The giant Chicxulub crater

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Weak5% picked this

   The vast majority of dinosaur species are known to have gone extinct well before the time of the asteroid impact

   This feels like more than nothing. If there aren't that many dino species left to kill, then it's easier for an asteroid to kill off most of the remaining. But we still need to know that most of the remaining ones were congregating near the impact site, or else we haven't really escaped the author's "local, not global extinctions" argument.

   5%
2. B

   No Impact2% picked this

   The size of a crater caused by an asteroid striking Earth generally depends on both the size of that asteroid and

   Ha ^ (pun intended?) We need a storyline that sells us on the idea that this asteroid was a dino-killer, and this is a wishy-washy physics statement about all asteroids.

   2%
3. C

   Too Weak18% picked this

   Fossils have been discovered of a number of dinosaurs that clearly died as a result of the asteroid impact

   This certainly explicitly reads as "dino-killer", but the author was never denying that many dinosaurs would have been killed by the impact. He's just saying that global extinctions wouldn't be attributable to the impact. This answer is consistent with the author's argument, since the fossils might all belong to dinosaurs that lived in that area. This answer doesn't say that "a number of dinosaurs went extinct".

   18%
4. D

   No Impact4% picked this

   There is no evidence that any other asteroid of equal size struck Earth at the same time as the asteroid

   Okay, pun also intended, but it's less fun the second time. No one is expecting a 2nd big asteroid to have hit Earth at the same time as this one. We only get hit by those asteroids once every 100 million years or so. The author is cool with this asteroid being the only one. He isn't blaming the dinosaur extinctions on other asteroid impacts. He's saying that asteroid impacts aren't the type of thing that can cause global extinctions.

   4%
5. E

   Correct72% picked this

   During the period immediately before the asteroid that produced the Chicxulub crater struck, most of the world’s dinosaurs lived in or near the

   Why this is right

   Oh, my goodness, it was the "Dinosaur Burning Man" story line for real! Right before the asteroid hit, the dinosaurs had all met up for some "last dinos on earth" Fyre Fest (literally), and they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. This answer allows us to argue how a local impact could have still led to many extinctions.

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

   72%