
Originally Posted by
i_feel_tiredsleepy
There was plenty of oxygen around in the early Earth, just not atmospheric oxygen (O2). Most oxygen was bound up in CO2, CO, organic compounds, and mostly in water.
Okay, got it. It is thought that asteroids blasted the earth and brought in most of the water from space. Then it rained for millions of years. This is estimated 4.4 billion years ago, so there would have been all the water on the earth prior to the emergence of the first single-celled organism 2 billion years ago. The break up of water molecules by UV light would have produced some atmospheric oxygen. So there was oxygen for ester bonds to form.
So then how would you counter the statement that the hydrogen cyanide, ammonia solution becoming oxidized which would not allow adenine to be produced?
Its like if you say there was oxygen, adenine couldn't have been produced. But if you say there was no oxygen, ester bonds could not have been formed. How do you address this?