The iconography of an expectation : A prologue in pictures ; The ladder and the cone: iconographies of progress ; Replaying life's tape: the crucial experiment ; The meanings of diversity and disparity

A background for the Burgess Shale : Life before the Burgess: the Cambrian explosion and the origin of animals ; Life after the Burgess: soft-bodied faunas as windows into the past ; The setting of the Burgess Shale : Where ; Why: the means of preservation ; Who, when: the history of discovery

Reconstruction of the Burgess Shale : Toward a new view of life : A quiet revolution ; A methodology of research ; The chronology of a transformation ; Taxonomy and the status of phyla ; The classification and anatomy of arthropods. The Burgess drama : Act 1. Marrella and Yohoia: the dawning and consolidation of suspicion, 1971-1974 : The conceptual world that Whittington faced ; Marella: first doubts ; Yohoia: a suspicion grows. Act 2. a new view takes hold: homage to Opabinia, 1975 ; Act 3. the revision expands: the success of a research team, 1975-1978 : Setting a strategy for a generalization ; Mentors and students ; Conway Morris's field season in Walcott's cabinets: a hint becomes a generality, and the transformation solidifies ; Derek Briggs and bivalved arthropods: the not-so-flashy but just-as-necessary final piece. Act 4. completion and codification of an argument: Noaraoia and Aysheaia, 1977-1978 ; Act 5. the maturation of a research program: life after Aysheaia, 1979-doomsday (there are no final answers) : The ongoing saga of Burgess arthropods : Orphans and specialists ; A present from Santa Claws. Continuing the march of weird wonders : Wiwaxia ; Anomalocaris. Coda : Summary statement on the bestiary of the Burgess Shale : Disparity followed by decimation : a general statement ; Assessment of genealogical relationships for Burgess organisms. The Burgess Shale as a Cambrian generality : Predators and prey: the functional world of Burgess arthropods ; The ecology of the Burgess fauna ; The Burgess as an early world-wide fauna. The two great problems of the Burgess Shale : The origin of the Burgess fauna ; The decimation of the Burgess fauna

Walcott's vision and the nature of history : The basis for Walcott's allegiance to the cone of diversity : A biographical note ; The mundane reason for Walcott's failure ; The deeper rationale for Walcott's shoehorn : Walcott's persona ; Walcott's general view of life's history and evolution ; The Burgess shoehorn and Walcott's struggle with the Cambrian explosion. The Burgess Shale and the nature of history ; A plea for the high status of natural history

Possible worlds: the power of "just history" : A story of alternatives ; General patterns that illustrate contingency : The Burgess pattern of maximal initial proliferation ; Mass extinction. Seven possible worlds : Evolution of the eukaryotic cell ; The first fauna of multicellular animals ; The first fauna of the Cambrian explosion ; The subsequent Cambrian origin of the modern fauna ; The origin of terrestrial vertebrates ; Passing the torch to mammals ; The origin of homo sapiens. An epilogue on PIKAIA.