PT54.S4.Q11 - austrailia has considerably fewer species

AGP11111

Hey I was wondering if anyone could help me with this problem. Its a main conclusion question. It seems as if the second sentence is something like a minor conclusion, that is, its used in service of the larger conclusion (the first sentence). If this were a main conclusion question for reading comp, I think I would have chosen the correct answer C. Instead I chose A. Any ideas?

https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-54-section-4-question-11/

ggg.ggg.ggg

This is a tricky one. I almost chose A as well, thinking that the 1st sentence is the conclusion and the rest is just explaining why the conclusion makes sense. However, you really have to zoom out and read the whole thing: the 1st sentence is merely stating a phenomenon, the 2nd sentence provides explanation for that phenomenon, and the 3rd sentence provides evidence for why the explanation in the 2nd sentence is correct. Thus, the main conclusion is that the explanation shows that the phenomenon is true, which is what answer choice C states. Answer choice A only repeats the phenomenon itself, which is not the main point being argued in the paragraph.

Another way to think about this is that you can flip the 1st and 2nd sentences and read them as "Probably as a consequence of the unusual sparseness of Australia's ecosystem, Australia has considerably..." This does not change the meaning of the sentences at all, and it makes it clear that answer choice C is the correct answer.