What does the Early Burst Hypothesis suggest regarding early insect evolution?

• A. Early insect lineages were large and heavily armored.
• B. Early insects evolved rapidly with abundant fossil records.
• C. Early insect lineages were small and soft-bodied, resulting in minimal fossil evidence.
• D. Early insects were aquatic.

Answer: (C)

The Early Burst idea is about rapid early diversification in a lineage, paired with poor fossil preservation for the earliest forms. If early insects were small and soft-bodied, their bodies wouldn’t leave many durable remains to fossilize, so we’d expect few fossils even if many new forms appeared quickly. That’s why the statement about lineages being small and soft-bodied, leading to minimal fossil evidence, fits the hypothesis best: the apparent scarcity of early insect fossils can reflect preservation bias rather than a slow or absent early diversification. The other possibilities don’t match this idea because large, armored bodies would fossilize more readily; rapid evolution with abundant fossils contradicts the preservation-bias premise; and being aquatic isn’t a defining feature of the Early Burst concept.