Stacey Koprince wrote:mms, the rule is not as strict as "the immediately preceding noun ONLY." At the same time, that does not mean it is tough to identify what the noun is.

The noun modifier refers either to the immediately preceding noun or to the main noun in a "main noun + necessary descriptive prepositional phrase" set-up. When this happens, it's okay for the "which" modifier to refer to the main noun. Also, when this happens, the test-writers are pretty good about throwing another clue in, in the form of a verb that agrees with only one of the two nouns. See Ron's post here for more detail: https://www.beatthegmat.com/which-usage- ... tml#183919


Also, I'll add: in my last post, where I said B would be okay if you fixed the verb, you'd then also have to change "resembles" to "resembled" - past - and you'd have to assume that the "which" was referring to the creature, not the fossils.

This is why: first, we're saying something (either the creature or the fossils) resembled two other kinds of animal. So the comparison should be animal to animal - not fossil to animal. And then, if we're saying animal to animal - well the creature is just fossils now, so it doesn't resemble those animals now. It did in the past, so we need "resembled."