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- GREAT PHOTOS at SITE!
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- FOSSILIZED BACTERIA IN MURCHISON AND EFREMOVKA
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- I am sending you some microphotos from Murchison and
Efremovka meteorites and the text to them - Stanislav Zhmur, 27 January
2000
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- At a conference in Denver, July 20-22, 1999, a pair scientists
from the Russian Academy of Sciences presented sharp images that look very
much like fossilized microorganisms taken from fragments of several carbonaceous
meteorites. The scientists are Stanislav I. Zhmur, Institute of the Lithosphere
of Marginal Seas, and Lyudmila M. Gerasimenko, Institute of Biology. The
conference was "Instruments, Methods and Missions for Astrobiology
II," the third in a series organized by NASA's Richard Hoover. In
December, The Conference Proceedings became available from SPIE, the conference
sponsor. (1)
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- We contacted Dr. Zhmur and asked permission to publish
some of those images on the Cosmic Ancestry website. He agreed. Here are
the images with his comments:
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- "Comparative analysis of bacteriomorphic structures
from the carbonaceous meteorites, Murchison, Efremovka and Allende,...
and morphology of microorganisms of modern and ancient terrestrial cyanobacterial
community showed that they are analogous. This gave us reason to consider
that these bacteriomorphic structures are fossilized remnants of microorganisms.
The lithified remnants ...are tightly conjugated with the mineral matrix,
removing the possibility that they are contaminants. The selection of microfossils
capable of being interpreted as biological is quite wide. Some of them
are demonstrated in the pictures:
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- Murchison meteorite: bacteriomorphic structure similar
to filamentous microorganisms with preserved cell fragmentation, like cyanobacteria
of Lyngbya or Oscillatoria genera --
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- Murchison meteorite: trichomic bacteriomorphic structure
similar to cyanobacteria Phormidium --
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- Murchison meteorite: branched bacteriomorphic structure
anologous to cyanobacteria of the genus Mustigocladus, which are characterized
by branching and different diameters of cells --
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- Efremovka meteorite: three-dimensional sheaths, uniting
several trichomes, easily compared with the remains of the modern microorganisms
of the Microcoleus morphotype --
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- Murchison meteorite: bacteriomorphic capsular structure
like the colonial cyanobacteria Gloecapsa. Their coccoid cells grow in
the form of microcolonies 6-10 micrometers in size, which, in turn, are
united in macrocolonies 30-35+ micrometers in size. Micro- and macrocolonies
are surrounded by thickened cyst-like material. Such surface structures
formed by cross-linked polysacharides are known to perform a protective
function. Thickened capsules resist destructive processes which determine
the cellular appearence of the remains of colonial coccoid microorganisms.
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- Efremovka meteorite: coccoid bacteriomorphic structures
of the Synechococcus- type. Distinct coccoid forms tended to form clusters
composed of 2-4 cells, which are typical of modern cyanobacteria of this
genera.
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- "The microfossls detected apparently represent the
remains of microbial communities rather than remains of individual microorganisms;
the communities were well developed and resembled cyanobacterial communities.
The communities functioned in an aquatic enviroment, probably in hydrothermal
volcanic activity zones.
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- "The basic morphological similarity of modern and
ancient terrestrial microorganisms with the bacteriomorphic strutures found
in meteorites supports the belief that the primary biological worlds of
the Earth and extraterrestrial objects were united. The identity of matter
from which various objects of the solar system (planets, asteroids, meteorites,
etc.) consist and their close (on geological scale) age are also evidence
in favor of the united biological world of the solar system.
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- "The results of our investigations indicate that
microbial life on various objects of the solar sistem was present virtually
from the time of their formation, that is, 4.5 billion years ago. This
means that life originated almost one billion years earlier than it is
usually belived. The delay in the time of the appearance of life on the
Earth (3.8 billion years ago) and extraterrestrial objects supports the
idea of panspermia, i.e. the idea that life on the Earth was brought from
the space. This idea is promoted by such authorities as V.I.Vernadsky,
who wrote "...life did not originate on the Earth, it was brought
to the Earth from space in a finished form; and G.A. Zavarzin, who believes
that data on the time of the appearance of the most ancient prokaryotes
on the Earth conclusively prove the extraterrestrial orign of life."
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- References 1. Stanislav I. Zhmur and Lyudmila M. Gerasimenko.
"Biomorphic forms in carbonaceous meteorite Alliende and possible
ecological system - producer of organic matter hondrites" in Instruments,
Methods and Missions for Astrobiology II, Richard B. Hoover, Editor, Proceedings
of SPIE Vol. 3755 p. 48-58 (1999).
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