Ttyjfyk

I've been reading a book and stumbled upon what looks like a double conjunction 以及与:

他们惊讶地发现，虽然属于不同的时代，但那些动植物相互之间，以及与现代生物之间都有许多相似之处.

Is this a mistake? If not, then surely author differenciates between 以及 and 与, he gives them different functions. What are those functions?

Is there an alternative way to form such a sentence?

他们惊讶地发现，虽然属于不同的时代，但那些动植物相互之间，以及与现代生物之间都有许多相似之处.

'以及' means "and also";

"与" means "and".

Let's break the sentence apart and see what's missing:

• 那些动植物相互之间 (between those animals and plants themselves)




• 以及 (and also)




• between (subject omitted) 与 (and) 现代生物之间 (modern living things)




• 都有许多相似之处. (all have many similarities)

The author wanted to say:

Those (ancient) animals and plants had many similarities between themselves; and also have many similarities between them and modern living things

It would be more clear if he didn't omit the repeated subject

[那些动植物相互之间]，[以及] [(那些动植物)与现代生物之间] [都有许多相似之处]

[between those animals and plants themselves]，[and also] [between (those animals and plants) and modern living things] [all have many similarities ]

the repeated subject (那些动植物) was omitted

"以及" means "as well as" or "also"
"与" means "with" or 'to'

The sentence translates to:

To their surprise, they found out that, despite belonging to different ages, those organisms bear a strong resemblance to each other, as well as to modern-day ones.