Q: What are the three traditional kingdoms of nature in early biological classification?
A: Mineral, vegetable (plant), and animal kingdoms.
Q: What does “descent with modification” mean?
A: Species change over time through inherited variation.
Q: What is the “struggle for existence”?
A: Competition for limited resources leading to differential survival and reproduction.
Q: What did Ibn Khaldun propose about life progression?
A: Creation progressed gradually from minerals → plants → animals → humans.
Q: What was the significance of Ikhwan al-Safa’s writings (10th century)?
A: They described gradual progression between mineral, plant, animal, and human stages.
Q: What did the Miller (1953) experiment demonstrate?
A: Amino acids can form under early Earth conditions (“primordial soup”).
Q: What does DNA evidence suggest about the most recent common ancestor of life?
A: It was likely an aquatic microorganism in extreme heat.
Q: When did multicellular organisms emerge?
A: ~2.1 billion years ago (Ga).
Q: What is asexual reproduction?
A: Creation of genetically identical internal copies.
Q: Advantages of asexual reproduction?
A: Speed, efficiency, no mate required, genetic consistency.
Q: Disadvantages of asexual reproduction?
A: Low genetic variation, vulnerability to environmental change and pathogens.
Q: What defines sexual reproduction?
A: Fusion of gametes from two individuals, combining genetic information.
Q: Advantage of sexual reproduction?
A: Genetic diversity → better adaptation and selection on beneficial traits.
Q: Disadvantages of sexual reproduction?
A: Energy cost, finding mates, slower reproduction rate.
Q: What is continuous variation?
A: Traits vary along a spectrum rather than in discrete categories.
Q: What does overlapping distributions mean?
A: Male and female trait ranges substantially overlap.
Q: Why is “average” not equal to “normal”?
A: The center of a distribution is not more natural than the edges.
Q: Is within-group variation larger or smaller than between-group differences?
A: Larger.
Q: Key traits of primates?
A: Large brains, social systems, extended care, sex beyond reproduction.
Q: Key traits of Pan troglodytes?
A: Patriarchal hierarchy, male dominance, aggression, no pair-bonding.
Q: Key traits of Pan paniscus?
A: Female-centric, weak hierarchy, conflict resolved through sex, low violence.
Q: What lesson do chimps and bonobos teach about human nature?
A: Humans share traits with both; neither species alone models humanity.
Q: What is a social pair bond?
A: A strong biological and psychological bond beyond friendship.
Q: What is concealed ovulation?
A: Ovulation not visibly signaled.
-
Lecture 2/2451
-
"Bodyminds Reimagined"43
-
“Prenatal Genetic Testing and Disability Rights: Addressing Disability Bias in Practice.”50
-
“Disability/Anthropology: Rethinking the Parameters of the Human.”44
-
“The Morphology of Intersectionality: Discordance between Ancestry Estimates and Social Identifiers”38
-
“Anatomically Speaking: Ungendered Flesh and the Science of Sex”40
-
“Bones, Biases, and Birth: Forensic Anthropology and the Construction of Sex”38
-
“Embodying Sex/Gender Systems in Bioarchaeological Research”45
-
“‘Chinese Peptides’ Are the Latest Biohacking Trend in the Tech World”38
-
CRISPR recording featuring Neville Sanjana (NYU)40
-
Why This Disability Activist Fears CRISPR12
-
“Peptides and the Pursuit of the ‘Perfect’ Body: Biohacking Trends and Ethical Implications”30
-
Imago by Octavia Butler37
-
Lecture 3/351
-
Science Readings31
-
"The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male- Female Roles"33
-
EXPLORATIONS: AN OPEN INVITATION TO BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 2ND EDITION48
-
Adult sex estimation from cranial morphological traits - Garvin45
-
Sex estimation using pelvis morphology - Klales40
-
The Five Sexes33
-
Chapter 1, 2 and 4 in The Sexual Evolution35
