occupation simon conway morris
The Ordovician is a geologic period and system , the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era . The Ordovician spans 41 . 2 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago ( Mya ) to the start of the Silurian Period Mya . The Ordovician , named after the Celtic tribe of the Ordovices , was defined by Charles Lapworth in 1879 to resolve a dispute between followers of Adam Sedgwick and Roderick Murchison , who were placing the same rock beds in northern Wales into the Cambrian and Silurian periods , respectively . Lapworth , recognized that the fossil fauna in the disputed strata were different from those of either the Cambrian or the Silurian periods , and placed them in a period of their own . It received international sanction in 1960 , when it was adopted as an ___MASK97___ period of the Paleozoic Era by the International Geological Congress . New York University ( NYU ) is a private nonprofit ___MASK68___ university based in New York City . Founded in 1831 , NYU is considered one of the world ' s most influential ___MASK68___ universities . University rankings compiled by " Times Higher Education ", " U . S . News & World Report ", and the " Academic Ranking of World Universities " all rank NYU amongst the top 32 universities in the world . NYU is a fundamental part of the creativity , energy and vibrancy that is Manhattan , located with its core in Greenwich Village , and its campuses based throughout New York City . NYU is also a world - class university , operating NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai , and 11 global academic centers in Accra , Berlin , Buenos Aires , Florence , London , Madrid , Paris , Prague , Sydney , Tel Aviv , and Washington , D . C . The Cambrian explosion or Cambrian radiation was the relatively short evolutionary event , beginning around in the Cambrian period , during which most ___MASK10___ animal phyla appeared , as indicated by the fossil record . Lasting for about the next 20  25 million years , it resulted in the divergence of most modern metazoan phyla . Additionally , the event was accompanied by ___MASK10___ diversification of other organisms . Prior to the Cambrian explosion , most organisms were simple , composed of individual cells occasionally organized into colonies . Over the following 70 to 80 million years , the rate of diversification accelerated by an order of magnitude and the ___MASK98___ of life began to resemble that of today . Almost all the present phyla appeared during this period , with the exception of Bryozoa , which made its earliest known appearance later , in the Lower Ordovician . British Columbia ( BC ) is the westernmost province of ___MASK92___ , with a population of more than four million people located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains . British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia bioregion , along with the U . S . states of Idaho , Oregon , Washington and Alaska . Popular ___MASK23___ ( also known as PopSci ) is an American bi - monthly magazine carrying popular ___MASK23___ content , which refers to articles for the ___MASK44___ reader on ___MASK23___ and technology subjects . " Popular ___MASK23___ " has won over 58 awards , including the American Society of Magazine Editors awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 ( for ___MASK44___ Excellence ) and 2004 ( for Best Magazine Section ). With roots beginning in 1872 , " PopSci " has been translated into over 30 languages and is distributed to at least 45 countries . The fossils of the Burgess Shale , like the Burgess Shale itself , formed around in the Mid Cambrian period . They were discovered in ___MASK92___ in 1886 , and Charles Doolittle Walcott collected over 60 , 000 specimens in a series of field trips up from 1909 to 1924 . After a period of neglect from the 1930s to the early 1960s , new excavations and re - examinations of Walcott ' s collection continue to discover new species , and statistical analysis suggests discoveries will continue for the foreseeable future . Stephen Jay Gould ' s book " Wonderful Life " describes the history of discovery up to the early 1980s , although his analysis of the implications for evolution is largely superseded . ___MASK92___ ( French : ) is a country in the northern half of North America . Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean , covering , making it the world ' s second - largest country by total area and the fourth - largest country by land area . ___MASK92___ ' s border with the United States is the world ' s longest land border . The majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate , but southerly areas are warm in summer . ___MASK92___ is sparsely populated , the majority of its land territory being dominated by forest and tundra and the Rocky Mountains . About four - fifths of the country ' s population of 36 million people is urbanized and live near the southern border . Its capital is Ottawa , its largest city is Toronto ; other major urban areas include Montreal , Vancouver , Calgary , Edmonton , Quebec City , Winnipeg and Hamilton . The Canadian Rockies comprise the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains . They are the eastern part of the Canadian Cordillera , which is a system of multiple ranges of mountains which runs from the Canadian Prairies to the Pacific Coast . The Canadian Rockies ___MASK57___ system comprises the southeastern part of this system , laying between the Interior Plains of Alberta and Northeastern British Columbia on the east to the Rocky ___MASK57___ Trench of BC on the west . The southern end borders Idaho and Montana of the USA . In geographic terms the boundary is at the ___MASK92___ / US border , but in geological terms it might be considered to be at Marias Pass in northern Montana . The northern end is at the Liard River in northern British Columbia . Charles Doolittle Walcott ( March 31 , 1850  February 9 , 1927 ) was an American ___MASK17___ , administrator of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927 , and geologist . He became known for his discovery in 1909 of well - preserved fossils in the Burgess Shale of British Columbia , Canada , see history of the Burgess Shale . He was described by Stephen Jay Gould as " the finest symbol that I have ever encountered for the embodiment of conventional beliefs ." William Vincent Astor ( November 15 , 1891  February 3 , 1959 ) was a businessman , ___MASK42___ , and member of the prominent Astor family . Stephen Jay Gould ( September 10 , 1941  May 20 , 2002 ) was an American ___MASK17___ , evolutionary biologist , and historian of science . He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation . Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York . In 1996 Gould was also appointed as the Vincent Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at New York University , where he divided his time teaching there and at Harvard . Simon Conway Morris FRS ( born 6 November 1951 ; note that his surname is `` Conway Morris '' ) is an English palaeontologist who is best known for his detailed and careful study of the fossils of the Burgess Shale , and of the scientific concept of Cambrian explosion . The results of these discoveries were celebrated in Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould . Conway Morris ' s own ___MASK3___ on the subject , The Crucible of Creation , however , is critical of Gould ' s presentation and interpretation . Conway Morris , who is a Christian , is most popularly known for his theistic views of biological evolution . He has held the Chair of Evolutionary Palaeobiology in the Earth Sciences Department at Cambridge University since 1995 . The Burgess Shale Formation is a fossil - bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia , ___MASK92___ . It is famous for the exceptional preservation of the soft parts of its fossils . At ( Middle Cambrian ) old , it is one of the earliest fossil beds containing soft - part imprints . Harvard University is a private Ivy League ___MASK68___ university in Cambridge , Massachusetts , established in 1636 , whose history , influence , and wealth have made it one of the world ' s most prestigious universities .