Although fullerenes--spherical molecules made entirely of carbon--were first found in the laboratory, they have since been found in nature, formed in fissures of the rare mineral shungite. Since laboratory synthesis of fullerenes requires distinctive conditions of temperature and pressure, this discovery should give geologists a test case for evaluating hypotheses about the state of the Earth's crust at the time these naturally occurring fullerenes were formed.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the argument?

• AConfirming that the shungite genuinely contained fullerenes took careful experimentation.  
• BSome fullerenes have also been found on the remains of a small meteorite that collided with a spacecraft.  
• CThe mineral shungite itself contains large amounts of carbon, from which the fullerenes apparently formed.  
• DThe naturally occurring fullerenes are arranged in a previously unknown crystalline structure.  
• EShungite itself is formed only under distinctive conditions.