query: occupation simon conway morris
supports: The Cambrian explosion or Cambrian radiation was the relatively short evolutionary event, beginning around in the Cambrian period, during which most major animal phyla appeared, as indicated by the fossil record. Lasting for about the next 2025 million years, it resulted in the divergence of most modern metazoan phyla. Additionally, the event was accompanied by major 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 diversity 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. Canada (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. Canada'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. Canada 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 mountain 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 Mountain Trench of BC on the west. The southern end borders Idaho and Montana of the USA. In geographic terms the boundary is at the Canada/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. 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 official period of the Paleozoic Era by the International Geological Congress. Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941  May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, 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. Popular Science (also known as PopSci) is an American bi-monthly magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. "Popular Science" has won over 58 awards, including the American Society of Magazine Editors awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 (for General 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 Canada 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. William Vincent Astor (November 15, 1891  February 3, 1959) was a businessman, philanthropist, and member of the prominent Astor family. 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 book 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 . British Columbia (BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, 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. New York University (NYU) is a private nonprofit research university based in New York City. Founded in 1831, NYU is considered one of the world's most influential research 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 Burgess Shale Formation is a fossil-bearing deposit exposed in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. 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. Charles Doolittle Walcott (March 31, 1850  February 9, 1927) was an American paleontologist, 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." Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, established in 1636, whose history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the world's most prestigious universities.
candidates: academic biologist book canada general major mountain official paleontologist philanthropist prior reader research science
answer: paleontologist