Recently unearthed Neronian tools in France dating to 54,000 years ago and attributed to Homo sapiens may provide evidence that...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• Recently unearthed Neronian tools in France
• dating to 54,000 years ago and
• attributed to Homo sapiens
• may provide evidence
• that interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans
• occurred 10,000 years earlier than was previously supposed (?) a finding
• that, if true,
• would overturn current theories about H. sapiens migration
• during the Upper Paleolithic.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

'Recently unearthed Neronian tools in France dating to 54,000 years ago and attributed to Homo sapiens'

• This is telling us about some ancient tools that were recently discovered
• They're 54,000 years old
• Scientists believe they were made by Homo sapiens (modern humans)

'may provide evidence that interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans occurred 10,000 years earlier than was previously supposed'

• These tools might prove that Neanderthals and modern humans met earlier than we thought
• Specifically, 10,000 years earlier than scientists had believed

This is where we have the blank: 'supposed _____ finding'

Let's look at the choices:

• We're deciding what punctuation (if any) should go between 'supposed' and the word 'finding'
• The choices give us: semicolon, period, no punctuation, or comma
• And whether 'finding' should be capitalized or not

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

'a finding that, if true, would overturn current theories about H. sapiens migration during the Upper Paleolithic'

• This phrase is talking about the discovery mentioned earlier - the tools and what they suggest
• It's saying this discovery (if it's accurate) would completely change what we currently believe about how modern humans migrated during that time period

So the complete picture is:

• The main sentence tells us about tools that provide evidence of earlier interactions
• Then 'a finding that would overturn current theories' adds extra information about what this discovery means

What do we notice about the structure here?

'A finding that, if true, would overturn current theories...'

• This is a noun phrase ('a finding') with extra description attached to it
• It's giving us additional information about the evidence that was just mentioned
• It's describing what this whole discovery represents
• This type of added descriptive information - a noun + modifier that describes something you just mentioned - needs to be set off with a comma

So we need: comma + lowercase 'a'

The correct answer is Choice D.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Commas with Noun + Descriptive Modifier Phrases

When you want to add extra descriptive information about something you just mentioned, you can use a noun followed by modifying details (called an appositive in grammar terms) set off by a comma. This allows you to rename or provide additional context about what you just said.

Pattern:
[Main statement], [noun + modifier providing additional information]

Examples:

Example 1:

• Main statement: "The discovery surprised scientists"
• With added description: "The discovery surprised scientists, a result that changed our understanding"
• "a result" = noun that refers back to the discovery
• "that changed our understanding" = modifier describing the result
• Comma signals we're adding extra descriptive information

Example 2:

• Main statement: "The experiment proved successful"
• With added description: "The experiment proved successful, an outcome no one had predicted"
• "an outcome" = noun referring back to the experiment's success
• "no one had predicted" = modifier describing the outcome
• Comma sets off this additional information

In our question:

• Main statement: "tools...may provide evidence that interactions...occurred 10,000 years earlier than was previously supposed"
• With added description: "supposed, a finding that, if true, would overturn current theories"
• "a finding" = noun that refers back to the evidence/discovery
• "that would overturn current theories" = modifier describing the finding
• Comma properly introduces this additional descriptive information