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

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
   • A living chimpanzee species that modern humans descend from
   • A relative of humans that lived after the two lines separated
   • An earlier species that both humans and chimpanzees come from
6. 3.

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

   • H. erectus
   • H. habilis
   • H. sapiens
   • Au. afarensis
7. 4.

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

   Use the picture in question 3.

   • 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
8. 5.

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

   Use the picture in question 3.

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

9. 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

10. 6.

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

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

11. Card on spoken language

    field	entry
    question	when did spoken language begin
    scientists say	they are not sure
    clue	objects made 350,000 years ago took complex behaviors that probably needed language
    problem	spoken language does not fossilize

12. 7.

    Pia reads a card about spoken language. Why is it hard to say when spoken language began?

    • Writing was invented long before speech, so speech has no early dates
    • Skulls cannot be given dates by scientists
    • No early human objects show planning or symbols
    • Spoken language does not fossilize, so scientists rely on clues
14. 8.

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

    • The first human fossil ever found
    • A species alive today, drawn beside the bonobo on the tree
    • A shared ancestor of humans, chimpanzees and bonobos
    • The chimpanzee tip, which the human line came from
15. 9.

    Tala looks at the model tree. What is the chimpanzee tip?

    Use the picture in question 8.

    • An extinct group drawn below node W
    • The earlier species that the human line came from
    • The first group to make stone tools
    • A living group that shares an ancestor with humans
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
    • Both splits happened about 6 million years ago
    • The human split is more recent than the chimpanzee-bonobo split