Trace elements and the panspermia hypotheses

The modal concentrations of elements in four representative classes of organisms, namely bacteria, fungi, plants, and land animals, are compared with the concentrations of the elements in sea water. A strong correlation is found between these concentrations, and this correlation reduces to an expected linear concentration law when only “trace” elements are considered. Deviations from strict linearity are shown to arise from the chemical natures of the elements Apart from suggesting an oceanic genesis for terrestrial life, the data are strongly against a nonterrestrial origin of life as proposed by the panspermia hypotheses.