Fossils on Mars?

[jumpjack]

Fossils on Mars? We can't know, as MERs are geologist rovers, not paleontologist.
But, if fossils actually exist on Mars, it would be very hard to find them: fossils are usually buried, and they are also rare, as fossil formation is a very low-probability event.

Summarizing:
- Fossil formation is very rare (link1, link2)
- If fossils form, they are usually buried
- MERs have not been designed to find fossils, but to study rocks, so they can't identify fossils
- The area covered by MERs is very little, just a few kilometers: it's very difficult to find a fossil, and it is even more difficult that MERs landed in an area with so many fossils as many people say!
- A single photo of a rock does not allow any exact identification, due to lack of third dimension; two different photos of the saem object help, but it isn't still enough, due to strange effect of light & shadows; at least 4 or more images of the same place, taken at different times of the Sol, are needed to at least suppose that a rock is not just a rock
- If a probable-fossil needs to be enhanced, turned, stressed and underlined to allow other people to actually see it, then probably it is not a fossil, it is just you that are seeing things...

All people interested on MER images study are strongly encouraged to consider these things before "deciding" they found another fossil on Mars.... [-(

[Morrolan]

i agree, jumpjack, having been interested in fossils since i was a kid (which boy isn't?) and spending lots of time trying to find them (and only rarely succeeding), i'm utterly amazed how people think that these little Rovers just drive around taking pictures of rocks literally crawling with 'fossils'...

[Kullat Nunu]

One should not forget that it took three billion years to visible lifeforms appear on Earth (unless we don't count bacterial colonies). That same time, or more has Mars been unhabitable. If there was/is any life on Mars, it would be microscopic. MERs have no capacity to detect such small lifeforms even with their microscopic imagers. Hopefully Mars Science Laboratory will found some microbes or at least their fossils so we can settle this issue .

[patrick]

That same time, or more has Mars been unhabitable.

Nasa doesn’t have a conclusive answer of when (not if!) Mars had an habitable environment, so it remains all speculation.

About finding fossils by the Rovers, it would seem like a change of Null, but you can't discard it a priori.

[Raptor1967]

i agree, jumpjack, having been interested in fossils since i was a kid (which boy isn't?) and spending lots of time trying to find them (and only rarely succeeding),

I was raised in the badlands in Alberta and let me tell you if fossils are rare then my brother and I had hit the gold mine. By the time we moved we had aquired over 300 lbs worth of some very high quality items. You can view them today at the Royal Tyrrell museum in Drumheller. There wasnt a day that went by without us finding something interesting and new. Allthough A lot of what we found was very easily identified these faded obscure things I have been seeing (Mars Fossils) dont resemble anything I have found

[Morrolan]

I was raised in the badlands in Alberta and let me tell you if fossils are rare then my brother and I had hit the gold mine. By the time we moved we had aquired over 300 lbs worth of some very high quality items. You can view them today at the Royal Tyrrell museum in Drumheller. There wasnt a day that went by without us finding something interesting and new. Allthough A lot of what we found was very easily identified these faded obscure things I have been seeing (Mars Fossils) dont resemble anything I have found

what can i say, Europe just isn't the goldmine for surface based fossils some areas in North America are...

[majic]

I was raised in the badlands in Alberta and let me tell you if fossils are rare then my brother and I had hit the gold mine. By the time we moved we had aquired over 300 lbs worth of some very high quality items. You can view them today at the Royal Tyrrell museum in Drumheller. There wasnt a day that went by without us finding something interesting and new. Allthough A lot of what we found was very easily identified these faded obscure things I have been seeing (Mars Fossils) dont resemble anything I have found

what can i say, Europe just isn't the goldmine for surface based fossils some areas in North America are...

You say it right here "surface" <--

Because of continous erosion by water/environment, and because of the plantgrowth the fossils get burried.

with just a few meters of ground or rock removed one can easely see the fossils - in spain with EVERY roadconstruction there are stretches of rock going on for kilometers that are _littered_ with fossils. Just the organic toplayer of ground is removed to get to the rock...

I have a place in Spain I frequent, and they dug the toplayer from the mountain there - and also in that case there are millions of fossils on a stretch of land just a kilometre long or so.

Type of fossils on that specific spot is limited to organic ones (I have not spotted inorganic sorts - yet) . The stone however is mostly very fragile and hence is not suitable for conservation or display..

anyways my point is that fossils in an environment such as mars would not weather as quickly, and would not get burried as quickly on the surface of mars as they would on earth.

IF there are fossils on mars, I'm convinced they could be viewed on certain places on that planet without much problems.

[Morrolan]

anyways my point is that fossils in an environment such as mars would not weather as quickly, and would not get burried as quickly on the surface of mars as they would on earth.

IF there are fossils on mars, I'm convinced they could be viewed on certain places on that planet without much problems.

don't forget that fossils are formed because upon death the animal or plant is immediately covered preventing usual decay, then the layers have to solidify and petrify after which some of the remains fossilise (i.e. the organic tissue -generally bone- is replaced with minerals). this happens underground. for the fossils to become exposed again you require a very active environment (wind, water and/or a geologically active area) which then again exposes the fossil to the surface. exposure then usually spells the end of the fossil.

if exposed fossils are to be found on Mars it is the result of extreme 'weathering', not the lack of it.

[edited for typo]

[tlbs101]

My brother-in-law and nephew live near Boise, Idaho, USA, and routinely go out on fossil-hunting trips, coming back with nice specimens everytime. Brother-in-law has some very nice double-imprints of leaves inside of sandstone layers, and he has had people offer him lots of money for some of them (I have a few "gifts" from him myself). So fossils are not as rare as one might believe.

But I still agree with the assessment about Mars -- these apparent fossils are most likely not.