Opabinia

High school (ages 12+)
Animals & Nature

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/opabinia

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. How big is Opabinia?Maximum body length up to 7 cm
2. What is the scientific name?Opabinia regalis
3. What is the geological period?Middle Cambrian (approximately 505 million years ago)
4. What does Opabinia look like?Opabinia was about 7 cm long and had a soft body with a long, spiny tube that looked like a vacuum cleaner hose. It also had five big, stalked eyes that let it see around it.
5. How old is Opabinia?It lived about 505 million years ago, during the Middle Cambrian period.

Phylogenetic Position: The evolutionary placement of an organism within the tree of life, indicating its relationships to other species.
Cladistics: A method of classifying organisms based on shared derived characteristics, used to infer evolutionary relationships.
Benthic: Relating to or occurring at the bottom of a body of water.
Ventral: Situated on or toward the lower, abdominal side of an animal.