View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What could Whittington not classify Marella with?
(a) Any known group of vertebrates.
(b) Any species or phyla.
(c) Any taxonomic genus.
(d) Any known group of arthropods.

2. What does Gould represent the original interpretation as?
(a) "The step and the bowl."
(b) "The ladder and the cone."
(c) "The cone and the rod."
(d) "The chair and the ladder."

3. How many specimens of Opabinia are in the Burgess Shale?
(a) Eight.
(b) Ten.
(c) Four.
(d) Six.

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

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

6. What was Leif Størmer's treatise on the Burgess Shale named?
(a) Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology.
(b) Treatise on the Burgess Shale.
(c) Treatise on Vertebrate Paleontology.
(d) Treatise on Plant and Fauna life of the Burgess Shale.

7. What did Whittington conclude about Yohoia in 1975?
(a) Yohoia does not fit anywhere.
(b) Yohoia is an unknown trilobite.
(c) Yohoia is in multiple systems.
(d) Yohoia is a known arthropod.

8. Which genus was Whittington focused on classifying in Chapter Three?
(a) Splendens.
(b) Minillera.
(c) Hartoll.
(d) Marrella.

9. When did Whittington publish a monograph on Yohoia?
(a) 1987.
(b) 1974.
(c) 1977.
(d) 1978.

10. Who discovered Harry Whittington's analysis of fauna decades later?
(a) Rutherford.
(b) Des Collins.
(c) Walcott.
(d) Sebastian.

11. What association does Gould make with progress and evolution?
(a) Evolution is progress.
(b) Evolution is scattered progress.
(c) Evolution doesn't always involve progress.
(d) Evolution always involves progress.

12. 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."

13. What was Whittington's 1979 monograph written about?
(a) Monitoring Wiwaxia.
(b) Dissecting Sanctocrabis.
(c) Cataloging Marella splendens.
(d) Cataloging Opabinia.

14. When was the boundary between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras?
(a) 20 thousand years ago.
(b) 355 million years ago.
(c) 225 million years ago.
(d) 225 thousand years ago.

15. Which fossils was Whittington an expert of?
(a) Bezoar fossils.
(b) Trixony fossils.
(c) Trilobite fossils.
(d) Pitolimite fossils.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Gould strain to emphasize for his audience?

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

3. What was Whittington's first monograph about?

4. What was Whittington armed with that helped him review the claim that Opabinia was an arthropod?

5. How many levels are there in the taxonomy of life?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 426 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample