Which of the following gases was not believed to be present on earth at the time of its formation 4.6 billion years ago? a. oxygen c. water vapor b. nitrogen d. methane

a. oxygen

Explanation:

If you could build a time machine and go back to Earth's distant past, you would have an unpleasant surprise: you wouldn't be able to breathe. Without the help of equipment, you would suffocate in a matter of minutes.

That's because during the first half of our planet's life there was no oxygen in the atmosphere. The gas so fundamental to life as we know it came about only 2.4 billion years ago.

The "Great Oxidation Event" was one of the most important things to happen on this planet. Without it, there could never be animals breathing oxygen, such as insects, fish and certainly humans.

step 1: initiation

initiation is the beginning of transcription. it occurs when the enzyme rna polymerase binds to a region of a gene called the promoter. this signals the dna to unwind so the enzyme can ‘‘read’’ the bases in one of the dna strands. the enzyme is now ready to make a strand of mrna with a complementary sequence of bases.

step 2: elongation

elongation is the addition of nucleotides to the mrna strand. rna polymerase reads the unwound dna strand and builds the mrna molecule, using complementary base pairs. there is a brief time during this process when the newly formed rna is bound to the unwound dna. during this process, an adenine (a) in the dna binds to an uracil (u) in the rna.

step 3: termination

termination is the ending of transcription, and occurs when rna polymerase crosses a stop (termination) sequence in the gene. the mrna strand is complete, and it detaches from dna.

only about ten percent of the energy at one trophic level is passed on to organisms at the next trophic level. the remainder of the energy is used in life processes or lost as heat.