Which factor most likely caused animals and plants in India to differ greatly from species in nearby Southeast Asia?
a. The species became separated by convergent evolution.
b. The climates of the two regions are similar.
c. India is in the process of separating from the rest of Asia.
d. India was a separate continent until 45 million years ago.

Question

Which factor most likely caused animals and plants in India to differ greatly from species in nearby Southeast Asia?

a. The species became separated by convergent evolution.

b. The climates of the two regions are similar.

c. India is in the process of separating from the rest of Asia.

d. India was a separate continent until 45 million years ago.

Accepted Answer

Welcome back everyone. Our next problem says continental drift causes And gives us four choices. Well, we'll quickly look over our choices here. Always a good idea and we see that choice D. Is both B. And C. So we have our heads up that more than one of these answers may be correct. So let's look back at our problem. We're looking for continental drift and we recall that that involves, you know in the past we had continents that were close together over time movements in the earth's mantle led to these continents drifting apart. And since we're talking about what happens to um plants and animals, we know that now they're physically separated by distance. So let's look at choice. A choice A. Says divergence in the lineage of plants and animals across the continents. So we see that in the past when they were close together, they might have inter bred and exchanging genetic material. Now they're separated by distance, they can no longer encounter each other and exchange that genetic material. They're going to be subject to different environmental pressures. So they'll be evolving in different directions independently of each other. So that is indeed divergence in those lineages. So we know that choice A. Is correct. Well, that leads us to see that choice D. Must be incorrect because that choice D. Says both B. And C. It doesn't include um A. Being correct. So choice D. Can be eliminated. And if choice D. Is eliminated, we've now eliminated our option for having more than one correct answer. So we found it. Choice A. Must be our correct answer. If we were on a test, we're good, we're done. We move on. But for the sake of thoroughness here, we'll just check our other choices and see why they're not correct. So Choice B says a convergence in the lineages of plants and animals across the continents. Well, that's the opposite of divergence. We wouldn't be seeing that because again, the animals and plants are now separated. They're not exchanging genetic material, they're not going to be coming closer together. So Choice B can be eliminated. Choice C says similar climactic conditions across the continent. Well, that may occur, but the wording in our question has the word causes continental drift, causes this and that's not going to cause similar climactic conditions so we can eliminate Choice C. So we have our correct answer. A A divergence in the lineages of plants and animals across the continents. Thanks for watching. See you in the next video.

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Key Concepts

Plate Tectonics

Biogeography

Evolutionary Isolation