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Question

During early evolution, the significant change in atmospheric oxygen levels was brought about by

A
Plants
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B
Photosynthetic prokaryotes
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C
Amoeba
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D
Heterotrophs
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E
Anaerobes
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Solution

The correct option is B Photosynthetic prokaryotes
The studies on geological history of oxygen, shows that before photosynthesis evolved, the earth's atmosphere had no free oxygen. However, the photosynthetic prokaryotes ( Archae and Bacteria), produced oxygen as a waste product. But the oxygen they produced were rapidly removed from the atmosphere by weathering of reducing minerals, most notably iron. But there came a point in time, when these oxygen sinks became saturated and could not capture all of the oxygen that was produced by cyanobacterial photosynthesis and the excess free oxygen started to accumulate in the atmosphere.
So, the correct answer is option B.

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