View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Burgess Drama, Act I. Marrella and Yohoia: The Dawning and Consolidation of Suspicion, 1971-1974.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Gould's perspective, what historical understanding does the Burgess shale offer humanity?
(a) The idea of "symbiosis."
(b) The idea of "plague."
(c) The idea of "necrogenesis."
(d) The idea of "contingency."

2. What cost comes with accepting Gould's picture of human evolution?
(a) Physical cost.
(b) Compensatory cost.
(c) Monetary cost.
(d) Psychological cost.

3. What is the most common organism among the Burgess Shale fossils?
(a) Titilla splendens.
(b) Marrella splendens.
(c) Signi marella.
(d) Sanctocaris.

4. When does the old story have Walcott miraculously stumble upon the Burgess Shale?
(a) After his wife's horse tripped and fell onto it.
(b) After his son stumbled upon it.
(c) After his pistol whipped the dust.
(d) Before his son fell onto the Shale.

5. How much of all marine life died during the greatest extinction in history?
(a) 89%.
(b) 47%
(c) 96%.
(d) 5%.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of lessons does Stephen Jay Gould draw from how the Burgess Shale was first interpreted?

2. What do the levels range from in the taxonomy of life?

3. The Burgess fauna follow the beginning of what era?

4. How many of these designs survived the first great extinction?

5. What does Gould's new interpretation emphasize about human evolution?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 232 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample