Critical Reasoning

Networks of blood vessels in bats' wings serve only to disperse heat generated in flight. This heat is generated only because bats flap their wings. Thus paleontologists' recent discovery that the winged dinosaur Sandactylus had similar networks of blood vessels in the skin of its wings provides evidence for the hypothesis that Sandactylus flew by flapping its wings, not just by gliding.

In the passage, the author develops the argument by ________.

(A) forming the hypothesis that best explains several apparently conflicting pieces of evidence

(B) reinterpreting evidence that had been used in support of an earlier theory

(C) using an analogy with a known phenomenon to draw a conclusion about an unknown phenomenon

(D) speculating about how structures observed in present-day creatures might have developed from similar structures in creatures now extinct

(E) pointing out differences in the physiological demands that flight makes on large, as opposed to small, creatures

This looks familiar; I think someone posted this question recently. The answer is C. I go through the question in detail in the full solution below (taken from the GMATFix App).



-Patrick

One more for [spoiler](C)[/spoiler]