The Burgess Drama, Act 5. The Maturation of a Research Program: Life after Aysheaia, 1979 - Doomsday (There Are No Final Answers) Summary and Analysis

After the fourth act, Whittington's heavy hand in the development of the new paradigm fades and his revisions become a research paradigm. 1971 through 1978 brings revolutionary changes and a new shift in perspective. This discovery does not happen gradually, but instead happens through sporadic leaps forced by clear, scientific reasoning. From 1978, the drama becomes denouement, a long one, but a denouement nonetheless. The chapter covers all the new classes, orders and genera from the Burgess Shale that have been analyzed over the ten years between 1978 and the publication of the book.

Derek Briggs, in 1981, begins to focus on Odaraia, the largest bivalve arthropod in...