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VICBiologyQuick questions
Unit 4: How does life change and respond to challenges?
Quick questions on Human evolution (hominin lineage, Australopithecus, Homo, out-of-Africa): VCE Biology Unit 4
12short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is major trends in hominin evolution?Show answer
Bipedalism. Walking upright on two legs is the earliest hominin innovation, appearing before brain expansion. Anatomical signs:
What is key hominin species?Show answer
Australopithecus afarensis (about 3.9 to 3.0 million years ago, East Africa). Small brain (around 400 cm3), bipedal, ape-like skull and small body. "Lucy" is the most famous specimen.
What is the out-of-Africa hypothesis?Show answer
The out-of-Africa hypothesis (recent African origin model) is the dominant account of modern human origins. It proposes:
What is bipedalism?Show answer
Walking upright on two legs is the earliest hominin innovation, appearing before brain expansion. Anatomical signs:
What is brain size?Show answer
Cranial capacity rises through the lineage:
What is tool use and culture?Show answer
Stone tools become progressively more sophisticated:
What is dentition?Show answer
Jaws and teeth become smaller and less robust:
What is saying humans evolved from chimpanzees?Show answer
Humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor that lived around 6 to 7 million years ago. Chimpanzees are cousins, not ancestors.
What is drawing human evolution as a single line?Show answer
The tree is bushy: multiple hominin species coexisted (Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis, Denisovans and Homo floresiensis all overlapped in time).
What is confusing trends with universal laws?Show answer
Trends like increasing brain size describe the average over millions of years, not every step. Neanderthals had larger brains than modern humans.
What is forgetting that bipedalism came before large brains?Show answer
Lucy walked on two legs with an ape-sized brain. Large brains came later.
What is saying out-of-Africa is "just a theory"?Show answer
It is supported by fossils, mtDNA, Y-chromosome data and archaeology converging on the same dates.