The extinct earliest known ancestor of the cheetah, a large cat now

Question

﻿The extinct earliest known ancestor of the cheetah, a large cat now found only in Africa, lived only in what is now western North America when the two continents were conjoined, as fossil skeletons found in North America but nowhere else indicate. That ancestor shared certain skeletal features with the cheetah but with no other cat.

If all of the information above is true, which of the following hypotheses does it most strongly support?

A. The cheetah, because of certain distinctive skeletal features, is an efficient predator.
B. The outward appearance of an animal can be reconstructed from its skeletal structure.
C. The cheetah's skeletal structure has remained unchanged since prehistoric times.
D. The ancestor of the cheetah had relatively few nonskeletal features in common with the modern cheetah.
E. The cheetah or an ancestor of it migrated to what is now Africa from what is now North America.

gmatophobia · Accepted Answer

A. The cheetah, because of certain distinctive skeletal features, is an efficient predator.

The passage doesn't share any information on this aspect. This option relies on general knowledge and can be eliminated.

B. The outward appearance of an animal can be reconstructed from its skeletal structure.

The passage provides information on the skeletal structure of the two animals, hence we cannot conclude whether the outward appearance of an animal can be reconstructed from its skeletal structure. We can eliminate this option.

C. The cheetah's skeletal structure has remained unchanged since prehistoric times.

This is a trap choice. The passage mentions that modern-day cheetah shares  certain   skeletal features with the ancestor. Hence, we cannot conclude whether cheetah's skeletal structure has remained unchanged since prehistoric times. We can eliminate this option.

D. The ancestor of the cheetah had relatively few nonskeletal features in common with the modern cheetah.

No information is provided on the nonskeletal features between the two animals. We can eliminate this option.

E. The cheetah or an ancestor of it migrated to what is now Africa from what is now North America.

Yes, the passage does tell us two important facts -
1) Cheetaha are  only  found in Africa
2) The fossil skeletons of the Cheetah's ancestors were  only  found in North America.

Hence, we can conclude that either the cheetah or its ancestor migrated to what is now Africa from what is now North America.

Option E

Varuag93 · Answer

The sentence structure of this question is a bit awkward. Only option E is making sense so it should be the answer.

CountingBack · Answer

Is this really a gmat focus question?Looks severely broken

Bunuel · Answer

_______________________________
Yes, it's a GMAT Prep (Focus) question.

tickledpink001 · Answer

Yes but the skeletal features need to be similar (whether sparse or not) in order to conclude the cheetah's relation to their ancestors?
Also option E says North America whereas the passage reads "western North America" so I thought that was the trap?

Raman109 · Answer

Understanding the argument - 
The extinct earliest known ancestor of the cheetah, a large cat now found only in Africa, lived only in what is now western North America when the two continents were conjoined, as fossil skeletons found in North America but nowhere else indicate. - Fact 
That ancestor shared certain skeletal features with the cheetah but with no other cat. - Fact

Option Elimination - Inference

A. The cheetah, because of certain distinctive skeletal features, is an efficient predator. - maybe or may not be, but nothing of this sort has been mentioned in the argument. This is "might be a true category", which is wrong because we can't say with 100% certainty whether it's efficient or inefficient.

B. The outward appearance of an animal can be reconstructed from its skeletal structure. The outward appearance is not even discussed in the passage, out of scope.

C. The cheetah's skeletal structure has remained unchanged since prehistoric times. - It might be true, but we can't say with 100% certainty from the argument as the passage only says, "ancestor shared certain (not ALL) skeletal features." Wrong.

D. The ancestor of the cheetah had relatively few nonskeletal features in common with the modern cheetah. - "nonskeletal features" out of scope.

E. The cheetah or an ancestor of it migrated to what is now Africa from what is now North America. - ok. It is quite straightforward, but as our mind is more accustomed to "from to structure," this may confuse us.

Memphis_09 · Answer

in option E, what if cheetahs migrated from Africa to North America?

MBAchild · Answer

For option E, how do we know for sure that Cheetahs migrated to Africa? What if they didn't migrate but only the two continents got separated ? (Question says that the continents were conjoined)

Farhanashraf7 · Answer

Similar doubts. Went with Option C for this reason for the mock.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

For all those asking about migration, notice that the text tells us that the ancestor cats lived only in North America. Now, cheetahs live only in Africa. So the migration had to be from NA to Africa, not the other way, since the ancestor cats came first. Either the ancestors moved to Africa and evolved into cheetahs, or some later evolution (cheetahs or an interim species) made that same migration. This would all need to have happened long ago, before Africa and the Americas separated into different continents.

Sure, the continents got separated, but the cats still had to migrate from the portion that is now North America to the portion that is now Africa.

Sure, the continents got separated, but the cats still had to migrate from the portion that is now North America to the portion that is now Africa.

dchandravanshi · Answer

Wouldn't E go against the premise which says that ancestors only lived in NA, based on the discovery of fossil remains only in NA and nowhere else. So if they had migrated to Africa, their remains would have been found there right?

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

The extinct earliest known ancestor of the cheetah, a large cat now found only in Africa, lived only in what is now western North America when the two continents were conjoined, as fossil skeletons found in North America but nowhere else indicate. That ancestor shared certain skeletal features with the cheetah but with no other cat.

If all of the information above is true, which of the following hypotheses does it most strongly support

If all of the information above is true, which of the following hypotheses does it most strongly support ?

Hello, people. Interesting passage and interesting set of answers.

A. The cheetah, because of certain distinctive skeletal features, is an efficient predator. 
Not really supported by the passage. There’s nothing to suggest the cheetah is a great predator at all (let alone because of its skeletal structure).

B. The outward appearance of an animal can be reconstructed from its skeletal structure. 
Nope. The passage may allow us to say we can compare two skeletons but to say we can go so far to reconstruct the OUTWARD appearance of an animal such as its skin isn’t supported.

C. The cheetah's skeletal structure has remained unchanged since prehistoric times. 
A bit interesting but not really supported. If we’re only using the passage, it’d be a little too strong to say the modern day cheetah has exactly the same skeletal structure to one in prehistoric times. There may have been small changes here and there over time (e.g. a smaller skull).

D. The ancestor of the cheetah had relatively few nonskeletal features in common with the modern cheetah. 
Nope. This can’t be confirmed. Although the passage tells us they both SHARED CERTAIN SKELETAL FEATURES, the amount of commonality is not really discussed.

E. The cheetah or an ancestor of it migrated to what is now Africa from what is now North America. 
This is the answer. The passage tells us how the EARLIEST KNOWN ancestor of the cheetah lived only in western North America when it was connected with Africa. It makes sense therefore that cheetahs or (one of its ancestors) ended up in the land of Africa today because BACK THEN, there was a cross over when the two continents were conjoined.

DmitryFarberMPrep · Answer

Well, the cheetah is one of a chain of species that derived from the original NA ancestor. That ancestor lived only in NA, and cheetahs now live only in Africa. So either cheetahs evolved in NA (they didn't say no cheetah remains have been found here), or some interim ancestor of theirs did. Think of the original as #1 and cheetahs as #5 in the evolutionary chain. If we accept the premise that #1 never left NA, then one of the species from #2 to #5 did.

anushree01 · Answer

Hey, the text tells us that the ancestor cats lived only in North America. Now, cheetahs live only in Africa. So the migration had to be from NA to Africa, not the other way

The extinct earliest known ancestor of the cheetah, a large cat now

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

The extinct earliest known ancestor of the cheetah, a large cat now

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards