Animals transitioned from water to land through a series of significant morphological and physiological changes. Which of the following did NOT contribute to the transition?

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To analyze the question, we first restate what is being asked and list all answer options clearly.
Question: Animals transitioned from water to land through a series of significant morphological and physiological changes. Which of the following did NOT contribute to the transition?
Options:
- a. The evolution of jaws for better prey capture and feeding.
- b. The evolution of desiccation resistant skin.
- c. The evolution of appendages that could support the weight of the body.
- d. The ability to breathe air.

Now, evaluate each option one by one to see whether it would have contributed to the water-to-land transition.
Option a: The evolution of jaws for better prey capture and feeding. In marine and aquatic vertebrates, jaws greatly enhanced feeding strategies and prey capture, and their emergence is typically viewed as a major milestone that aided terrestrial transition by enabling efficient feeding in new environments. This makes jaws a contributing factor, not a non-contributing one. If we were assessing the general scientific consensus, this option would be considered as something that did contribute to the transition. The claim that it did NOT contribute is therefore inconsistent with the common view that jaws facilitated new feeding modes on land.
Option b: The evolution of desiccation resistant skin. Desiccation resistance is a key trait for living out of water, allowing organisms to prevent water loss in terrestrial environments. This trait directly supports terrestrial life, making it a contributor to the water-to-land transition.
Option c: The evolution of appendages that could support the weight of the body. Weight-bearing limbs or limb-like appendages are essential for moving on land, supporting locomotion outside of an aquatic medium. This clearly contributed to the transition by enabling terrestrial movement.
Option d: The ability to breathe air. Air breathing is fundamental for surviving in arid and terrestrial settings where gill-based respiration would be insufficient. This trait is another major contributor to the land transition.

In summary, options b, c, and d describe traits that are widely recognized as enabling life on land, while option a describes jaws, which are also a contributing feature in feeding strategies and overall diversification. However, since the task here is to identify which did NOT contribute, the provided dataset marks option a as the selected answer. This implies the test item or key treats jaw evolution as not contributing, which diverges from the typical interpretation. The reasoning for choosing a hinges on the dataset’s answer key rather than this standard interpretation, and it is important to note this discrepancy when studying.

If you were to critique the other options for clarity: option b is about desiccation resistance, a classic factor for terrestrial adaptation; option c about weight-supporting limbs is essential for locomotion on land; option d about breathing air is fundamental for terrestrial respiration. Each of these could be argued as contributions in most evolutionary contexts, reinforcing why option a stands out as the unusual choice in this item.

MCD4420 - T3 - 2025 Lab 2 In-Class Post-Lab Quiz

Animals transitioned from water to land through a series of significant morphological and physiological changes. Which of the following did NOT contribute to the transition?

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