Meinschein et al. : Evidence in Meteorites of Former Life 571 



small fraction of the substances in most living cells. Yet, only traces of these 

 substances are found in some sediments. i^'®*"*^* Stable saturated hydrocarbons, 

 extremely minor constituents of the lipid fractions of most organisms*^'^^'^^'^^- 

 ^^''^* are present in measurable concentrations in essentially all sediments. 

 Likewise, wax-esters, which form thin protective coatings of plants and in- 

 sects,^^'''* are apparently stable in aerobic environments and are found com- 

 monly in soils.^^ 



Differences in the compositions of the extractable fractions of soils and 

 marine sediments may be traceable to the anaerobic activity in sea bottoms. 

 Organic acids and alcohols combine to form wax-esters. Anaerobes utilize 

 these acids and alcohols and sulfate ions.^^ Conversions of olefinic steroid and 

 isoprenoid acids and alcohols into stable aromatic molecules result in large 

 energy releases. Anaerobes need energy. Most common foods are almost 

 completely consumed by aerobes in surface sediments. To survive, anaerobes 

 must frequently use unusual energy sources and reduce sulfates to hydrogen 

 sulfide which is oxidized to free sulfur.''* Marine sediments may contain more 

 free sulfur and aromatic hydrocarbons and less wax-esters than soils,^^ merely, 

 because marine environments are normally more anaerobic^* than nonmarine 

 environments. Thus, analyses of sedimental extracts may serve as environ- 

 mental as well as biological indicators. 



Meteoritic Extracts 



Because minimal sample sizes were used in this investigation, most meteorite 

 extracts were too small to provide reliable data by all of the analytical methods 

 used. Only the 2-Orgueil extract was of sufficient size to permit accurate 

 chromatographic analysis and to supply ;/-heptane, carbon tetrachloride, and 

 benzene fractions which absorbed significantly in the 2 to 15 micron regions 

 (table 3, FIGURE 2). However, because the ultraviolet and mass spectro- 

 metric data (figures 3 and 4 and tables 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8) indicate that the 

 Murray and Orgueil extracts are related much as are terrestrial sediment 

 extracts, analyses of the 2-Orgueil sample may be approximately representative 

 of other extracts of carbonaceous chondrites. 



The 2-Orgueil chromatographic data in table 3 fall in the terrestrial sedi- 

 ment range.^i ■'*'''** Infrared spectra of the total meteorite extracts in figure 1 

 and of the chromatographic fractions of the 2-Orgueil in figure 2 indicate 

 that all of the major absorption bands may be traceable to hydroxyl or amino 

 (2.9 to 3.1 m), carbon to hydrogen {i.i to 3.6 and 7.1 to 7.9 /x), carbonyl (5.6 to 

 6.0 and 8.0 to 9.0 pi), aromatic or olefinic (10 to 14.5 m), and carbon-to-carbon 

 chain (13.8 to 13.9 /x) groups. The carbonyl absorptions in the Murray and 

 Orgueil extracts suggest a complex mixture of carbonyl compounds and the 

 mass spectra (tables 6 and 8) show that these samples do not contain apprecia- 

 ble concentrations of either fatty acids or beeswax-like esters (absence of 

 large peaks at odd carbon numbers in x = — 10 column). Ultraviolet (figures 

 3 and 4) and mass (tables 6 and 8) spectra show that the Murray and Orgueil 

 extracts contain significant quantities of aromatic hydrocarbons. The Murray 

 extracts contained small and the Orgueil extracts contained copious amounts of 

 free sulfur. The preceding cursory examination of chromatographic and 

 spectrometric data indicate that the Murray and Orgueil extracts resemble 



