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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Burgess Drama, Act 2. A New View Takes Hold: Homage to Opabinia, 1975.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did Gould describe as characteristic of arthropods?
(a) Bodily appendages.
(b) Odd segmented trunk.
(c) Hard, body shell.
(d) Noodly proboscis.

2. What kinds of versions does the story of the Burgess Shale's discovery have?
(a) Two of more or less the same version.
(b) A old, more accurate version and a newer, less accurate version.
(c) A newer, less accurate version and an older, more accurate version.
(d) An old, less accurate version and a newer, more accurate version.

3. How was Walcott's taxonomy significantly updated?
(a) Including new phyla and manera.
(b) Including new manera and genera.
(c) Including new marrella and phyla.
(d) Including new genera and phyla.

4. What type of evidence concerning Opabinia is considered to be decisive?
(a) Its structure.
(b) Its guts.
(c) Its distinctiveness.
(d) Its classification.

5. What bizarre features does Opabinia possess?
(a) Frontal nozzle and five eyes.
(b) No nose and three eyes.
(c) Eight noses and four eyes.
(d) Twenty limbs.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are the evidences for Opabinia that are considered undeniable?

2. What pushed Whittington beyond the idea he struggled under?

3. What is the most common organism among the Burgess Shale fossils?

4. Why did Whittington dissect Opabinia?

5. What is the Burgess Shale?

(see the answer key)

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