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I too have wondered about this image. But, a couple questions. If conditions are adequate for lichen there, why not more than one? Also, if this is a mineral growth due to ground water, then also why not more than one?
In any event, insofar as there is but the single unusual feature, we are given altogether too little data to come to any sort of surety.
Naetheless, I must agree with you; it certainly looks like lichen. But of course, appearances can be so deceiving.... :?
This post is not to say that there is, or was, life on Mars, but merely to comment on evolution. The fact is, life forms are now demonstrated to evolve much more quickly than anyone had ever thought. Indeed, Anole lizards on some small Bahamian cays showed impressive evolutianary trends in six months. To me, this is remarkable, and opens the possibility of rapid evolution on Mars. After all, if here, why not there?
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http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/ … _legs.html
In a reptilian version of "Survivor," lizards with longer legs ultimately get booted from islands by their short-legged opponents.
Countering the widespread view of evolution as an eon-long process, evolutionary biologists discovered that when island lizards were exposed to a new predator, natural selection occurred in a six-month period, first favoring longer and then shorter hind legs.
The findings are detailed in the Nov. 17 issue of the journal Science.
Brown anolis (Anolis sagrei) lizards spend much of their time on the ground. But as previous studies have shown, when a ground-dwelling, predatory lizard is introduced, the anoles scamper up trees. They switch to an arboreal lifestyle to escape being eaten.
Anoles’ long legs make them fast runners, giving them an advantage in a ground-based setting where not much balance is necessary.
Researchers led by Jonathan Losos of Harvard University studied brown anole populations on 12 small islands in the Bahamas. They introduced a larger, predatory lizard (Leiocephalus carinatus) to six of the islands, while keeping six other control islands predator-free.
The scientists counted, marked and measured lizards at the beginning of the study, after six months, and again after 12 months. After six months, the anole populations dropped by half or more on islands with predators. On predator islands, the anole survivors had longer legs than non-survivors, a result the scientists suggest is due to longer-legged lizards being faster runners and better able to elude capture by predators.
Tables turned, however, during the next six months. The surviving anoles became increasingly arboreal, spending much of their time in treetops. At the end of the six-month stint, measurements showed surviving anoles had shorter legs compared with non-survivors. There was no significant difference in leg length between surviving and non-surviving anoles on control islands.
Shorter limbs are better suited for navigating narrow tree branches, which the scientists figure helped the lizards evade becoming dinner.
The researchers think that, over a longer period of time, the anoles in the presence of a predator would evolve much shorter limbs.
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Granted, this is hardly proof that life ever existed on Mars, nor that life is there now. Even so, since recent research indicates that the warm period of Mars was much longer than previously believed, and since, IMO, http://xenotechresearch.com/cgi/wp/index.php has demonstrated actual fossils on Mars, I personally consider life on Mars today to be possible. Not certain, possible.
Additionally, continuing research indicates that "junk DNA" is anything but. It appears that it consitutes a reservoir of possiblities. Also, due to its most eccentric orbit and wandering of its axis, Mars periodically goes through lengthy warming and cooling trends, and seems to be in a "global warming" period at this time. Since microbes have been revived after millions of years of dormancy, could not have some life form have evolved to hibernate those periods of time on Mars? Rather fantastic I admit, but by now it's difficult for me to be surprised at the strategies life takes.
Recall also that extremophiles on this planet have demonstrated the most remarkable survival strategies. If microbial life can exist in water more acidic than battery acid, as in the Rio Tinto, might not life evolve to actually use H2O2? It seems to me to be at least within the realm of conjecture, if nothing else. Life is nothing if not tenacious and resourceful.
In any event, I myself am not prepared to entirely write off the possibility of "higher" forms of life, such as crustaceans, on Mars today. The possibilty. As for certainty, that's nowhere close, as I see things.
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