Final answer:
The endoskeleton allows for continual growth throughout an organism's life, enabling larger size due to its ability to support increasing body weight efficiently and protect soft tissues and internal organs better than an exoskeleton. The correct answer is option 4.
Step-by-step explanation:
The benefit of an endoskeleton includes several aspects related to the support and growth of an organism. Unlike an exoskeleton, which must be shed and regenerated for the organism to grow, an endoskeleton can grow along with the organism throughout its life, allowing for continual growth and larger size. Additionally, endoskeletons are composed of mineralized structures, like bone, which provide a stronger and more efficient means of supporting an organism's body weight and facilitating movement through muscle attachments on the outside, offering better mechanical leverage than an exoskeleton.
An organism with an endoskeleton can grow larger and heavier, thanks to the structural support provided by the bone and cartilage. Moreover, bones are composed of a collagen matrix filled with minerals such as calcium, making them less flexible than cartilage but stronger and better at protecting soft tissues and internal organs. It is the efficient design of the endoskeleton that allows larger animals to exist, as it manages increased mass without the restrictions faced by organisms with an exoskeleton that must significantly thicken with size and are limited in their growth potential due to this constraint.
Therefore, the correct option referring to the benefit of an endoskeleton is 4) it allows larger growth than an exoskeleton.