Recently discovered fossil remains strongly suggest that the Australia

Hi All,

Recently discovered fossil remains strongly suggest that the Australian egg-laying mammals of today are a branch of the main stem of mammalian evolution rather than developing independently from a common ancestor of mammals more than 220 million years ago.

Meaning Analysis:

The sentence is talking about the Australian egg-laying mammals of today. They are a branch of the main stem of mammalian evolution. They did not develop independently from a common ancestor of mammals.

Error Analysis:

The sentence is presenting a comparison. It says that Australian egg-laying mammals are X rather than Y.

X = a branch of the main stem of mammalian evolution (a noun phrase)
Y = developing independently from a common ancestor of mammals (a noun phrase that actually starts from an action word – a gerund)

Hence, the entities compared are not parallel. Y also needs to be a noun phrase that starts with a “proper” noun entity.

PoE:

A. rather than developing independently from: Incorrect for the reason stated above.

B. rather than a type that developed independently from: Correct. “a type…” is parallel to “a branch…”

C. rather than a type whose developments was independent of: Incorrect. Plural subject “developments” does not agree in number with singular “was”.

D. instead of developing independently from: Incorrect. Same parallelism error as in choice A.

E. instead of a development that was independent of: Incorrect. Again, the entities compared are logically not parallel.

So you see, the knowledge of correct usage or “rather than” and “instead of” is not imperative to solve this problem.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha
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Answer A and D changes the meaning such that to suggest the egg-laying mammals grew by themselves.
Answer C introduces 2 nouns "a type" and "development"



Rather than - shows preference.
1). We ought to invest in machinery rather than buildings.
2). I prefer starting early rather than leaving things to the last minute.

Instead of - suggests that one person, thing or action replaces another.
1). I'll have tea instead of coffee, please.
2). I stayed in bed all day instead of going to work.


"...mammals...are... a branch.... rather than... a type that developed"
"...mammals...are... a branch.... instead of... a development that was"

From this reasoning, I would go with B.

hmmm

this is not really a case of independent of vs independent from.

look at the context of B.

====
Recently discovered fossil remains strongly suggest that the Australian egg-laying mammals of today are
a branch of the main stem of mammalian evolution
rather than
a type that developed independently from a common ancestor of mammals more than 220 million years ago.
=======
DE are out because
instead of = substitute
rather than = alternative preference (not alternate!)

we chose B because it was parallel, not because it was the correct idiom.

independentLY is an adverb.

thoughts?

(B)

(A) rather than developing independently from
(B) rather than a type that developed independently from
(C) rather than a type whose development was independent of - Wrong comparison
(D) instead of developing independently from
(E) instead of a development that was independent of

This is not really an "independent of" vs "independent from question. If that were the case, then you would narrow it down to 2 answer choices - one uses "of" and the other uses "from" ---this is not the case here.

Subtleties like these are less and less common on the GMAT. In most cases, you'll see something like the above that includes both "to" and "from" - but clearly there are other things in the sentence that are being tested.

Let's take the above as an example:

"mammals of today are a branch of [x], rather than a [blah blah blah]"
We need something that fills in the [blah blah blah] that is consistent with "a branch of [x]"

(A) is no good because the word "developing" is in the wrong form
(B) uses "rather than a type that developed independently from a common ancestor" - looks ok so far.
(C) "mammals are a branch of [x], rather than a type whose development was independent of" --- the structure is much more complicated than in (B) - so (C) is no good.
(D) "instead of developing" - we're missing the word "a [blah blah]" so (D) is no good.
(E) "instead of A development that was independent of a common ancestor" - this is wrong because it's saying that the mammals were a branch of the main steam of evolution instead of a DEVELOPMENT.

The mammals were not a development. That doesn't make sense in (E).

(B) makes more sense - the mammals were a TYPE that developed...

So we pick (B) as our final answer and move on.

I am still confused about choice C. Would it be incorrect even if the sentence used "of"?

Recently discovered fossil remains strongly suggest that the Australian egg-laying mammals of today are a branch of the main stem of mammalian evolution rather than developing independent of a common ancestor of mammals more than 220 million years ago.

(noticed that i changed independently from to independent of)

(B) rather than a type that developed independently from
(C) rather than a type whose development was independent of

Will this change not make choice C correct answer?

if (C) were: "rather than a type that developed independently of" and choice (B) did not exist, (C) could be a decent answer.

Remember, your job is not to choose the best possible answer from the ones they list - not to try to devise a list of possible correct answers on your own.

Understanding exactly what you need to do on the GMAT and what extra work you don't need to do will make your GMAT studies a lot more focused on what really matters.

1) What is wrong with C?
-- See my explanation below.

2) OG says both 'rather than' and 'instead of ' can be used here though I know that ' rather than' is the correct one as it indicates preference.
OG explanation, it seems, is clearly flawed.

This problem is not testing instead/rather than as both can be used here (if used correctly). It is testing comparison, parallelism, meaning errors as specified below. May be this is what OG has also mentioned in the explanation.
(A) rather than developing independently from
--Incorrect comparison. Noun "A branch" is being compared with noun phrase "developing independently", hence does parallelism error.
(B) rather than a type that developed independently from
-- Correct. This choice is concise, fixes the parallelism error by comparing "a branch" with "a type" and uses correct form of "independently from".
(C) rather than a type whose development was independent of
-- This does meaning error as "independent of" means "irrespective of" or "regardless of" which is nonsensical in this context. Also this choice uses noun phrase "development was independent of" and is wordier than verb "developed independently from".
(D) instead of developing independently from
-- Does same error as in choice (A)
(E) instead of a development that was independent of
-- Does the meaning error as choice (C) with use of "independent of" which doesn't fit in this context.

[quote="PraPon"]1) What is wrong with C?
-- See my explanation below.

2) OG says both 'rather than' and 'instead of ' can be used here though I know that ' rather than' is the correct one as it indicates preference.
OG explanation, it seems, is clearly flawed.

This problem is not testing instead/rather than as both can be used here (if used correctly). It is testing comparison, parallelism, meaning errors as specified below. May be this is what OG has also mentioned in the explanation.
(A) rather than developing independently from
--Incorrect comparison. Noun "A branch" is being compared with noun phrase "developing independently", hence does parallelism error.
(B) rather than a type that developed independently from
-- Correct. This choice is concise, fixes the parallelism error by comparing "a branch" with "a type" and uses correct form of "independently from".
(C) rather than a type whose development was independent of
-- This does meaning error as "independent of" means "irrespective of" or "regardless of" which is nonsensical in this context. Also this choice uses noun phrase "development was independent of" and is wordier than verb "developed independently from".
(D) instead of developing independently from
-- Does same error as in choice (A)
(E) instead of a development that was independent of
[color=#ff0000]-- Does the meaning error as choice (C) with use of "independent of" which doesn't fit in this cont

I do not understand the difference between "independent of" and "independently from" between C and B, pls explain more fully. Thank you

The explanation given in OG12 for answer option (E) is contrary to what e-gmat explained.

Here it is
Why (E) is incorrect OG's explanation:
While a development may appear to parallel
a branch, a development that was independent
of . . . expresses a meaning contrary to that
expressed in the original sentence. The verb
developed is preferable to the noun
development.

The point here is of the phrase "independent of/independent from". Furthermore , as per MGMAT SC Guide VAN Rule , we prefer

Verb Over Noun

For more: https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/ind ... 11721.html



In this option there is a NOUN = development when the verb is available VERB = developed.

This answer choice gave a good competition to the correct answer choice because as per OG12

Both x instead of y
And x rather than y

constructions are correct

Hope it helps

Rgds,
TGC!

Responding to a PM:

A. Wrong : The construction here is - the Australian egg-laying mammals are X rather than Y.
Here X = a branch (noun), Y = developing (present participle)..... not parallel.
C. Wrong. The meaning conveyed is erroneous: " Development of X was independent of Y" conveys the meaning that Y had no role in the development of X. (The correct usage is: " X developed independently from Y " - this conveys the meaning that Y is the ancestor of X.)
D. Wrong : The construction here is - the Australian egg-laying mammals are X instead of Y.
Here X = a branch (noun), Y = developing (present participle)...... not parallel.
E. Wrong : The construction here is - the Australian egg-laying mammals are X instead of Y.
Here X = a branch (noun), Y = development..... "development" is not supposed to be compared with "branch" - Australian egg-laying mammals are not supposed to be "developments", but "a type" that developed.

can someone please suggest if the usage of 'whose' in option C is correct or incorrect?
I am able to eliminate all other incorrect options but stuck at C.
Plus on a broader level when is the usage of 'whose' appropriate?
Thanks.

cubs In this case, "whose" appears as the possessive form of "which." Basically, "which's" is not a word, so we say "whose." The main problem with C is "developments was." There shouldn't be more than one development, and if that were correct, then we'd need to say "developments were."
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the correct answer is B

rather than a type that developed independently from- maintains parallelism

One should spot right away that the noun "branch" has to be parallel with another noun, and "developing independently" is not a noun. The word "type" is a noun, and its use is consistent with the intended meaning of the sentence.

This is mentioned as development in the official guide (not developments).

Bunuel, kindly fix it.
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___________________________
Fixed. Thank you!
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Recently discovered fossil remains strongly suggest that the Australian egg-laying mammals of today are a branch of the main stem of mammalian evolution rather than developing independently from a common ancestor of mammals more than 220 million years ago.

Understand the gist of the sentence-
Fossil remains suggest that mammals are a branch rather than developing independently from a common ancestor
Here, since mammals is followed by noun rather than should also be followed by a noun
Parallelism needs to be maintained- Mammals are X rather than Y

(A) rather than developing independently from- This is wrong for the above mentioned reason

(B) rather than a type that developed independently from- This option follows a proper parallelism and gives correct meaning

(C) rather than a type whose development was independent of- Usage of 'whose' is wrong here

(D) instead of developing independently from- Parallelism issue

(E) instead of a development that was independent of- Parallelism issue

Hi Bunuel , can you explain why option c is wrong ?