LSAT 113 | Section 4 | Logical Reasoning: Q18

LR Question 18 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: A plausible explanation of the disappearance of the…

QUESTION TYPE: Weaken

CONCLUSION: A large comet could have killed the dinosaurs.

REASONING: The comet would have sent a cloud of dust into the atmosphere and cooled the planet.

ANALYSIS: The correct answer says that species very much like the dinosaurs survived. That’s strange. If all of the dinosaurs died then we would expect similar species to have died too.

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1. So? The argument just says that the comet explanation is plausible. It’s to be expected that some paleontologists will disagree. But they haven’t proven the comet theory is implausible.
2. CORRECT. We would have expected these species to die if they had the same vulnerabilities that dinosaurs had. Otherwise, why didn’t some dinosaurs survive as well? 
3. There might be some other way of figuring out if the theory were true. This doesn’t matter.
4. Of course. Some animals might have been adapted to survive in a cooler climate. But the dinosaurs could still have died if they weren’t well adapted to cool weather. 
5. “Fully understood” is a very high standard. We might be able to conclude that a comet would have killed the dinosaurs even if we can’t figure out all of the consequences.