Breakdown of Da je lubanja bila u drugom sloju, paleontolog bi odustao.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
u
in, into
drugi
other, different
odustati
to give up
Questions & Answers about Da je lubanja bila u drugom sloju, paleontolog bi odustao.
How do we know the second part means 'would have given up' and not just 'would give up'?
The tense of the 'if' clause sets the time for the whole sentence. Because we used da + the past tense (je bila) in the first part, it creates a past counterfactual ('If it had been...'). This automatically makes the conditional in the second part (bi odustao) refer to the past ('would have given up'), even though it looks exactly the same as the present conditional.
Doesn't drugom come from drugi, meaning 'second'? Why does the translation say 'another'?
You are right that drugi is the word for 'second'! However, it is also the standard word used for 'other' or 'another' in Croatian. You have to rely on context to know if u drugom sloju means 'in the second layer' or 'in another layer'.
Why are the words drugom sloju in the Locative case here?
We are expressing a static location ('in' the layer), so the preposition u requires the Locative case. Sloj (layer) is a masculine noun, so it takes the -u ending, and the adjective changes to match it with the -om ending.
Why does the first clause use the feminine participle bila, but the second clause uses the masculine participle odustao?