Fossils of bacteria brings new hope for finding life on Mars
Submitted by mark brown on August 23, 2011 - 1:30am
Life may exist on Mars
The microbes do not have skeletons and they are extremely hard to evaluate. Their age has been determined by analyzing the rocks' microscopic structures and chemical composition. So, there is a room for error.
But if there is no error in their examination process, then this can be a huge revelation for existence of life without oxygen. These microbes used metabolized sulphur as their survival energy source instead of oxygen. That means, if those bacteria survived on earth without oxygen, they could even survive on the harsh climate of Mars also.
The origin of the microbial bacteria
Stromatolies form in low water and the complicated process of their formation goes through locking in, binding, and fortifying sedimentary particles using biofilms and microorganisms. The structures found in the black sandstone at the Strelley Pool apparently have biological derivation.
The study says, 5-80 micrometer structures were discovered that have proof of cell walls and spherical, rod, and ellipsoid shapes. The researchers also claimed that the division of iron sulphide adjacent to the cell walls seemingly reflects pyrite distribution, neighboring modern bacteria.
