Abstract
WITH very few exceptions1 the insoluble organic matter present in both Pre-Cambrian sediments and carbonaceous chondrites has been neglected and organo-geochemical studies of these materials have been largely devoted to the readily solvent extractable soluble organic substances2. This is in some ways unfortunate, for by far the greater proportion of carbonaceous matter in both Pre-Cambrian sediments (up to 95 per cent)3 and in carbonaceous chondrites (up to 70 per cent)4 is insoluble and the soluble matter is frequently of a very minor nature. In addition, the soluble, and so potentially more mobile, organic chemicals are more likely to have moved in total or in part from their point of origin, and problems of rock contamination with such substances, either over long periods through seepage or, in the case of meteorites, at impact5, are especially acute.
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BROOKS, J., SHAW, G. Evidence for Extraterrestrial Life: Identity of Sporopollenin with the Insoluble Organic Matter present in the Orgueil and Murray Meteorites and also in some Terrestrial Microfossils. Nature 223, 754–756 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/223754b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/223754b0
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