This dark grey or brownish meteorite type is named after the village Novy Urey (Cyrillic: Новый Урей), Mordovia Republic of Russia, where a meteorite of this type fell on 4 September 1886. Notable ureilites are the Novo Urei and the Goalpara, also named for the town in which it landed (Goalpara, Assam India).

On 7 October 2008, tiny asteroid 2008 TC3 entered Earth's atmosphere and exploded an estimated 37 kilometres (23 mi) above the Nubian Desert in Sudan.

Scientists have discovered amino acids in meteorite 2008 TC3 where none were expected, taking into account high temperatures reached in the explosion of about 1000 °C.

[2] The diamonds, which are rarely more than a few micrometres in diameter, are probably the result of high pressure shockwaves produced by collisions of the ureilite parent body with other asteroids.

[4] By contrast, a 2018 study of the diamond inclusions in 2008 TC3 concluded that they could only have formed over a relatively long period of time at high pressure, suggesting that "the ureilite parent body was a Mercury- to Mars-sized planetary embryo.