Life on Mars? Fossil find shows it's possible

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/21/us-fossils-life-idUSTRE77K1TE20110821

by narad • 15 years ago

27 4 15 years ago

Sharlin• 15 years ago

This is a nice find, boosting existing theories, but it's certainly not news that the early life probably thrived in a reducing, oxygen-free environment. Actually, the rise of photosynthetizing blue-green bacteria and the subsequent rapid climb of atmospheric molecular oxygen levels[1] may have caused a catastrophic extinction event, wiping out most of the contemporary life forms, undefended against the dangerously reactive chemical.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event

maaku• 15 years ago

? That's what the article is about. For reasons not explained om detail in this write-up, the authors believe that early life was thriving in that region of the world. The mass extinction(s) that followed are kinda irrelevant.

bh42222• 15 years ago

That's what the article is about.

I think the OP's point is that this has been well established for a while, article makes it sound like a new theory.

sili• 15 years ago

I don't quite see how this find sheds new information on possibility of life on Mars. I though the greatest challenges to life on Mars were large temperature variations and lack of liquid water. It is already known that life could thrive in an oxygen-free environment, after all it had to start on Earth some-how.

Life on Mars? Fossil find shows it's possible

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