56．Recently discovered fossil remains strongly suggest that the Australian egg—laying mammals of today are a branch of the main stem of mammalian evolution rather than developing independently from a common ancestor of mammals more than 220 million years ago． (A)rather than developing independently from (B)rather than a type that developed independently from (C)rather than a type whose development was independent of (D)instead of developing independently from (E)instead of a development that was independent of Idiom + Parallelism
The original point is that the mammals mentioned are thought to be an offshoot of the main stem of mammalian evolution and not a descendent of a common ancestor of[all] mammals．This sentence makes a contrast using the construction x rather than y or x instead ofv：x and y must be parallel in either case．The mammals are(x)a branch rather than(y)；here y should consist of an article and a noun to match a branch．The second half of the contrast may be rewritten a type that developed independently from to complete the parallel construction．The idiom independently from is different in meaning from the idiom independent of, the logic of this sentence requires the use of independently from． A Developing in(1ependentlyfrom is not parallel to a branch． BCorrect．This idiomatically correct sentence properly uses a type in parallel to a branch． CVerb developed is preferable to the awkward relative clause using the noun development；independent of distorts the original meaning． DDeveloping independently from is not parallel to a branch． EWhile a development may appear to parallel a branch the logic of the sentence is contradicted by the meaning of this usage，and the verb developed is preferable to the noun development；independent of distorts the original meaning. The correct answer is B．
Independent from = [not ruled by another country] The rebel republic has already declared itself independent from the Soviet Union
Independent of = [unaffected by] Personal conversations are not independent of media news. Their decisions are quite independent of any other arguments.