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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What does Gould determine about the difference between eukaryotic fauna and the Burgess fauna?
(a) The difference is minimalist.
(b) The difference is microscopic.
(c) The difference is vast.
(d) The difference is close.

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

4. What does the evolution of life contain, according to Gould's explanations and illustrations?
(a) "Decimation and diversification."
(b) "Reconstruction and growth."
(c) "Annihilation and acceptance."
(d) "Agreement and speculation."

5. What are the evidences for Opabinia that are considered undeniable?
(a) The shape of its gut and the segments of its trunk.
(b) The shape of its trunk and the segments of its gut.
(c) The segments of its gut and the shape of its trunk.
(d) The shape of its carapace and the segments of its trunk.

6. What could Whittington not figure out to do about Marrella?
(a) Which two classes to classify it in.
(b) Which class it did not belong to.
(c) Which class to make up.
(d) Which existing phyla to classify it in.

7. What did Whittington attempt to do to many of the new species found in the Burgess Shale?
(a) Cyrogenically preserve them.
(b) Classify them into an already existing taxonomy.
(c) Reproduce them.
(d) Dissect them for a museum show.

8. What kind of paradigm does Gould believe has not been communicated to the public?
(a) A controversial conservative paradigm.
(b) A provoking platonic paradigm.
(c) A new research paradigm.
(d) A leftover historical paradigm.

9. How many new arthropod designs does The Burgess Shale contain?
(a) Sixty.
(b) Twelve.
(c) Fifty.
(d) Twenty.

10. What did Whittington use to dissect the carapace of Opabinia?
(a) New methods.
(b) Old tools.
(c) New tools.
(d) New stringents.

11. What is one of the first tasks of the paleontologist after producing a clear specimen?
(a) Write a monograph on observation alone.
(b) Classify the specimen in taxonomy.
(c) Naturalize the environment and take samples.
(d) Categorize each file according to specimen.

12. What comprises the first 4 billion years of Earth's history?
(a) The Mesozoic Era.
(b) The Prestige Era.
(c) The Cambrian Era.
(d) The Precambrian Era.

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

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

15. When did Whittington begin studying Opabinia?
(a) 1980.
(b) 1978.
(c) 1975.
(d) 1890.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. Where is the Burgess Shale?

4. How does Walcott group the Burgess arthropods among the arthropod phylum?

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

(see the answer keys)

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