Multiple choice

Some rats are able to subsist on the barries of the poison sumac, a poisonous plant, by peeling away the poisonous skin of the fruit before they consume it. This method ensures that some rats will always be able to subsist on poison sumac because the plant could never evolve so as to acquire the ability to produce a poison that would prove lethal in the minute quantity left after the fruit is peeled.

The conclusion drawn depends on which of the following assumptions?

  1. The rats that succeed in removing the poisonous skins of the poison sumac are not able to evolve to the point where they are able to detoxify other herbs.

  2. Other types of toxic plants, unlike poison sumac, would be able to surmount their defenselessness through evolutionary modifications.

  3. The poisonous skins of poison sumac can never evolve in a manner such that rats could not successfully peel them.

  4. The method of toxin removal used by rats that eat poison sumac would not produce similar results on other types of toxic herbs.

  5. None of these
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
E Correct answer
Explanation

This argument assumes that the plant would never be able to produce a poison whose minute quantity could prove lethal.

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