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Ancient Mars; Mars life before it became barren
Topic Started: Oct 17 2008, 12:26 AM (1,831 Views)
Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

We've all seen or read stories about Martians. They were always depicted as little green men and were said to live at the same time we did.

Now, we have sent a multitude of probes to Mars to look for life, but we have found nothing. However, we have found evidence that Mars had water on its surface billions, possible millions, of years ago.

Mars's core cooled about 3 billion years ago (not sure if that is accurate) making it lose its atmosphere as well as any life that existed.

If Mars started forming at the same time Earth did, what would life look like before it was destroyed? Keep in mind that Mars, being smaller, cooled more rapidly than Earth did.
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lamna
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The chances of anything coming for mars are a million to one...

I have often wondered about this, but I think it unlikely it ever got past microbes.
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Are nipples or genitals necessary, lamna?
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

I'm not saying that life would evolve to intelligent levels. At the least, this life would be Precambrian (characterized by soft bodied filter feeders). Depending on when Mars cooled, primitive plants and maybe a few species of worms could make their way onto land.
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lamna
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I don't know if conditions were ever stable enough for that.
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Are nipples or genitals necessary, lamna?
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Sliver Slave
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I'm going back to basics.

Interesting idea there.
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Saxophlutist
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I only think that it could have only gotten to microbal life. And if life still exist (entirely possibly) the will remain as microbes. I'm not sure 1 billion years of evolution would be enough for even ediacaran -like life.
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Yorick
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You stole my idea for a thread
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Venatosaurus
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Well what if it formed before Earth ? Then things would get interesting, I've also though of the possibility of subterranean life on Mars, but I doubt it could still exist. Something we should do on Mars is dig, to see if we can find any fossils of any life that could have existed on the Red Planet.



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agatharights
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I kind of like the idea of little strange worms...
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Actually, underground life on Mars may be possible. With the underground being shielded from radiation and soaring day-time temperatures, it's a perfect haven for life. All the ecosystem needs some sort of liquid and producers and it would be set.

One problem though: this subterranean ecosystem would need some sort of breathable gas. Any ideas?
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Yorick
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CO2?
"I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger"

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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Could work. In order for CO2 to be breathable, a creature would need a conversion system, similar to plants. I wonder if CO2 could be produced by rock-eating bacteria?
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crueldunya0000
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I'm with Lamna on this one, while there may have been water on Mars once upon a time I doubt even that would have been enough to ever sustain life.
Mars is simply too deficient of light, which even for animals that don't need it directly seems to be a cornerstone of life on Earth. Then again, I guess all circumstances are different.
Edited by crueldunya0000, Oct 18 2008, 12:18 AM.
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lamna
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I never said it could not support life, there is less light on mars but enough for plants to grow.
I said I thought the time in which mars could have supported life was to short for macrobiological life to develop. For almost the entire history of earth, life has been microbes.
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ATEK Azul
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i think it is possible and it would be a lot different from earth life since they would have too go through water, polar and then underground life styles so quick. if stuff survived it would be highly adaptable and unrecagnisable as any thing we have seen on earth they would be some thing like armored worms or centipedes that look similar too invertebrete life especialy cambrian ones since without eyes they do not need to evolve there looks and only there armor thickness and monuverability plus maybe hair like extensions too keep warm. and they would be very deep in the ground maybe past the crust of the planet driven there by meteors and other impacts.
I am dyslexic, please ignore the typo's!
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