Possible Fossil On Mars At The Foot of Mount Shar

Yep, it most certainly could be a case of pareidolia, but the Mars image I've uploaded, shows what appears to be a fossil on a rock close to Mount Shar. I was reading a story in Popular Mechanics about the latest pictures that Curiosity took on Sept. 8th.

The images show buttes and mesas of sandstone that have eroded into striking layered cliffs at the foot of the 18,000-foot-tall Mount Sharp. Just like sedimentary rock formations on the Earth, the layers of material can help planetary geologists read the history of that region of the planet

I clicked on a picture from this article and noticed a strange image on one of the rocks.

Picture:


Zoomed in using Paint program in Windows 7:


I then Googled "lizard fossils in sandstone and shale" and found the following picture:


Well, the above picture isn't a "lizard", it's a prehistoric bird. It's called a "Archaeopteryx" and is from Nicholas Geist's site at Sonoma State University, California. I thought it looked similar in shape to what appears on the Mars rock. If the image on the Mars rock is, in fact, a fossil, I see "something" with a long curved neck and a slender, curved tail. If the "Archaeopteryx" fossil had it's neck extended and it's wing bones behind, it would look even more similar. Most likely pareidolia, but I thought it was an interesting catch. Cheers!

Not good enough. Interesting, but why would this be on the surface.

It looks like there is more than one...wink* wink*, nudge* nudge*

-Chris

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Possible.

I'm just not seeing it. Looks like a rock.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Need's a much higher resolution shot but it does look like a fossil to my eye's though of course there are many other thing's that it may be as well, though it remind's me of a rib cage like structure and a curled skeletal possibly spine or spine analogue of a vertebrate type creature.

It is theorized that MARS was indeed once extremely suitable for life and there was a stratification process similar to that on earth including water born deposits and clay's (alluvial deposits) and sand stone but as yet I don't think they have found any limestone which here on earth was created by life and is essentially the compressed bone's and shell's of ancient sea creature's mainly, diatom's etc.

There is plentiful evidence from MARS past before it's atmosphere was stripped way and possibly from a time when MARS may have had a far more protective magnetosphere that it once had rain fall and river's, lakes and sea's so a full weather cycle was present.

This mean's weather driven water erosion and leaching of minerals from rock's, atmosphere that was potentially far more suitable to life than is now there, the remaining atmosphere being largely carbon dioxide would also point to the lost atmosphere having had at least a percentage of oxygen, the remaining carbon in the carbon dioxide also suggest's that a carbon cycle would have been possible.

MARS is of course much smaller than the earth but that does not preclude the possibility of life there and even now there may still be lingering microbial life in deep strata living off chemo synthetic process just as have been found here on earth below several kilometers of solid rock so even today it may not be as dead as we assume, indeed life may even have began earlier there than on earth as MARS may have been habitable and suitable for life far earlier than the earth was.

Another potential candidate in the solar system is Earth's twin Venus, now too hot but it may not have always been so and indeed there could have been a period up to maybe two or more billion years during which time this near twin of the earth may also have had a liquid water ocean and it's atmosphere may not have been so deadly, we know from earth that about 750 million years ago the sun may have warmed up ending a 1 and a half billion year period of super ice ages on the earth (Snow ball earth theory - I am conjecturing that it may have been increased solar output that ended this period during which the earth is hypothesised to have frozen over right to the equator's from 2.25 billion to 750 million years ago) and potentially it's solar wind also increased, this coupled with MARS weak magnetosphere may have been the death blow for both MARS and the much closer to the sun plant of VENUS, the increased solar wind may have taken thousand's or million's of years to strip MARS remaining atmosphere away but the cooling planetary core of the small world and it's weakened magnetic shield probably also exposed any surface organism's to increased solar and cosmic radiation meaning that many life form's had they existed would likely have gone extinct even while MARS still had sufficient atmosphere for them to otherwise survive.

So possible and perhaps it is something NASA should take a closer look at.

Nice find.

a reply to: Orionx2

MARS still receives periodic impact's from the asteroid belt which can throw massive amount's of debris around, the wind weathers the rock's as well and the surface is sand blasted in the Martian storm's which can wind erode these type of features out of rock's, as the rock on mars is stratified just like on earth and a lot of that strata is alluvial (Water deposited from MARS wetter past) in nature it can be eroded out as weaker - less dense - layers are weathered away from beneath and above it just like on earth, also MARS is much colder than on earth.

At high summer near the MARS equator you would be lucky for the thermometer to approach a cold day at the south pole here on earth in relative temperature but of course there are still small sheltered pocket's near the ground that probably warm up a little more and then there is carbon dioxide ice which freeze's and melt's at lower temperature's than water and of course can split rock's just like water ice does here on earth, there are plenty of area's near to both pole's here on earth that if you put a rose tinted mask over your camera you could pass off as MARS and some conspiracy theorists whom believe that to be the case will latch onto this as further proof of there theory that this is actually imagery from a small island near the arctic circle.

Now I do believe this is MARS but also that NASA is keeping quiet about too much.

If you live at a colder latitude think about what happen's if you forget to bring those clay plant pot's into shelter before it start's to ice over, the moisture inside the coarse fired clay of the plant pot expand's and the pot crack's or even shatter's, same principle and of course this cracking can also separate stratified layers as moisture or in this case carbon dioxide between the layers expand's when it freezes (martian summer and winter cycle) and so forces them apart.

50/50 chance, at best

1/1000 more likely

a reply to: FlyingFox

That is a given and a fair estimate if even in some eye's generous but it is definitely still worth a closer look if NASA were so inclined and it does look like one.

(I by the way am one of those that believe's life and more did one once exist on mars so my opinion may be schewed a tad).

Not sure about the fossil, but I zoomed the entire picture and there is a lot of really odd looking things all over the image. Brings back memories from years ago when some of the best odd shapes and anomalies were being discussed. Some of the shapes and materials in this image here though have a look about them that sends out pretty strong alarm bells, mentally speaking. I Think there is much more in this image and others that tells a story that hasn't been told yet.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

you know i miss the french guy that always had a mars rock that had some sort of anomaly.
what was his name? arkin or something like that.

anyway it was always the same, it's just a rock.

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

That was one of the few movie series where the spoof was perhaps better than the movies it was taking the micky out of.

You make a good point, even proven fossil's are just rock's after all they are merely the imprints of something dead long ago and often mineralized remain's are all that is left of the original creature.

Also on alien world's we have to be aware that the next best candidate to carbon is of course silicon so silicon based life is a very real possibility.
en.wikipedia.org...

There may even be world's were we would simply freeze or burn instanty but other element's are in a liquid state and take the place of water in there biosphere, silicon is my favorite though, imagine natural organic computer's growing like lichen on an alien world over the surface thinking thought's that a simple primitive bipedal species far away has not even concieved of yet.

I absolutely do not believe any complex life of that size would arise on Mars. At best soft-bodied aquatic things like worms or exoskeleton creatures like a bivalve would be a maybe, at best.

Very cool! I definitely see it. The "fossil" really jumps out at you. I don't know if it really is a fossil skeleton of some extinct Mars dinosaur or not, but I love this kind of thing. Mars anomalies and potential Mars fossil evidence is what made me find this website. I really miss seeing these sorts of posts here on ATS. Seems like most of the users who kept up with and documented this sort of stuff got banned for some reason. :/

Thanks for sharing.

There's an ammonite fossil on the rock behind it. Under the 'or' of 'front legs or wings'.

See it? Looks more like a fossil than anything else on that photo.

Looks like a fossil. I love seeing the different images of things people have seen on Mars.

a reply to: shawmanfromny

It's too pixelated to say what it is

It's a shame we don't have the "enhance" ability they have in the film industry

a reply to: shawmanfromny

You forgot a link to the original image.

It does look like a fossil at this distance, but that doesn't mean much.

Nice find, anyway.

a reply to: ArMaP
That I did....my apologizes. Thanks for the heads up!

For those interested in reading the article in Popular Mechanics, here's the link:
www.popularmechanics.com...

Looks exactly like one of the many mineral veins on Mars.

www.jpl.nasa.gov...
www.nasa.gov...

They were created by an evaporating lake that sat in Gale crater billions of years ago.