Anthropology: evidence for human origins
Answers are for parents and teachers.
1
Write three similarities and two differences between humans and chimpanzees.
Similar: blood groups, skeleton structure, facial muscles. Different: humans walk on two legs, have a much larger brain and developed speech.
2
What do the pharyngeal slits of the human embryo become? Why is their presence evidence of kinship?
They develop into ear and neck structures; they point to a common chordate ancestor.
3
Gorilla and orangutan have 48 chromosomes. How many fewer does a human have, and what does going from 24 pairs to 23 pairs mean?
2 fewer (48 − 46); two ancestral chromosome pairs fused into one pair – human chromosome 2.
4
Why are blood group systems in humans similar to those of apes?
Similar genes were inherited from a common ancestor.