If you heat up two simple acids—formic acid and oxalic acid—in a hot, pressurized water environment, they both make the same kind of fatty molecules, so either one could work as a starting material to make these lipids.

Under hot, watery conditions similar to those deep under the ocean, certain chemical reactions can make oily molecules similar to those found in living things — from very small ones to really big ones, including both plain oils and oils with oxygen in them.

If you heat up formic acid or oxalic acid in a metal container at a high temperature for a couple of days, it can turn into a bunch of oily, waxy, or fatty substances similar to those found in living things.