同问,more likely to inflame debates (on the origin of birds at this stage) rather than (to) settle them.“更可能是点燃战火,而不是解决问题”
我觉得这里rather than表示“而不是”,翻译起来很通顺……
C) seems more likely to inflame debates on the origin of birds at this stage rather than
"The wealth... seems" fixes the subject/verb issue, but the modifier "at this stage" seems to indicate that the birds are at a particular stage - illogical. We want to say that it "seems likely at this stage."