Question: The southern half of a certain region of the earth was covered entirely by water during the Cretaceous period, the last 75 million years of the Mesozoic era, the era when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Dinosaurs lived only on land. Thus, Plesiosaurs—swimming reptile that lived during the Cretaceous period exclusively—were not dinosaurs. No single species of dinosaur lived throughout the entire Mesozoic era.

If the statements in the passage are true, each of the following could be true EXCEPT:

(A) Dinosaurs inhabited the northern half of the region throughout the entire Mesozoic era.
(B) Plesiosaurs did not inhabit the southern half of the region during the Cretaceous periods.
(C) Plesiosaurs did not inhabit the southern half of the region before the Cretaceous period.
(D) Dinosaurs did not inhabit the northern half of the region during the Cretaceous period.
(E) Dinosaurs inhabited the southern half of the region throughout the entire Mesozoic era.

Correct Answer: E
Explanation:

The candidates need to read the question carefully to crack the question of GMAT Critical Reasoning. The candidates must draw a conclusion from the information provided in the question. After detecting the premise and conclusion of the argument, the candidates should regard the underlying assumption. The conclusion is the message of the argument that is supported by the premise. The candidate should identify the principal argument of the passage to weaken the argument of the question. The candidates must verify the answer choices accordingly and had to choose the answer that would support the argument. This GMAT critical question asks the candidate to select the option that justifies the paradox in the given argument. A detailed explanation of the five forms to weaken the argument is given in the PowerScore Bibles and other lesson books.

Option E: Correct

Considering Facts 3 and 4, this statement offers a contradiction. It is difficult to assume that dinosaurs inhabited the southern half of the region for the entirety of the Mesozoic era since dinosaurs only lived on land and the Cretacious period (a time within the Mesozoic era) saw no land in that area. - Correct answer

Option A: Incorrect

It might be the case. The northern portion of the area was still land even 75 million years ago. Therefore, it's plausible that dinosaurs formerly lived in this region. Therefore, it is conceivable that dinosaurs in general lived in the northern part of the Mesozoic epoch.

Although no dinosaur species lived during the entire Mesozoic era, the choice refers to dinosaurs in general rather than a specific species. As a result, this claim is not necessarily wrong and might really be true.

Option B: Incorrect

The southern part of the area was covered by water during the Cretaceous era. Plesiosaurs might have lived in this area since they could endure in water.

However, it's also feasible that they lived in other aquatic areas of the planet earth in addition to this one. Plesiosaurs are only known to have existed at this time; their whereabouts are unknown. It's probable that no plesiosaurs ever existed in this area. Consequently, this claim need not be false.

Option C: Incorrect

Only during the Cretaceous epoch did plesiosaurs exist. i.e., they did not exist throughout the Cretaceous era. Therefore, this assertion is undoubtedly accurate. Thus, it is not a false statement.

Option D: Incorrect

This might be correct. We are aware that dinosaurs could not have lived in the region's southern half. They could have lived in the northern area. It is also conceivable that the dinosaurs did not live only in the northern hemisphere and instead roamed other parts of the planet. That could possibly be accurate. Consequently, this claim need not be untrue.

“The southern half of a certain region of the earth was covered entirely by water during the Cretaceous period” - is a GMAT critical reasoning topic. This GMAT critical consists of five answer choices and candidates are required to choose the correct one among the options. GMAT critical reasoning mainly measures the critical thinking of the candidates and their efficiency in considering the question logically. To solve the question, the candidate can look for a piece of evidence to weaken the argument. The candidate can discover logical flaws in the argument.

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