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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

4. What did Marrella and Yohoia still appear to be?
(a) Arthropods.
(b) Unknown creatures.
(c) Vertebrates.
(d) Crustaceans.

5. Who proposes to use the Burgess Shale to illustrate the nature of history?
(a) Stephen Jay Gould.
(b) Steven Kay Gold.
(c) Mary J. Gold.
(d) Marie Janine Gold.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In Gould's perspective, what historical understanding does the Burgess shale offer humanity?

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

4. In what fashion was the Burgess Shale actually discovered?

5. What association does Gould make with progress and evolution?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do paleontologists find Opabinia unbelievable and fascinating?

2. What was the difference between Simon Conway Morris and Whittington in the way that they worked?

3. How did Walcott's taxonomy have to be significantly updated?

4. Name four levels of the taxonomy of life.

5. What did using these new methods allow Whittington's team to do?

6. What did people think Opabinia was and what did Whittington choose to believe about this idea?

7. How is the Marrella splendens described in relation to the other Burgess Shale fossils?

8. What dominant paradigm about the Burgess fossils was Whittington pressured to conform to?

9. What is the first chapter of "Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History" about?

10. What is the purpose of Chapter 2: A Background for the Burgess Shale?

(see the answer keys)

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