A researcher claims that the initial rise of oxygen in Earth's early atmosphere, which occurred approximately 2.3 billion years ago, resulted from the metabolic activity of prokaryotic organisms. The claim based on an interpretation of the geothermal and fossil evidence represented in Figure 1. Evidence of Evidence of Earliest Earliest Organisms Cyanobacteria Eukaryotes Figure 1. Selected events in geologic time based on geothermal and fossil evidence Which of the following types of evidence will best support the researcher's claim? (A) Evidence that some of the earliest eukaryotes used oxygen to produce ATP by cellular respiration (B) Evidence that the earliest plants produced oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis (C) Evidence that some of the earliest organisms carried out photosynthesis without producing oxygen (D) Evidence that the cyanobacteria produced oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis

Question

A researcher claims that the initial rise of oxygen in Earth's early atmosphere, which occurred approximately 2.3 billion years ago, resulted from the metabolic activity of prokaryotic organisms. The claim based on an interpretation of the geothermal and fossil evidence represented in Figure 1. Evidence of Evidence of Earliest Earliest Organisms Cyanobacteria Eukaryotes Figure 1. Selected events in geologic time based on geothermal and fossil evidence Which of the following types of evidence will best support the researcher's claim? (A) Evidence that some of the earliest eukaryotes used oxygen to produce ATP by cellular respiration (B) Evidence that the earliest plants produced oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis (C) Evidence that some of the earliest organisms carried out photosynthesis without producing oxygen (D) Evidence that the cyanobacteria produced oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis

Answer 1

(D) Evidence that the cyanobacteria produced oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis

Answer 2

The researcher's claim is focused on the initial rise of oxygen in Earth's early atmosphere due to the metabolic activity of prokaryotic organisms. To best support this claim, we need evidence directly linking early prokaryotic activity to oxygen production. The most relevant evidence would be that cyanobacteria, a type of prokaryote, produced oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis. Such evidence would directly correlate the metabolic activity of these early prokaryotes with the increase in atmospheric oxygen.

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