ExplanationThis question is very hard, the language used in the passage is hard to comprehend by a non-native of English. I read it twice to under stand the logic
Let me try to explain.Previous hypotheses about the probable
place of origin of the ancestor of
Perezia place its genesis either in the warm open forests of
extratropical South America, such as the montane habitats of the central Andes with elements that further colonized the southern areas, or
eastern subtropical South America based on the basal position of the Brazilian-centered Perezia multiflora species group.
Our results are in disagreement with both hypotheses. The ancestral areas and dispersal-vicariance approaches are in agreement, and strongly support the southern Andes as the probable ancestral area for Perezia; this is also the
area that holds the majority of species in the
genus. This southern
location is also congruent with the
fossil record of the
early diverging lineages of the family that includes Perezia. Several fossils of
early branching lineages of Asteraceae have been found from the Paleogene in southwestern Argentina, the earliest from the middle Eocene.
Local temperatures: No such evidence discussing the temperature is available in the passage. Neither for the methodological reason nor for the empirical relation.
Geographic latitude: This seems related up to some extent as geographic about are discussed in the passage within minimum amount. Let's find a better option than this.
Multiple evaluative measures: Hmm. This seems more related to the passage than above option, the words location, genus and area shows the diversification of the evaluation so this could fit the
Methodological reason. Let's keep it.
Proximity to related species: This also seems related to the passage and more connected, the words fossil record, early diverging lineages and early branching lineages shows it could be the
Empirical reason, lets keep it too and try to find something better than this.
Asteraceae lineages: Not looking better than the previous options.
Eocene fossil records: This is a very tiny fraction of the passage which can not hold such value to be picked up as Methodological reason or Empirical reason.
Only three options Geographic latitude, Multiple evaluative measures and Proximity to related species are related and Multiple evaluative measures fits to Methodological reason while Proximity to related species fits within the Empirical reason.