Designed for introductory courses in biological anthropology with laboratory components, Exploring Biological Anthropology can be used with any introductory text. Author Frank L'Engle Williams emphasizes critical thinking and the comparative perspective to understand key concepts in biological anthropology, which helps students to further explore what they learn in the classroom.

 

Includes 16 chapters that can easily be covered in one semester, all of which are explicitly designed to stimulate critical thinking skills and help students better understand the major concepts of biological anthropology

Each chapter is written in three parts: a background section on the lab topic; an introduction to the exercise; and a step-by-step lab, most of which are hands-on

Enhanced images from the Bioarchaeology Laboratory in the Department of Anthropology at Georgia State University (also included in full-color on an in-text DVD)

Five appendices provide a useful primate fossil record and geological time scale, learning assessment outcomes, a correlation chart that pairs the lab exercises to introductory texts, an optional lab using statistics, and lab materials needed for hands-on completion of the exercises

An Instructor's Manual on CD, available upon adoption, supplies model answers to the questions in each chapter

Preface
Chapter 1: Biological anthropology and the scientific method
Background
Scientific inquiry
Critical thinking
Hypothesis, fact and theory
Laboratory 1: Epistemology and the scientific method
Chapter 2: Evolutionary theory
Background
Evolutionary theory
Natural selection
Genetic drift and gene flow
Laboratory introduction: Darwinian medicine, fertility, and health
Pathogens
Microbial communities
Human reproduction
Laboratory 2: Explain these evolutionary scenarios
Chapter 3: Genetics
Background
Mendelian inheritance
Mendelian versus polygenic traits
Protein synthesis
Cellular reproduction
Laboratory introduction: Prediction in genetics
ABO blood group
Hardy-Weinberg
Autosomal and sex-lined traits
Genotype and phenotype
Laboratory 3: Punnett Squares, ABO and Hardy-Weinberg
Chapter 4: Human osteology
Part 1: The human skeleton
Vertebral column
Pelvis
Pectoral girdle
Appendicular skeleton
Skull
Worksheet for Lab 4: Identification of features
Laboratory 4 (part 1): Quiz on skeletal features
Part 2: Estimating age and sex
Aging nonadults
Aging adults
Sex estimation
Laboratory 4 (part 2): Age and sex estimation in Homo sapiens
Chapter 5: Living Primates
Background
Diet, locomotion and social behavior
Primate Taxonomy
Laboratory introduction: Methods for observing primate behavior
Sampling procedures
Formats for recording observations
Testing research questions
Social behavior categories
Laboratory 5 (option 1): Observing primates
Laboratory 5 (option 2): Diet, morphology and body size
Chapter 6: Primate classification and comparative anatomy
Background
Phylogeny and taxonomy
Co-opting of traits
Phylogeny worksheet
Laboratory introduction: Functional and craniodental anatomy
Functional anatomy
Teeth
Sexual dimorphism
Laboratory 6: Comparative anatomy
Chapter 7: Dating methods and paleoecology
Background
Laboratory introduction: Dating methods and habitat reconstruction
Stratigraphy, biostratigraphy and biochronology
Chronometric dating
Fluorine dating
Paleomagnetic dating
South African caves
East African stratigraphic sequences
Reconstructing the context of the remains
Laboratory 7: Dating fossils and interpreting diet
Chapter 8: Primate evolution
Background
Precambrian
Paleozoic era
Mesozoic era
Cenozoic era
Laboratory introduction: The primate fossil record
Early primates
Anthropoids
Apes
Early bipeds
Ceropithecid monkeys
Laboratory 8: The evolution of primates, Eocene to Miocene
Chapter 9: Last common ancestor and bipedalism
Background
Laboratory introduction: Anatomy of bipedalism
Laboratory 9: Structure and function of bipedal locomotion
Chapter 10: Australopithecus
Background
South African Australopithecus
Robust australopithecines
Laboratory introduction: Plio-Pleistocene Australopithecus
Laboratory 10: Craniofacial anatomy of Australopithecus
Chapter 11: Early Homo and Homo erectus
Background
Increasing brain size
Life ways
Migration out of Africa
Laboratory introduction: The evolution and extinction of Homo erectus
History of discovery
Taxonomy
Cranial morphology
Laboratory 11: Pleistocene Homo
Chapter 12: Archaic H. sapiens
Background
Isolation and Homo floresiensis
Neandertals
Historical perspectives
Skeletal traits
Genetics
Laboratory introduction: Upper Pleistocene remains of late archaic humans
Growth and development
Neurocranium
Face
Postcranium
Laboratory 12: Morphology, development and paleodemography in Archaic H. sapiens
Chapter 13: Modern human origins
Background
Modernity
Evolution of language
Laboratory introduction: Archaic and modern H. sapiens
Laboratory 13: Modern humans and their relatives
Chapter 14: Human variation
Background
Australia and the Americas
Categorical race and the type concept
Laboratory introduction: Adaptive and nonadaptive patterns of human variation
Skin complexion
Clinal distributions
Male and female
Laboratory 14: Human variation
Chapter 15: Forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology
Background
Age, sex and stature estimation
Stature
Ancestry
Bioarchaeology
Laboratory introduction: Skeletal trauma and pathology
Laboratory 15: Mock cases and skeletal pathology
Chapter 16: Human adaptation
Background
Laboratory introduction: Life history theory
Human growth and development
Adult stature
Life expectancy with respect to subsistence patterns
The grandmother and embodied capital hypotheses
Laboratory 16: Maturation and mortality
Appendix 1: Primate fossil record and geological time scale in millions of years (mya)
Appendix 2: Assessment of learning outcomes
Appendix 3: Textbook correlation table
Appendix 4: Optional laboratory using statistics
Appendix 5: Materials for labs
Glossary
Bibliography