Practice Questions

  1. What characters have been used to define the Phylum Chordata?

  2. Give an example of a modern urochordate and cephalochordate and explain what chordate characters they possess and in what stages of life.

  3. Describe the small creature Pikaia from the Burgess Shale and discuss its affinities and its possible relationship to vertebrates.

  4. What does paleontologist R.P.S. Jefferies consider to be the significance of the carpoid echinoderms, what chordate characters has he identified in them, and how well have his ideas been accepted by other paleontologists?

  5. During which geologic period did most animal phyla appear, including those preserved in the Burgess Shale?
    Cambrian
    Devonian
    Ordovician
    Precambrian
    Silurian

  6. What was the top carnivore of the Cambrian oceans?
    Anomalocaris
    Eurypterids
    Jawed fishes
    Jawless fishes
    Mosasaurs