#15 - The southern half of a certain region of the earth was

[GLMDYP]

Hi Powerscore!
I know that (E) is also a right choice, but why can't (D)? If (D) is right, then there will be no dinosaur at all!
Thanks!

[Steve Stein]

Hi,

It's important to note that this question is a Could be True EXCEPT question. That means that the four incorrect answer choices all could be true, and the correct answer choice could not be true.
D could be true--maybe there were simply no dinosaurs in that region.
E could not be true, because dinosaurs lived only on land, and the referenced southern half of the region was covered by water for 75 million years.

I hope that's helpful! Please let me know whether this is clear--thanks!

~Steve

[smile22]

I answered this can not be true question correctly. However, I was torn between correct answer E and incorrect answer C. In the stimulus they state that plesiosaurs lived during the Crestaceous period exclusively. However, in answer C, it states that plesiosaurs did not inhabit the southern half of the region before the Crestaceous period. Since the stimulus claims that plesiosaurs lived only in the Crestaceous period, how is answer C incorrect?

[Steve Stein]

Hi smile,

Again, this question says that all of the answer choices could be true except for one: As you said, the plesiosaurs lived during the Cretaceous period exclusively, confirming the accuracy of answer choice (C). Since (C) is true, it is not the right answer to this question (the correct answer to this question, as you know, is the one that cannot be true.

I hope that's helpful--please let me know whether this is clear--thanks!

~Steve

[smile22]

Oops, I read answer C incorrectly!I read it as "Plesiosaurs did inhabit the southern half of the region before the Cretaceous period". I completely understand the answer choices now. Thank you for your time.

[kan1dice]

I thought that this question was a little misleading. I avoided answer choice "E" because it stated that, dinosaurs inhabited the southern half of the region throughout the entire Mesozoic era. But the first line of the stimulus says that the southern half of a certain region was entirely covered by water during the Cretaceous period. I took that to mean, that only a specific area in the southern half was covered by water so dinosaurs could roam in another part of the southern half of the earth. Or else what was the point of making that distinction? Perhaps I am looking to much into this, but it is frustrating when you try to train yourself to look for the nuances of the lsat and then you get a question like this. Especially because I have gotten questions wrong because I missed the little hints placed in the stimulus.

[Robert Carroll]

kan1dice,

Answer choice (E) also says "southern half of the region." It's limited to the same region as the stimulus. If answer choice (E) had said "southern half of the earth" or something similar, then that would be a fair point. However, both the stimulus and answer choice (E) are talking about the same region, and they make conflicting claims about that region, so answer choice (E) Cannot Be True.

Robert Carroll

[Owl224]

Hello! I'm unsure why A is wrong (I'm definitely misreading something) -- the last premise presented in the stimulus reads "no single species of dinosaur lived throughout the entire Mesozoic era." Meanwhile, the first answer choice states "dinosaurs inhabited the northern half of the region throughout the entire Mesozoic era" but this reads as a complete contradiction to me when in conjunction with the last premise in the stimulus. Would appreciate some clarification... thank you!!

[Robert Carroll]

Owl224,

There's no contradiction. Let me illustrate:

"No single monarch ruled the United Kingdom during the entire 19th century."

"Monarchs ruled the United Kingdom during the entire 19th century."

These can both be true - several different monarchs ruled the UK during the 19th century, not just a single one, so no single one did it, but the UK was a monarchy during the entire 19th century, just ruled by different monarchs at different times.

Similarly, no single species lived throughout the Mesozoic Era, but different species could have lived at different times, collectively spanning the entire era.

Robert Carroll