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With reference to the evolution of living organisms, which one of the following sequences is correct ?
Explanation
Option 3 is correct because it presents taxa in the proper broad evolutionary sequence: amphibian lineages (e.g., salamanders) trace back to the early terrestrial vertebrates of the Palaeozoic, making them older than the major reptile radiations of the Mesozoic; snakes (python lineage as squamate reptiles) therefore appear later than amphibians but before the major mammal radiations. Mammals, including marsupial lineages that gave rise to kangaroos, diversified predominantly in the Cenozoic after the Mesozoic; thus kangaroos are the most recent in this trio [2]. The other options mix groups out of this Paleozoic–Mesozoic–Cenozoic ordering and are therefore incorrect [1].
Sources
- [1] Physical Geography by PMF IAS, Manjunath Thamminidi, PMF IAS (1st ed.) > Chapter 3: Geological Time Scale The Evolution of The Earths Surface > 3.4. Phanerozoic Eon (550 mya to present) > p. 44
- [2] Physical Geography by PMF IAS, Manjunath Thamminidi, PMF IAS (1st ed.) > Chapter 3: Geological Time Scale The Evolution of The Earths Surface > Early Jurassic (200 mya to 175 mya) > p. 48
SIMILAR QUESTIONS
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