Australian embryologists have found evidence that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving as a kind of snorkel.



(A) that suggests that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal, and its trunk originally evolving

What does the evidence suggest?

1) Elephant is descended from an aquatic animal

2) its trunk originally evolving as a kind of snorkel.


Evolving is a participial modifier modifying the trunks and not a verb. 

After “and” we need to use a clause- a relative clause will fix the error of parallelism here.


(B) that has suggested the elephant descended from an aquatic animal, its trunk originally evolving

Same as A. 


(C) suggesting that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal with its trunk originally evolved


The use of past perfect tense is incorrect. We are not talking about an action that happened before the other. 


(D) to suggest that the elephant had descended from an aquatic animal and its trunk originally evolved

Same as C. 


(E) to suggest that the elephant is descended from an aquatic animal and that its trunk originally evolved


The use of “that” clearly introduces the relative clauses. “Evolved” functions as a verb and makes the two clauses parallel. Correct.