Q: You are given a question or fill-in-the-blank question, two answer options (Option1 and Option2) and an Explanation. Your task is to find the correct answer (return the string of the correct option, not option1/2) for the given question from the given options and using explanation.
Question: At the dawn of time, the variety between species then was _____ than now. 
 Option1: smaller 
 Option2: larger 
 Explanation: The longer the amount of time since species diverged, the more differences there will be in their DNA or proteins.
A:

Show your work and conclude with the exact phrasing "Therefore, the final answer is [answer]." where [answer] is just the final number or expression that solves the problem.
user
smaller