Study author Nora Noffke of Old Dominion University in Virginia is an expert in such fossilised traces of microbial life.
The geobioligist has pointed out striking similarities between the Mars formation and those known to contain traces of fossilised microbe colonies here.
It’s all about the bumps, lumps, chips and cracks in the rock.
Under forensic examination, they can tell us much more than just how the rock is weathering.
The way the thick tufts of microbial “carpet” compact the sediments follows patterns. These can then be preserved as the soft mud gradually hardens into rock — creating differences in density that can become exposed as sand and wind erodes the surface away.
Such patterns also can tell a lot about the environment in which they were formed.
Microbial mats in rivers are pushed into different shapes to their sprawling lake-bed cousins, for example.
Noffke writes: “If the Martian structures aren’t of biological origin then the similarities in morphology, but also in distribution patterns with regards to MISS on Earth would be an extraordinary coincidence.”
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