Paleontologists have discovered fossils of centipedes

Answer choices

1. A

   Opposite Impact1% picked this

   The legs of the fossilized centipedes were particularly suited to being a means of

   This strengthens the idea that the centipedes were land-dwellers, since their legs seemed built for moving on land.

   1%
2. B

   Opposite Impact4% picked this

   All of the centipedes that had previously been discovered were

   This strengthens the plausibility that the centipedes were land-dwellers since every previously discovered centipede has been a land-dweller.

   4%
3. C

   Opposite Impact28% picked this

   The rock in which the fossilized centipedes were found was formed from mud flats that were occasionally

   This allows the paleontologists to address some of the potential counterevidence. We might say, "If they were land dwellers, then how come we found them on a rock that contained the remains of water-dwellers?" And this answer lets them respond, "That's just because this rock was sometimes covered in water. It wasn't an underwater rock. But that's how fossils of water-dwellers got in there."

   28%
4. D

   Correct61% picked this

   Fossils of the earliest land-dwelling animals that had previously been identified were found in rock that did not contain

   Why this is right

   This undermines the plausibility that the centipedes were land-dwellers. Every other time we've discovered a land-dweller fossil in a rock, it hasn't been sharing that rock with water-dwelling animals. These centipedes were found in a rock with water-dwelling animals. Thus, this doesn't look like an instance of finding a land-dweller.

   Skill tested: Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   61%
5. E

   Opposite Impact5% picked this

   Fossils of spiders with respiratory systems adapted only to breathing air were found in the same rock

   This allows the paleontologists to address some of the potential counterevidence. We might say, "If they were land dwellers, then how come we found them on a rock that contained the remains of water-dwellers?" And this answer lets them respond, "Look, this rock also had land-dwellers on it. These spiders breathed only air, so you know they weren't an underwater organism."

   5%