social breeding units in humans compared to the social breeding units of their non-human relatives, like chimps and macaques, has some unique charactoristics. Which of the following best describes the central difference we noted from this comparison?

a. Ancestral humans probably lived in male-centered social groups as a result of the details of their mating strategies that resemble chimps.

b. Ancestral humans probably lived in female-centered social groups as a result of the details of their mating strategies that resemble macaques.

c. Ancestral humans probably lived in social groups with no kinship-structure at all because of their unique social adaptation.

d. Ancestral humans probably lived in social groups simultaneously containing multiple kin male and kin female- subgroups because of their unique social adaptation.

Question 4

The differences between males and females of a species are collectively given the specific technical name "sexual dimorphism." We explored the origin of some of the sexual dimorphism in bird species and compared these phenomena to human sexual dimorphism. Which of the following is the most accurate and complete description of the conclusions we drew from this exploration?

a. Human sexual dimorphism is comparable to high bird sexual dimorphism, but has a very different origin.

b. Human sexual dimorphism is comparable to high bird sexual dimorphism and for very similar reasons.

c. Human sexual dimorphism is much less than in highly dimorphic bird cases because much of the strong mate selection in humans was not sex-specific.

d. Human sexual dimorphism is much higher than in highly dimorphic bird species because human sexuality is more central to our social behavior than in birds.

Question 5

Sexual selection has a great deal to teach us about the logic of natural selection. Sexual selection results when one sex chooses mates among the other sex in a highly selective manner based on some specific trait. In the case of mammals and birds it is most common that females are the choosing sex. This results in males whose morphology and/or behavior is influenced by this selection. Examples in birds include extraordinarily long tail feathers, elaborate coloring in males and even extravagant singing displays in males. (Beards in human males and permanently enlarged breasts in human females are probably cases of sexually selected properties, for example.) Which of the following best describes the consequences or evolutionary logic of this process of sexual selection?

a. Sexual selection produces structures and behaviors that benefit the species in which they occur.

b. Sexual selection produces structures and behaviors that improve the survival of the individuals in which those structures and behaviors occur.

c. Sexual selection produces structures and behaviors that might reduce the health and/or survival of an individual displaying them.

d. Sexual selection produces structures and behaviors that allow the individual displaying them to leave more offspring on average.

e. All of the above