Indigenous embedded microbial filaments, bacterial cells and other microfossils were found in the Orgueil, Ivuna (CI1), Murchison, and Bells (CM2) carbonaceous meteorites. Biominerals, biofilms, framboids, magnetite platelets, and curious elemental iron ovoids covered with minute fibrils and carbon sheaths were also found. The S-4100 Hitachi Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDAX) were used for in situ investigations of freshly fractured interior meteorite surfaces. EDAX x-ray spectra shows the microfossils bear signatures of the meteorite matrix and possess elemental ratios indicating they are indigenous and not recent microbial contaminants. Many of the well-preserved biogenic remains in the meteorites are encased within carbon-rich, sometimes electron transparent, sheaths. Their size, morphology and ultra microstructure are comparable to microfossils known from the phosphorites of Khubsughul, Mongolia and to some of the living cyanobacteria and other sulfur- and sulfate-reducing bacteria known from the halophilic Microcoleus mats of Sivash Lagoon, Crimea and from Mono Lake in California.
DOI: 10.1117/12.566491 Current SPIE Digital Library subscribers click here to download this paper.
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