
Life on Mars? Fossil find shows it's possible - narad
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/21/us-fossils-life-idUSTRE77K1TE20110821
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Sharlin
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>

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maaku
? 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.

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bh42222
_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.

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sili
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.

