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1 - In Wonderful Life Gould hypothesizes on cultural values, assumptions, and what kind of logic are evident in the original interpretation of the Burgess Shale, and then the change in thinking that led to its recent re-interpretation. What model of biodiversity and evolutionary change does Gould argue resulted in the earlier error in classifying the Burgess Shale animals? What is the original cultural/historical source of that model, or what he calls “iconography”?

One reference that reflects western cultural values is the "scale of nature" or "great chain of being" which projects evolutionary history as a single, linear process, marked ultimately by the emergence of (white) man. The iconography of progress and racism is possessed in the image or Homo erectus.

2 - Notice that much of Gould’s argument centers on discussing evolutionary tress (phylogenies) of the kind you constructed on a small scale.  At the end of the chapter we see he is interested in the overall shapes (“topology”) of the phylogenies. Why? What does he claim that the shape of phylogenies imply about how evolution happens over long stretches of time that had been neglected by biologists? What kinds of causal factors alter the course of evolution, the shape of phylogenies, and the eventual designs of organisms that we see today?

Both the bush and cone model present the idea of progress with there hierarchal form. The models do not represent a modern understanding of evolution. As Gould states humans are inherently visual and assume the more important something is the farther away from the ground. It has been complicated to convey the paths of evolution. The initial shapes of the cone and bush imply an increase in population and stagnancy in relation to representing extinction.  In addressing phylogenies the factors are the internal and external body and there sometimes-ambiguous relationship.

2b - Related: What does it mean to “replay the Tape of Life” and why is this an interesting idea to Gould? Relate Gould’s preferred model with the views of early Catastrophists – what would Cuvier (if alive) like and not like about Gould’s interpretation?

The metaphor of the cassette tap as an alternative to the cone or ladder .if we think of time as a tape, something that is constantly being recorded, instead of something fixed, we can start to really understand evolution. An example of the tape is the animals in the Burgess Shale. The animals don't fit into either notions of history and progress and thus diverging are preconceived notions of the evolution model.

3 - What is “disparity” versus “diversity”? Give an original example (one not given in the reading).

Disparity: White bengle tigers with black stripes, all White bengle tigers, orange sherbet bengle tigers, melanistic bengle tigers

Diversity:  tigers, lions, panthers

4 - In the reading Evolution by Walking what is so interesting about how the American Museum of Natural History has changed their mammal display? Why is it significant in how we think about biodiversity in his opinion?

Comparatively to the Chicago field museum taxidermy halls witch are arranged by geography, the American Museum of Natural History permanent exhibit of advanced and primitive mammals is presented in a waking evolution and modern interpretation of family relationships. This arrangement of biodiversity is important from Gould’s perspective to satisfy humans need for and understanding of placement to the world that surrounds them.