One method of dating the emergence of species is to compare

When bears separated from raccoons, there were no pandas, because they had not yet diverged and become their own species.

See what I mean?

In the beginning, there were some things. 30-50 million years ago, they split into "bears" and "raccoons." Some time after that, red pandas separated from raccoons and coatis. Some time after that, "bears" split into "giant panda" and "other bears."

Don't make this harder than it needs to be! No other answer comes anywhere close, so simply playing the game of elimination should be enough to get you the answer. What do you know? Something about the relative closeness of bears, pandas, red pandas, and raccoons.

(A) "originally thought?" No evidence for this.
(B) "eight species?" Nope.
(C) "margin of just a few years?" Nope.
(E) "substantial consensus?" Not even close.

Just by ballparking, we can see that (D) is the only reasonable answer.

I am not satisfied with option D, as option D compares giant pandas and raccoons, which is no where in the passage. The passage only states genetic diversion of giant pandas and bears.
Could you help with this?

Since it is given in the question stem that giant panda diverged from bears and it is the most recent case, option D fits in as correct answer choice.

One method of dating the emergence of species is to compare the genetic material of related species. Scientists theorize that the more genetically similar two species are to each other, the more recently they diverged from a common ancestor. After comparing genetic material from giant pandas, red pandas, raccoons, coatis, and all seven bear species, scientists concluded that bears and raccoons diverged 30 to 50 million years ago. They further concluded that red pandas separated from the ancestor of today’s raccoons and coatis a few million years later, some 10 million years before giant pandas diverged from the other bears.

Which one of the following can be properly inferred from the passage?

(A) Giant pandas and red pandas are more closely related than scientists originally thought they were. - WRONG.
(B) Scientists now count the giant panda as the eighth species of bear. - WRONG.
(C) It is possible to determine, within a margin of just a few years, the timing of divergence of various species. - WRONG.
(D) Scientists have found that giant pandas are more similar genetically to bears than to raccoons. - CORRECT.
(E) There is substantial consensus among scientists that giant pandas and red pandas are equally related to raccoons. - WRONG.
This is a question that would be pain in the *** for any test taker, for simply for the reason that s/he might waste more time identifying the relation(blue text) - leading to longer time to eliminate choices - when one can simply eliminate the choices based on the language(red text) it uses. However, it can only happen unless one doesn't get overwhelmed by the relationship aspect between the parameter/aspects discussed in the passage.

Answer D.