Logical Reasoning

PT115 · S4 · Q18 Foster: Many species of extremely

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Foster: Many species of extremely large North American mammals became extinct during the last ice age, which was also the time of the first human migration to North America.

Conclusion

The extinctions of super large North American mammals during the last ice age was caused by the dramatic shift to a harsher climate.

Evidence

The climate changed so rapidly that the species could not adapt.

Evaluate

Since Foster and Fisch are trying to Solve the Causal Mystery of what caused the extinction of the large NA mammals at the end of the last ice age, we can use our Explain Curious Fact mindset.

Curious Fact Why did super large mammals go extinct at the end of the last ice age?

Fisch's Explanation The dramatic shift to a harsher climate did it. The climate changed more rapidly than these large species could adapt to it, so they eventually died off from challenges dealing with this new climate.

Goal

We either want an answer to rule out an alternate explanation for the extinctions (such as ruling out that the idea that the presence of humans caused the extinctions), or more likely we want an idea that bolsters the plausibility of the author's explanation.

The most common way to Strengthen an Explain Curious Fact argument is to provide an answer that shows . So we might see something like,

18.

Which one of the following, if true, most strengthens Fisch's argument?

  1. Similar species living in parts

    Weakens

    This hurts the plausibility of Fisch's explanation by providing Cause w/o Effect data points. Fisch thought that dramatic climate shifts were the Cause of extinctions, the Effect. This answer is providing data points where the Cause was present (there were dramatic changes in climate) but the Effect was absent (no extinctions).

    3% picked this

  2. Most of the mammals that

    No Impact

    This has more to with Foster's migration explanation, but it doesn't really strengthen or weaken either person's explanation. If anything, it helps Foster's explanation sound more plausible. If most of the surviving mammals were ones that migrated with humans (and thus were already used to them), that helps support the idea that the mammals in North America (who weren't used to living with humans until the humans migrated there) were disturbed by the arrival of humans.

    13% picked this

  3. Human migration to other previously

    Strengthens Foster

    This helps the plausibility of Foster's hypothesis that migrations caused the extinctions. It's attesting to the fact that human migration to a new area often results in local species going extinct.

    3% picked this

  4. Archaeological evidence reveals that the

    Strengthens Foster

    This helps the plausibility of Foster's hypothesis that migrations caused the extinctions. It's saying that as these new humans arrived in North America, they came with lots of large weapons that could have been capable of killing the large mammals who went extinct.

    0% picked this

  5. Correct

    The huge size of the

    Why this is right

    This helps the plausibility of Fisch's hypothesis that dramatic shifts in climate are what caused the extinctions. It makes more sense why a super large mammal could be screwed by a dramatic shift in climate: they have a hard time migrating a great distance because of how big they are, so they couldn't run away from the new, bad climates and find a milder environment.

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

    80% picked this

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