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

3. Of Whittington's team, who was more methodologically conservative?
(a) Derek Briggs.
(b) Simeon Martin.
(c) Conway Morris.
(d) Whittington.

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

5. What did Whittington shockingly find after the dissection of Opabinia?
(a) A baby Opabinia.
(b) Nothing underneath the carapace at all.
(c) Two hearts.
(d) Another complete, yet smaller Opabinia.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the Burgess Shale represent that occurred 570 million years ago?

2. What was Whittington's first monograph about?

3. Who was America's "greatest paleontologist and scientific administrator"?

4. What did Whittington use to dissect the carapace of Opabinia?

5. What kind of paradigm does Gould believe has not been communicated to the public?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why could the acceptance of the new interpretation create within humans a psychological shock?

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

5. How does Gould begin Chapter 2: A Background for the Burgess Shale?

6. What are Marrella and Yohoia in terms of evolution?

7. What sorts of new procedures did Whittington's team use?

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

9. What is the boundary between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras famous?

10. How is the "Cambrian explosion" defined?

(see the answer keys)

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