GMAT Sentence Correction (SC) | As a result of having nostrils, called nares, connected to

Yes, I could not find any convincing reasoning whyas a result of + gerund is wrong. Therefore I would approach the question in a different way:

V-A-N rule (Manhattan GMAT SC strategy guide) - verbs preferred to adjectives, adjectives preferred to nouns. The following examples are from the Manhattan SC guide:

Wordy: Her example was an inspiration (noun) to me. Better: Her example
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