Q15

[LSAT-Chang]

I correctly guessed (C) during my timed PT, but am wondering how (C) weakens the last sentence. So the last sentence is basically saying that kin recognition occurs solely for organisms to preserve its own life and not to aid in relatives' survival. I can sort of see where (C) might be going -- in that if (C) is true -- if we know that kin recognition also helps tiger salamanders avoid inbreeding that may be life-threatening to their offspring, we can't be so sure anymore that kin recognition occurs just for these salamanders to protect themselves since it also serves another purpose (i.e. help avoid life-threatening inbreeding to their offspring) -- so it makes it less likely that their SOLE purpose is to preserve themselves.. is this correct?

[mra08d]

Hey,

I think that you are on point. Like you said, the last sentence says that "kin recognition can be explained SIMPLY..." This "simply" is quite a strong claim. Basically any answer choice that shows that kin recognition can be explained another way would detract from the last sentence's claim that that kin recognition can be "simply" explained for the reasons it stated.

[melnauni]

I am not sure why E is incorrect. Wouldn't it undermine the conclusion that they recognize kin to preserve their own life? If they are immune to the bacterium in question then it doesn't matter whether it is more deadly or less... they are just immune to it. Then it is not necessarily for preserving their life that the tigers recognize kin. Or is this answer wrong just because we don't know whether the disease caused by the bacterium is included into those certain diseases tigers are immuned against?

[ohthatpatrick]

You got it.

The reason (E) is wrong is that we don't know "certain diseases" refers to the one caused by the bacterium.

In fact, we actually know from the last paragraph that it would be impossible for "certain diseases" to refer to the one caused by the bacterium. From lines 50-54, you get concrete evidence that the cannibalistic larvae DO get infected by this bacterium.

[giladedelman]

Great explanations on this thread!