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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many of these designs survived the first great extinction?
(a) Three.
(b) Twenty.
(c) Four.
(d) Ninety-eight.

2. In what fashion was the Burgess Shale actually discovered?
(a) A respectable fashion.
(b) A sympathetic fashion.
(c) A reasonable fashion.
(d) A more mundane fashion.

3. In what year did Leif Størmer describe the Burgess Shale arthropods in a treatise?
(a) 1987.
(b) 1960.
(c) 1959.
(d) 1989.

4. When did Whittington publish his first monograph?
(a) 1969.
(b) 1971.
(c) 1987.
(d) 1974.

5. What is one of the first tasks of the paleontologist after producing a clear specimen?
(a) Categorize each file according to specimen.
(b) Write a monograph on observation alone.
(c) Classify the specimen in taxonomy.
(d) Naturalize the environment and take samples.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Gould, what kind of insight does the Burgess Shale offer into the nature of life and the evolution of life forms?

2. What type of evidence concerning Opabinia is considered to be decisive?

3. How was Walcott's taxonomy significantly updated?

4. What could Whittington not figure out to do about Marrella?

5. What does Gould focus on to bring the Burgess Shale into clear view?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did using these new methods allow Whittington's team to do?

2. What is the boundary between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras famous?

3. Why did Gould write this book as an homage to the Burgess Shale?

4. How did Whittington try to uncover the bodily appendages of Opabinia?

5. What are Marrella and Yohoia in terms of evolution?

6. What did Stephen Jay Gould desire to use the Burgess Shale for?

7. What dominant paradigm about the Burgess fossils was Whittington pressured to conform to?

8. What is the definition of decimation in the relation to the evolution of life?

9. What special insight or perspective does the Burgess Shale offer?

10. How does Gould begin Chapter 2: A Background for the Burgess Shale?

(see the answer keys)

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