Self-paced
Members of large-animal species must consume enormous amounts of food to survive. ████ ████████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ████████████ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ████████████ ███████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████████████ ████████ █████ ███ ████████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██ █████
Summary
Large-animal species must consume enormous amounts of food. If climatic conditions deteriorate in their environment, these animals often cannot find enough food. This means that large-animal species are more vulnerable to extinction than small-animal species.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
A lack of food is one of the risk factors involved in mass extinctions. Climate changes can risk mass extinctions by undermining the food supply of large-animal species.
9.
The statements above, if true, ████ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
The maximum population ████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ███████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ████████
This is unsupported because we don’t know anything about the maximum population sizes that species maintain and how that relates to survival.
b
The vulnerability of ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███████████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████
This is strongly supported because different species, varying based on how much food they need, would have different risks of mass extinction. Large species who need more food are at a greater risk than small species needing less.
c
When conditions deteriorate ██ █ █████ ████████████ ██ ████████████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████ ██████ ████ ████████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████████
This is unsupported because small-animal species may go extinct when conditions deteriorate due to reasons unrelated to food supply. The author only states that large-animal species are more from climate shocks to food.
d
Within any given ████████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██████████ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██████████ █████████
This is unsupported because while food is identified as one of the factors influencing prospects for survival, we don’t know that it is the primary factor. We also don’t know that it is the primary factor for any individual - our author limits analysis to whole species.
e
Whenever climatic conditions ██ █ █████ ███████████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ███████ ████ ███████████ ████████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██ ████████
This is unsupported because it is possible that climatic conditions are so bad as to affect small and large-species animals. We only know that large-species animals typically fare worse in climate changes.