Sentence Correction

Hey,

I have a question about question 66 in the official guide.

"The 32 species that make up the dolphin family are closely related to whales and in fact include the animal known as the killer whale,which can grow to be 30 feet long and is famous for its aggressive hunting pods."

C) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long and being

I figured that the original sentence was grammatically correct, although the "can grow to be" could sound awkward as well according to GMAT logic.
Answer choice C uses the gerund form to modify the noun killer whale, which is also grammatically correct, isn't it?
The right answer to this question is A, but I don't get why C is wrong.

In general when do you have to use a relative clause with which as a modifier and when do you have to use the ing-form as a modifier?

Thanks in advance.

Two reasons why C is wrong
Being is problematic.
-ing modifier followed by a comma usually modifies the entire preceding clause. In this case only killer whale should be modified but the 32 species are also modified.

Being signals redundancy in GMAT. When you have other answer choice grammatically correctly "being " is wrong because of redundancy. However,GMAT nowadays have questions with being in correct answer. So careful before eliminating it.

BN89 wrote:Hey,

I have a question about question 66 in the official guide.

"The 32 species that make up the dolphin family are closely related to whales and in fact include the animal known as the killer whale,which can grow to be 30 feet long and is famous for its aggressive hunting pods."

C) include the animal known as the killer whale, growing up to 30 feet long and being

I figured that the original sentence was grammatically correct, although the "can grow to be" could sound awkward as well according to GMAT logic.
Answer choice C uses the gerund form to modify the noun killer whale, which is also grammatically correct, isn't it?
The right answer to this question is A, but I don't get why C is wrong.

In general when do you have to use a relative clause with which as a modifier and when do you have to use the ing-form as a modifier?

Thanks in advance.

In C, growing is not a gerund (a verb functioning as a noun) but a PARTICIPLE (a verb functioning as an adjective).
In the construction COMMA + VERBing, the VERBing should refer to the SUBJECT of the preceding clause.
Hence, C incorrectly implies that the 32 species -- the subject of the preceding clause -- are growing.

I posted an explanation of this SC here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/modfiers-t83807.html