Question

A scientist makes the claim, "chemosynthesis is an ancient process that likely evolved in bacteria not long after the origin of life itself." Use two pieces of evidence to support this claim.

Answer 1

Chemosynthesis can be described as a process in which organism make organic compounds from inorganic sources and by using carbon from carbon dioxide.

• For the beginning of life, hydrocarbons were required. Chemosynthesis is the only process that justifies how the first hydrocarbons could have been made on Earth.

• There was no oxygen in the primitive conditions of the earth. This justifies that the early bacteria used the process of chemosynthesis to survive.

• Chemosynthesis can be the only reason that bacteria survived in the hydrothermal vents.

• Scientific studies show that some early bacteria lived in oceanic crusts. These bacteria would have performed chemosynthesis for survival and might have turned hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane.