Conclusion: the paleontologists are confident that these centipedes lived on land.
Why? We are told that fossilized centipedes were discovered in rock that also contained fossilized remains of animals known to be water-dwelling. The fossils are 414 million years old, which is 20 million years older than the earliest land-dwelling animals preciously identified.
We are looking for the answer choice that would least support the paleontologist's view.
(A): This is not correct because it supports the paleontologist's view that these centipedes were land dwelling animals. If their legs were very well suited to being a means of locomotion on land, then it helps support the idea that they were land dwellers.
(B): This is not the correct answer since it also could support the paleontologist's view that these centipedes were land dwellers. If all the centipedes previously discovered were land dwellers, there is a higher possibility that--therefore--those recently discovered are also land dwellers.
(C) This is not the correct answer since it also could support the paleontologist's view that these centipedes were land dwellers. This gives us an explanation why some of the other fossilized remains were known to be water dwelling because at the times that the river water covered the mud flats, these water dwelling animals mingled with the centipedes. But, this could still support the idea that the centipedes were land dwelling animals.
(D): This is correct because it could weaken the paleontologist's view. Clearly there are land dwelling animals that were found in rock that did not contain fossilized remains in water-dwelling animals. Thus, this weakens the view that even though these new centipedes were found in rock that contained water-dwelling animals, they are still viewed as land dwelling animals.
(E): This is not the correct answer since it also could support the paleontologist's view that these centipedes were land dwellers. Again, since spiders were found in the same rock and these spiders could only breathe air, it is more likely that these spiders, along with the centipedes, were land dwelling animals who had an ample supply of air to breathe.
Hope this clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
rweyerApril 8, 2018
I'm still a bit confused as to why D is correct. The paleontologist are confident that these centipedes lived on land. D seems to strengthen their conclusion.
DanielDePasqualeAugust 9, 2018
im confused as to why D is the correct answer. By taking out the existence of fossilized remains of animals known to be water dwelling, doesn't that strengthen the conclusion by eliminating the possibility of centipedes being water-dwelling?
Irene-VeraApril 18, 2019
Can I get another explanation? It seems that many of us still don't understand how D would weaken rather than strengthen. Thank you.
Ella-SinghMay 13, 2019
I also don't understand this question. please explain D.
BriannaAugust 17, 2020
I also don't understand why D is the correct answer.
VictoriaAugust 19, 2020
Hello everyone,
Happy to help!
The paleontologists may be confident in their conclusion that the centipedes were land-dwelling, but the stimulus does not provide us with any evidence to support this conclusion.
Answer choice (D) is the correct answer here because it does not impact the paleontologists' conclusion. It is irrelevant that the animals previously thought to be the earliest land-dwellers were found in rock that did not contain the fossilized remains of water-dwelling animals. These fossils could have been found in different locations as the animals could have had a different habitat from the centipedes.
Answer choice (D) does not strengthen the argument because it does not provide an explanation for why the centipedes would have been fossilized with water-dwelling animals as opposed to land-dwellers if they themselves were land-dwelling. All answer choice (D) does it tell us that other land-dwelling animals were found fossilized with other land-dwelling animals.
Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.
