The Burgess Drama, Act 4. Completion and Codiication of an Argument: Naraoia and Aysheaia, 1977-1978. Summary and Analysis

The fourth act slows things down a bit. Act 3 teaches us that Opabinia is not an arthropod. Whittington next begins work on Naraoia, which also poses a problem. Whittington cannot classify it into an arthropod group. Initially, Whittington thinks that Naraoia is a unique form of trilobite, which excites him (he is the world expert on trilobites at the time). However, Naraoia helps complete the Burgess Drama because it leads Whittington to junk the entire class Trilobitoidea as artificial. He publishes his monograph on Naraoia and turns to Aysheaia. He now understands the new view that many Burgess fossils cannot be placed in any known taxonomy. Aysehaia is a further example, helping to round out...