Explanation
Correct answer: B.
Choice B is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s discussion of Lebrasseur et al.’s examination of a fox skeleton found at an archaeological site in central Argentina. The text explains that the fox was found next to artifacts of human habitation, that radiocarbon dating indicated that it was at the site at the same time as human inhabitants, that humans at the site may have deliberately buried the fox, and that analysis indicated that the fox’s diet included meat and plant material, as the humans’ diet did, even though wild foxes eat only meat. The diet similarity, along with the fox’s location, the radiocarbon dating of its remains, and its possibly deliberate burial, suggests the fox was closely associated with the site’s human inhabitants—making it reasonable to conclude that the fox may have been a companion animal of those humans.
Why the other choices are wrong
Choice A
Choice A is incorrect. The text indicates that both the fox and the human inhabitants at the site had a diet that included both meat and plant material, but the text gives no information about the relative proportions of meat in the fox’s and the humans’ respective diets.
Choice C
Choice C is incorrect. The text states that Dusicyon avus is an extinct species that resembled a jackal, but this description refers to the fox’s physical appearance, not its diet, and no information is given about what jackals eat.
Choice D
Choice D is incorrect. The last two sentences of the text focus on the possibility that the human inhabitants of the site may have given the fox a burial and that they and the fox may have eaten a similarly omnivorous diet—details pointing to the conclusion that the fox may have been a companion animal of the inhabitants. Thus, a conclusion about the hunting technology used by the inhabitants wouldn’t follow from the text.