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Structures of Skeletal Muscle Fibers Found in Martian Meteorite NWA 998
Abstract Structures of skeletal muscle fibers are found in three micrographs, which were imaged by Tom Phillips from a thin section cut out of Martian meteorite NWA 998. The morphology, organization, and context of the structures indicate they were the structures of muscle fibers. The micrographs show no cracks for the structures to move from outside the meteorite to their present locations. Therefore, the muscle fiber structures should be indigenous to meteorite NWA 998.The structures of muscle fibers are found in the meteorite possibly because the parent rock of the meteorite solidified around the fossilized muscle fibers on Mars.
I. Introduction and Methods
Skeletal muscle fibers are a type of animal cells. In 2003, fossilized skeletal muscle fibers were reported to have been found in a dinosaur coprolite (Chin et al., 2003, ref. 1). Meteorite NWA 998 is a meteorite that originated on Mars (Meyer, C., 2006, ref. 2). A brief geological description of meteorite NWA 998 is displayed by Nasa at http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/antmet/mmc/XXV_NWA998.pdf
This article reports that structures of skeletal muscle fibers are found in meteorite NWA 998. The structures of muscle fibers are found in three micrographs, which were imaged by Tom Phillips from a single thin section cut from meteorite NWA 998. The three micrographs of meteorite NWA 998 are displayed below as Fig. 1, Fig. 2, and Fig. 9:
Fig. 1: Micrograph from Martian meteorite NWA 998 (ref. 2). Image taken fromThe Tom Phillips Microscopic Meteorite Gallery (ref. 3), photo No. NWA998-400X-xpol-0013. cross polarized light at 400X.
Fig. 2: Another micrograph from Martian meteorite NWA 998 (ref. 2). Image taken from The Tom Phillips Microscopic Meteorite Gallery (ref. 3), photo No. NWA998-400X-xpol-0016. cross polarized light at 400X.
Figure 9 is the last figure in this article.
No cause is found to doubt that the above micrographs show Martian structures. The methods used to identify the Martian structures include comparison with micrographs of terrestrial muscle fibers, minerals and non-life material. This article describes those three micrographs (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 9) as showing structures of Martian skeletal muscle fibers, myofibrils and motor axons in the Results section, and explains why they are not minerals or non-life material in the Discussion section.
II. Results
Figure 1 above was enlarged, marked for muscle fiber structures, and is presented as Fig. 3 below:
Fig. 3: Structures of Martian muscle fibers. Circle A contains cross-striations on muscle fibers. Short green lines mark 16 structures of Martian muscle fibers. Green arrows mark nuclei structures of muscle fibers (cells). Red arrows mark motor axon structures. The original micrograph (Fig. 1) was imaged from a thin section by Tom Phillips (ref. 3).
Figure 2 above was also enlarged and marked for the structures of myofibrils,motor axons,etc. As the figure was too wide, it was cut into two parts and presented below as Fig. 4a (right part of Fig. 2) and Fig. 4b (left part of Fig. 2):
Fig. 4a: Enlarged right part of Fig. 2. A, B: Red lines stand for diameters of muscle fibers; C: Red rectangle contains structures of striated myofibrils in one muscle fiber; H: structure of motor axon wrapped in myelin sheath.
Fig. 4b: Enlarged left part of Fig. 2. D, E, F, G: structures of motor axons wrapped in myelin sheath; I, J: structures of motor end plates. K: structure of blood vessel. The original micrograph (Fig. 2) was imaged from a thin section by Tom Phillips (ref. 3).
Figure 5 below is for comparison with Fig. 3 and Fig. 4b. Figure 5 shows terrestrial muscle fibers:
Fig. 5: Terrestrial skeletal mucle fibers, motor axons,and motor end plates. Image taken from Visuals Unlimited, originally displayed athttp://www.visualsunlimited.com/image/I0000bsl9lRFHdmI
Figure 6 below is for comparison with Fig. 4a above. Figure 6 shows terrestrial myofibrils:
Fig. 6: Terrestrial myofibrils within two skeletal muscle fibers – LM X440. Image taken from Visuals Unlimited, originally displayed at http://www.visualsunlimited.com/image/I0000RHtWX0Y6Iy8
Figure 7 below illustrates the internal structure of muscle:
Fig. 7: Illustration of the internal structure of muscle. Image taken from TopVelocity.net, originally displayed at
http://topvelocity.net/why-some-pitchers-throw-harder-than-others/
Figure 8 below illustrates myelin sheath that wraps around motor axon:
Fig. 8: Illustration showing myelin sheath that wraps around motor axon. Image taken from The Free Dictionary, originally displayed at http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/motor+unit
Fig. 9 below shows there is no crack for the muscle fiber structures to get in there from outside the meteorite:
Fig. 9: Short green lines mark 26 muscle fiber structures found in meteorite NWA998. Short red lines mark nine motor axon structures. The original micrograph was imaged from a thin section with cross polarized light at 160X by Tom Phillips. The original image is named NWA998-160X-27 and displayed at The Tom Phillips Microscopic Meteorite Gallery (ref. 3).
III. Discussion
Geology of Martian meteorite NWA 998 has been researched in details (Treiman et al., 2008, ref. 4). This article does not discuss geology of meteorite NWA 998. Instead, this article focuses on investigating the biotic or abiotic origin of structures marked in Fig. 3, Fig. 4 and Fig. 9.
No mineral or non-life material was ever reported to resemble integrated structures of skeletal muscle fibers. In examining numerous micrographs of minerals and non-life material on the nano and micron levels, no micrograph is found that shows morphology matching the set of details marked in Fig. 3,Fig. 4 and Fig. 9.
Specifically, the set of details includes structures marked as myofibrils, cross-striations, motor axons,motor end plates, nuclei, myelin sheath, and 44 muscle fibers at three spots. Those details may not be biotic in origin if they are considered individually or separately. However, those details are uniquely biotic in origin when they are integrated in the morphology seen in Fig. 3,Fig. 4 and Fig.9. Those sets of details show the morphology of muscle fibers, instead of any other cells or minerals or non-life material.
Some of the “plagioclase” minerals might look vaguely like fossilized muscle fibers. For example, Wikipedia article on plagioclase includes a micrograph of plagioclase crystals that look somewhat like fossilized muscle fibers at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plagioklas1.jpg .
However, no micrograph of “plagioclase” mineral is found to exhibit all the characteristic structures of muscle fibers found in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. If ”plagioclase” minerals resemble muscle fibers with all of their unique structures, then the “plagioclase” minerals could be simply fossils of muscle fibers.
Also noteworthy are the structures of myelin sheath, especially F in Fig.4. Their irregular shape could have been formed during fossilization or, more likely, human preparation of the thin section of the sample material.
Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 9 show no cracks that could allow the 44 muscle fiber structures to move there from outside the meteorite. So, the muscle fiber structures should be indigenous to the meteorite.
IV. Conclusion
Characteristic cross-striations exist in the internal and external structures of skeletal muscle fibers. Motor axons cross over skeletal muscle fibers as a rule and terminate with motor end plates on the muscle fibers. The above two features are integrated and found in skeletal muscle tissue only. The two features are found in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. The morphology, organization, and context of those structures indicate they were the structures of skeletal muscle fibers.
References:
Ref. 1: Chin K, Eberth DA, Schweitzer MH, Rando TA, Sloboda WJ, Horner JR. (2003) Remarkable preservation of undigested muscle tissue within a Late Cretaceous tyrannosaurid coprolite from Alberta, Canada. Palaios. 2003 Jun;18 (3):286-94.
Ref. 2: Meyer, C., (2006) Mars Meteorite Compendiumhttp://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/antmet/mmc/XXV_NWA998.pdf
Ref. 3: The Tom Phillips Microscopic Meteorite Gallery is located at http://www.meteorite.com/meteorite-gallery/meteorites-alpha_frame.htm . The three micrographs are named NWA998-400X-xpol-0013 (Fig.1), NWA998-400X-xpol-0016 (Fig. 2), and NWA998-160X-27 (Fig. 9).
Ref. 4: Treiman, A.H., Irving, A.J. ( 2008) Petrology of Martian meteorite Northwest Africa 998, Meteoritics & Planetary Science 43 (5) P. 829–854
Acknowledgements: The author wishes to thank Mr. Tom Phillips for his micrographs displayed in his gallery; The Meteorite-Time Magazine and The Meteorite Exchange, Inc. for hosting The Tom Phillips Microscopic Meteorite Gallery;Visuals Unlimited for their micrographs in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6; TopVelocity.net for their illustration in Fig.7;The Free Dictionary for their illustration in Fig. 8.
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