Recently discovered fossil evidence casts doubt on the evolutionary theory that dinosaurs are more closely related to reptiles than to other classes of animals. Fossils show that some dinosaurs had hollow bonesa feature found today only in warm-blooded creatures, such as birds, that have a high metabolic rate. Dinosaurs had well-developed senses of sight and hearing, which is not true of present-day cold-blooded creatures like reptiles. The highly arched mouth roof of some dinosaurs would have permitted them to breathe while eating, as fast-breathing animals, such as birds, need to do. Today, all fast-breathing animals are warm-blooded. Finally, fossils reveal that many dinosaurs had a pattern of growth typical of warm-blooded animals.

The argument in the passage proceeds by



(A) attempting to justify one position by demonstrating that an opposing position is based on erroneous information

(B) establishing a general principle that it then uses to draw a conclusion about a particular case

(C) dismissing a claim made about the present on the basis of historical evidence

(D) assuming that if all members of a category have a certain property then all things with that property belong to the category

(E) presenting evidence that a past phenomenon is more similar to one rather than the other of two present-day phenomena

D

Dinosaurs have properties similar to birds which are warm blooded. Therefore dinosaurs are also warm blooded.

The assumption is that because birds are warm blooded, other animals with similar traits are warm blooded.

If racoons had the same traits as birds but weren't warm blooded the argument wouldn't make sense.

-> never mention


D. The author is trying to justify that dinosaur is worm-blooded not cold-blooded by pointing out recent findings.

Answer option D