Noun + Noun Modifiers: The most "versatile" modifier

Hi All,

Here is the detailed solution of this one.

A group of paleontologists recently announced that a site in Utah has yielded fossils of some of the biggest armored dinosaurs ever found, and that they were at least 25 million years older than any similar dinosaur type previously found in North America.

Since the meaning of the sentence is pretty simple to understand, let’s move on to error analysis.

Error Analysis:

1. The paleontologists found some fossils and on the basis of this discovery, they announced these dinosaurs were at least 25 million years older than any other similar type previously found in North America. Hence, these two actions are not independent of each other. There is a causal relationship here. Hence, presenting these two information as two independent entities in a parallel list does not make sense.

2. Although it’s a not a deterministic error, it’s worth mentioning. Comma + and is used to join more than two entities in the list. Here it has been used to join two entities. Since comma lies in the non-underlined portion of the sentence, we do need suitable structure.

3. Also pronoun “they” can refer to “dinosaurs” as well as “fossils”.



PoE:

(A) and that they were at least 25 million years older than any similar dinosaur type previously: Incorrect for the reasons stated above.

(B) and they are at least 25 million years older than those of any similar dinosaur type that previously was: Incorrect.
1. This choice repeats all the errors of Choice A.
2. “those of” now stands for “fossils”. This leads to incorrect comparison. Logically, the comparison should be between two types of “dinosaurs”. But here the comparison is incorrect any way. If “they” refers to “fossils”, then the comparison is between fossils. This is certainly incorrect. If “they” refers to “dinosaurs” then the comparison is illogical because now “dinosaurs” are compared to “fossils”.

(C) and the fossils are at least 25 million years older than any similar dinosaur types that previously were: Incorrect. Incorrect. This choice as illogical comparison. Entities compared – “fossils” and “any similar dinosaur types”.

(D) fossils that are at least 25 million years older than those of any similar dinosaur type previously: Correct.

(E) fossils at least 25 million years older than similar dinosaur types previously: Incorrect. Same comparison error as in choice C.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha