Scientists see possible fossils on Mars photos...

[cbdo2007]

Scientist Sees Possible Signs Of Ancient Life On Mars In Rover Photos

The Huffington Post | By Jacqueline Howard

Posted: 01/08/2015 8:36 am EST Updated: 01/08/2015 8:59 am EST

Evidence that Mars once harbored alien life continues to mount.

Just weeks after NASA's Curiosity rover detected spikes of methane in the Martian atmosphere--possible evidence of biological activity--a prominent geobiologist says she sees possible signs of past life in photos of the Martian landscape taken by the rover.

"We can detect sedimentary structures in rocks on Mars using the rover images," Dr. Nora Noffke, an associate professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., told The Huffington Post in an email. "The structures I describe belong to a group of microbial structures that form by the interaction of benthic (living on the ground) microbes with sediment dynamics (erosion) in clastic deposits such as sand."

In other words, if such structures do exist on Mars, that suggests the planet may have once harbored microbial life. The microbes would have existed on Mars less than 3.7 billion years ago, Noffke said.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/08/life-on-mars-photos-scientist_n_6425392.html

Photos at link of first fossils found on Mars. This is a historic time that will be remembered for generations.

[hunter]

1. Here's a better link than huffington:

http://www.astrobio.net/news-exclusive/potential-signs-ancient-life-mars-rover-photos

It seems very likely to me there was life on Mars, or even that there still is. I won't argue against it.

Nor is it unlikely that some Martian life made its way here to earth, riding chunks of rock blasted away by meteor impacts. (Or maybe, if you appreciate science fiction, on the boots of travelers...)

It's intriguing to me that there are three sorts of life on earth, all with slightly different ways of doing things. These are the Bacteria, the Archaea, and the Eukarya. Specific features of the Eukarya seem to be derived from the either the Bacteria or the Archaea. It's a fun to speculate that life on earth is a fusion of life that evolved on either planet.