Case file · Cosmic event
The Orgueil meteorite and its planted seeds
A carbon-rich meteorite fell at Orgueil near Montauban on 14 May 1864. A century later, in 1964, one fragment was found to contain plant seeds glued in with coal dust.
1864 CE · 43.91, 1.41 · status: hoax
The account
The fall itself was real, and Orgueil remains one of the most studied carbonaceous chondrites. The tampered piece was a 19th-century hoax, apparently meant to support spontaneous generation during the Pasteur debates; nobody noticed it for 98 years.