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"Old gear oil is the smelliest stuff ever. The smell with penetrate through nyrtril gloves.

I heard that the old used some kind of animal fat that turns rancid. Hence the smell."

Sulfur.

Sulfur is a high pressure additive in gear oils. I have heard the sulfur molecules described as being like blades of wet grass. Tough and slippery. If you have slipped on wet grass, you can relate :)

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Side note, original Packard Ultramatic fluid (Type A) used whale blubber in it. I have some in my basement and it doesn't smell rancid at all, even after sitting in a transmission pan literally 70 years. It has a mild but hard to describe smell. Not the sharper odor of modern Type F transmission fluid.