In this difficult sentence we do have a lot of information and contrast. The best way is always to cut out or divide the sentence into chunks. Read carefully, and grasp the meaning

Fossils unearthed in the Jurassic strata of the Tendaguru Formation in eastern Africa reveal profuse dinosaur skeletons alongside a paucity of vegetative traces.

Fossils digged out in a certain area in Africa (just a context but per se is irrlevant) show us a consistent asmount of skeletons. However, along with, we do not have so many traces of vegetation. This could be a hint about the skeletons itself that we do not have enough information about the dinosaurs. They were herbivores or carnivores. we do not know yet

This conspicuous (i) _______ of flora impels select paleontologists to envision a landscape largely devoid of greenery.

This consistent amount of flora forces the scientists to think that the landscape at the time was quite desert and poor in vegetation. Not luxuriant. The first blank must be consistent with this idea. Therefore the conspicuous scarsity or C exiguity of X material must be the solution.


Nevertheless, counterparts have (ii) ________ , underscoring that the resident herbivorous saurians would have demanded a profuse dietary bounty.

Nevertheless = pure contrast

underscoring that the resident herbivorous saurians would have demanded a profuse dietary bounty.

This tells us that after all, even if we do have a scarcity of green , the dinosaurs did not need it that much. Based on this assumption, the counterpart must downplay or underscore what we had in the first part of the sentence. Therefore , F must be the second blank

The correct answers are C and F