PT155 S1 Q5 ExplanationOf the dinosaurs of the birdlike group

Answer choices, explained

1. A

   Unrelated to Goal1% picked this

   Some dinosaurs with toothless beaks and weak jaw muscles are believed to have pursued small prey and

   This has nothing to do with assessing the function of the comblike plate in the beaks of G.b.

   1%
2. B

   Unrelated to Goal2% picked this

   Toothless beaks and weak jaw muscles were not common to any dinosaur group

   This has nothing to do with assessing the function of the comblike plate in the beaks of G.b.

   2%
3. C

   Weakens, if anything3% picked this

   Except for the comblike plates in their beaks, G. bullatus shared few anatomical features with

   We wouldn't take this very seriously as a Weaken answer, but it's making the hypothesis a bit less plausible by making it seem like G.b. doesn't have much physiologically in common with ducks and geese. Since ducks and geese use their comblike plate to filter food, it benefits the author's hypothesis the more similar we can make G.b. seem to ducks and geese.

   3%
4. D

   Correct92% picked this

   Most G. bullatus fossils have been found in sediments deposited in lakes, rivers, and

   Why this is right

   This mildly strengthens the plausibility of the hypothesis by giving us another similarity between G.b. and ducks and geese. This suggests that G.b. lived in areas near lakes, rivers, and other wet environments. Ducks and geese live in lakes, rivers, and other wet environments. Their comblike plates are adapted to filtering food in such environments. So if G.b. not only had a similar comblike plate but also lived in similar habitats, it would help build the case that this is the same adaptation, used to filter food from water and mud. This strengthens very little, but everything else does nothing, so it still wins as the best available answer. The hypothesis that the comblike beak is used to filter food from water and mud has the necessary assumption that this dinosaur was spending time around water and mud.

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

   92%
5. E

   No Impact2% picked this

   Paleontologists have not found evidence that any dinosaurs other than G. bullatus

   Finding out that G.b. is the only dino that had the comblike plate doesn't do anything to impact the plausibility of whether it used the plate to filter food from water and mud.

   2%