The fossils of cold blooded animals dated back to the end of the Cretaceous period and in that the high concentration of iridium found in the thin layer of clay led researchers to abandon the climatic alteration theory as much as it did to develop a new hypothesis.
A. in that the high concentration of iridium found in the thin layer of clay led researchers to abandon the climatic alteration theory as much as it did to develop
B. that the high concentration of iridium found in the thin layer of clay led researchers to abandon the climatic alteration theory and then to also develop
C. the high concentration of iridium found in the thin layer of clay led researchers to abandon the climatic alteration theory and to subsequently develop
D. high concentration of iridium found in the thin layer of clay led researchers to abandon the climatic alteration theory as much as developing
E. the high concentration of iridium found in the thin layer of clay led researchers to abandon the climatic alteration theory in addition to developing
This question is based on Parallelism and Structure.
Option A is clumsily worded. The phrase ‘in that’ distorts the meaning of the sentence. The phrase means ‘for the reason that’. So the sentence conveys the meaning that “The fossils of cold blooded animals……period and for the reason that the high concentration of iridium……led researchers…..The phrase thus created cannot be the subject of the verb ‘led’. The intended meaning of the sentence is that two things led researchers to abandon the theory. Since the meaning is distorted in Option A, it can be eliminated.
Option B also contains a redundant pronoun ‘that’. The pronoun changes the underlined portion into a subordinate clause that is not parallel to the first part of the sentence. So, Option B can be eliminated.
Option D lacks parallelism. To maintain parallelism, there must be a definite article before the phrase “high concentration of iridium”.
Moreover, the participle form ‘’developing’ is not parallel to the infinitive form ‘to abandon’. The comparative phrase ‘as much as’ does not make any sense in this sentence either. So, Option D can be eliminated.
Between Options C and E, E lacks parallelism. The infinitives ‘to abandon’ and ‘to develop’ indicate what the researchers did. They are not parallel in Option E, so it can be eliminated.
In Option C, the noun phrase “the high concentration of iridium” followed by a participle modifier “found in the thin layer of clay” is parallel to the noun phrase at the beginning of the sentence - The fossils of cold blooded animals dated back to the end of the Cretaceous period.
In the latter half of the sentence, the infinitives ‘to abandon’ and ‘to develop’ are also parallel to each other.
Therefore, C is the most appropriate option.