**Optional (FL only).** Trends in human evolution

Grade 9 Science Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Fossil card for a knee bone

   field	entry
   species	Au. anamensis
   age	about 4.1 million years ago
   bone	knee joint, wide below the joint
   shows	it carried the body on a single leg during each step
   card says	the owner was bipedal

2. 1.

   Ari reads a fossil card. What does bipedal mean on this card?

   • Walking on four limbs with the knuckles down
   • Walking on two legs while carrying stone tools
   • Walking on two legs
   • Swinging through trees by the arms

3. Fact card on humans and chimpanzees

   field	entry
   pair	humans and chimpanzees
   when the two lines separated	about 6 million years ago
   card term	common ancestor

4. 2.

   Bo reads a fact card. What does the term common ancestor mean here?

   • The oldest human fossil that scientists have found
   • An earlier species that both humans and chimpanzees come from
   • A relative of humans that lived after the two lines separated
   • A living chimpanzee species that modern humans descend from

5. Lab card on endocasts

   field	entry
   problem	brains do not fossilize and leave a cavity in the braincase
   natural endocast	sediment fills the cavity and hardens
   artificial endocast	scientists make a copy of the inside of the braincase
   measure	the volume of the endocast

6. 3.

   Jun reads a lab card. What does an endocast show scientists?

   • The size and shape of the brain in the braincase
   • How tall the owner stood when walking upright
   • How the owner moved on two legs
   • How many years before today the skull's owner was living
8. 4.

   Esme reads the timeline. Which species lived from 2.4 to 1.4 million years ago?

   • H. erectus
   • Au. afarensis
   • H. habilis
   • H. sapiens
9. 5.

   Kira compares two rows of the timeline. Which statement about H. habilis and H. erectus fits it?

   Use the picture in question 4.

   • Both were living between 1.89 and 1.4 million years ago
   • H. habilis ended before H. erectus began
   • Both began at the same time, 2.4 million years ago
   • H. erectus began earlier than H. habilis, about 2.4 million years ago
10. 6.

    Luz picks the date 0.2 million years ago. Which two species were both living then?

    Use the picture in question 4.

    • H. habilis and H. erectus
    • Au. afarensis and H. habilis
    • H. sapiens and no other species on the timeline
    • H. erectus and H. sapiens

11. Fossil evidence for walking upright

    fossil	age (million years ago)	bone
    Orrorin tugenensis	6	thigh bone
    Australopithecus anamensis	4.1	knee
    Australopithecus africanus	2.5	spine
    Homo erectus	1.95	hip bones

12. 7.

    Milo reads a table of fossils that show walking upright. Which fossil is the oldest?

    • Orrorin tugenensis
    • Australopithecus africanus
    • Australopithecus anamensis
    • Homo erectus

13. Teeth and jaws of two species

    species	teeth	jaw
    Au. afarensis	larger	long and projecting
    H. sapiens	smaller	shorter and less heavily developed

14. 8.

    Noah reads a card on teeth and jaws. Compared with Au. afarensis, what do H. sapiens jaws and teeth show?

    • Smaller teeth and a shorter jaw
    • Larger teeth and a shorter jaw
    • Smaller teeth but a longer, projecting jaw
    • Larger teeth and a longer jaw
15. 9.

    Ren reads a model tree. What does node W stand for?

    • A shared ancestor of humans, chimpanzees and bonobos
    • The first human fossil ever found
    • A species alive today, drawn beside the bonobo on the tree
    • The chimpanzee tip, which the human line came from
16. 10.

    Model tree (simplified, not to scale). Zee reads the dates on the model tree. Which statement fits it?

    • The chimpanzee-bonobo split is more recent than the human split
    • Humans split from bonobos but not from chimpanzees
    • The human split is more recent than the chimpanzee-bonobo split
    • Both splits happened about 6 million years ago