#18 - A stingray without parasites is healthier than it

[miriamson07]

Hi miriamson,

You're right that Answer A doesn't really explain why stingrays without parasites are healthier than stingrays with parasites. The fact that stingrays without parasites are healthier than stingrays with parasites isn't a paradox by itself, as this seems rather unsurprising.

What Answer A does is explain the second part of the paradox, why the absence of the parasites indicates environmental stress to the ecosystem, while still allowing the first part of the paradox to be true. In other words, Answer A gets at the idea that the absence of the parasites may indicate possible environmental problems, but even so the stingrays may still be better off themselves because having parasites may be worse for their health than the environmental problems. It therefore helps resolve the paradox better than the other answers, even if it doesn't fully explain it and state this as clearly as it could.

That makes sense - I suppose answer choice A gives an explanation for the phenomenon of less parasites existing with a worse ecosystem but also healthier stingrays. Thank you!