Self-study
Some scientists believe that 65 million years ago an asteroid struck what is now the Yucatán Peninsula, thereby causing extinction of the dinosaurs. █████ ██████████ ████ ███████████ ████ ████ █ ██████ █████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████████ █████████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████ █████ ████ ████████████ ███ ██ █████████ █████ ████ ████████ █ █████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████████ █████ ████ ███████████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████████ ████ ████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
The debris thrown into the atmosphere by an asteroid strike would not have remained in the air long enough to starve herbivorous dinosaurs or freeze all dinosaurs. So why do some scientists who acknowledge those facts believe that an asteroid strike killed the dinosaurs?
Objective
The correct answer must provide an alternative way in which the asteroid strike could have killed off the dinosaurs, since the scientists acknowledge that the debris would not have been sufficient to cause the disappearance of plant life nor prolonged global cooling.
9.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ██████
a
Loss of the ███████████ █████████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████
The stimulus doesn’t establish how the asteroid would have killed the herbivores, so this doesn’t help. The correct answer must provide an effect of the asteroid sufficient to have killed all of the dinosaurs.
b
Dinosaurs inhabited most ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████
If anything, this makes the discrepancy harder to resolve since most dinosaurs being away from the strike’s vicinity could close off potential alternative explanations. This doesn't provide any alternative explanation as to how the asteroid killed the dinosaurs.
c
A cloud of ██████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ██ ██ ███████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ █ ██ ██ ███████ ████████
The scientists acknowledge that the cooling wouldn’t have lasted long enough to freeze the dinosaurs, so knowing the precise measurements of the cooling doesn’t help. We still don't have an alternative explanation for how the asteroid killed the dinosaurs.
d
The asteroid was ██ █████ ███ ██ ██ █████████ █████ ██████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ██ ██████████ █████ ██████
This could explain how some of the dinosaurs were killed, but the scientists are talking about the global extinction of all dinosaurs. The correct answer must provide a way in which the asteroid could have killed all of them.
e
Dinosaurs were susceptible ██ █████ ███████████ ████████ ██████ ██ █████████████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ███████
This provides an alternative explanation for how the asteroid killed all of the dinosaurs. Though the dust would have settled too soon to kill the plants or freeze the dinosaurs, these respiratory problems could have been what caused the extinction.