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[mankey]

Recently discovered fossil remains strongly suggest that the Australian egg-laying mammals of today are a branch of the main stem of mammalian evolution rather than developing independently from a common ancestor of mammals more than 220 million years ago.

(A) rather than developing independently from
(B) rather than a type that developed independently from
(C) rather than a type whose development was independent of
(D) instead of developing independently from
(E) instead of a development that was independent of



My answer is B. Please provide OA.

Regards
Mankey

[mad2011]

Can you prove some logic rather than imo answers

I always prefer eliminating 4rahter than selecting one, here is my humble attempt

D,E GMAT always preferes rather than to instead of

Now we need to look for parellel X rather than Y
Only B fits in correctly so
IMO B

[bubbliiiiiiii]

Recently discovered fossil remains strongly suggest that the Australian egg-laying mammals of today are a branch of the main stem of mammalian evolution rather than developing independently from a common ancestor of mammals more than 220 million years ago.

(A) rather than developing independently from - Parallelism
(B) rather than a type that developed independently from
(C) rather than a type whose development was independent of
(D) instead of developing independently from - Parallelism
(E) instead of a development that was independent of