Measurements of the extent of amino-acid decomposition in fragments of eggshell found at archaeological sites in such places as southern Africa can be used to obtain accurate dates for sites up to 200,000 years old. ███████ ███ █████████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ █████████ ███ █████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ██████ █ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ██████ ████████
In MSS questions, we can just treat the stimulus as a big ol’ list of rules – 10 commandments style – any one of which could hold the key to the correct answer. Here’s the list:
- We can look at decomposing amino acids in eggshells to determine the age of archaeological sites.
- Decomposition is slower in colder climates.
- In some relatively warm climates (like southern Africa), 200,000 years old is the limit.
- In some relatively cool climates, we can almost hit a million years.
The answer really could come from anywhere – there are no obvious “link this up with that” inferences, but at the same time there’s like a million random valid statements we could draw from these rules. In situations like this, process of elimination is the way.
Analysis by MichaelWright
The information above provides the ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████
The oldest archaeological █████ ███ ███ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████
The amino-acid decomposition ████ ███████ █████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ ██████████████ ██████
If the site █████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████████ ████████ ████████████ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████
After 200,000 years ██ █ ████ ████████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ ██ █ ████████ ██ ████████ ████ █████ ███████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████
Fragments of eggshell ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ██ ███████ ██████████████ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ████████