Self-study
Over the last thousand years, plant species native to islands have gone extinct at a much faster rate than have those native to mainland regions. ██████████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████ █████ █████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ ██████ █████ ███████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
Biologists hypothesize that fewer island plant species than mainland species have developed defenses to large mammals, and that’s why more island species have gone extinct. For evidence, they note that islands usually don’t have many large mammals until they’re settled by humans.
Notable Assumptions
The biologists assume island plants go extinct at higher rates than mainland plants because of large land mammals. This means assuming mainland plant species have gotten more exposure to large mammals than island species, either because large mammals were prevalent on mainlands before humans settled, or because most islands were settled more recently than mainlands. It also means assuming plants with more exposure to established large land mammals are more likely to develop defenses against them.
Analysis by LukeWilson
8.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ███████████ █████ ██████
a
Most of the █████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████
b
Many plant species ████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██████
c
Commercial development on ████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████
d
The rate of ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ ███████ ██ ██ ██████ █████ ██ ████████ ████████████ █████ █████ █████████████
e
Large land mammals ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████████