Question

Many scientific discoveries have contributed to the explanation of how life began on Earth. Which of the following was NOT used to develop this scientific theory?

Oparin's "primordial soup" theory was tested by Miller and Urey by passing sparks through a mixture of gases to represent lightning and within a week, several simple organic molecules had formed.

Louis Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation by showing that bacteria will not grow on meat in a sterilized environment.

Scientists supported Lynn Margulis' theory that eukaryotic organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts originated as prokaryotes that lived inside other, larger prokaryotic cells.

Darwin's argument that vestigial structures are evidence that evolution has occurred.

Answer 1

Darwin's argument that vestigial structures are evidence that evolution has occurred was not used to develop the scientific theory of how life began on Earth. The other three options are all relevant to the development of this theory. Oparin's theory proposed that the first living organisms arose from a mixture of organic compounds in the Earth's early oceans, and Miller and Urey's experiment supported this idea by demonstrating that these compounds could be formed through natural processes. Pasteur's experiments demonstrated that life does not arise spontaneously, which helped to reject the idea of spontaneous generation and support the theory of biogenesis. Margulis proposed the endosymbiotic theory, which explains the origin of eukaryotic cells and their organelles, and this theory is supported by scientific evidence.