Paleontologist: It is widely, but falsely, held that life began in the ocean and did not exist on land until half a billion years ago. Traces of carbon 14 have been found throughout certain 1. 2-billion-year-old rock in North America. Carbon 14 is extracted by plants and microbes from the atmosphere to fuel their chemical reactions, and is then released when the plants and microbes die. Each of the following, if true, provides additional support for the paleontologist's conclusion EXCEPT: ['The 1. 2-billion-year-old rocks were formed from soil containing very small amounts of carbon 14 that entered the soil directly from the atmosphere.', 'Research suggests that some portions of the 1. 2-billion-year-old rocks were at one time submerged in water, though portions clearly never were.', 'The severity of conditions in the primordial oceans would have made it difficult for life to begin there.', 'Uranium testing has been used to confirm that the age of the rocks is 1. 2 billion years.']