The Philosophy of Life of Mars

Life probably started on Mars about the same time as on Earth. Since the asteroids and comets are the remains of ancient solar systems, life is probably scattered everywhere among them, riding along for an eternity, waiting for a chance at a new home. When life finds a place like Earth or Mars, it begins to fill every niche that it can find. On Earth, light energy was dominant and so the life of our planet has mostly arisen from creatures that first get their energy directly from the sun. But on Mars, the planet was further from the sun and the dominant form of energy was volcanic in nature. Thus, I believe that the life on Mars evolved with far more dependence on chemical energy derived from volcanoes rather than chemical energy from sunlight, as on Earth. This would mean the basic source of all food for all higher life forms, would be dependent on the biology of the base life forms, such as bacteria, that first convert non-living energy into living energy. This difference in basic evolution would probably mean that the lives that evolved from the base creatures would have difference chemistries than those of Earth which evolved from light energies. This may explain the mixed results that the Viking life experiments produced. Maybe we saw Martian life then, but just didn't recognize it because it was so different.

So life evolved on two different worlds. One world, Earth, still has lots of energy and life is still on the "upswing." A second planet, Mars, had less energy and is already on its "down side." On Mars, we now know that life evolved to a stage that would compare to insects on the planet Earth. So the question is "Does the life found within the Frass Meteorite, jive with what we know about life evolving on Earth?" I think the answer is yes.

Mars may have had oceans at one point, but it would have been early in the planet's history and they would have dried up at some time. Then the only water and heat, would have been near the active volcanoes. Everywhere water pooled bacteria-like creatures would have converted the chemical energy of the volcanoes into their own living energy. Once this process starts, then larger creatures evolve to "eat" the bacteria and then bigger things grow to eat those and maybe some learn to be "stuck" in one place (plants) and others "learned" to move about to look for their food (animals).

The Frass rock shows all the major kinds of insects we find on Earth. We have found "bug" like creatures, spider-like creatures, and worm-like creatures. All of these are creatures with an external "shell." Making a shell is a common feature in Earthly animals and I would think would apply on Mars, even more, since Mars is drier than Earth. I am very sure that some of these shelled creatures have come from within the Frass rock and therefore, I am sure that they are creatures that came with the rock.

But once the planet really began to dry and even the volcanoes were dying, wouldn't some forms of life evolve to even those conditions? The answer seems to be yes. The "glassies," as I have called them, seem to be a type of Martian life that is still capable of earning a living on the red planet, as well as, the blue planet. I have found these creatures in every nook and cranny of the Frass rock. I have found them in the very center of the rock. They seem to be able to "move" through the rock by forming these long glassy cylinders. I have found these things stretched from side to side of a vesicle, while "holding" a little "packet" of "something" in the middle. I have tried to take pictures of this, but the depth of field is just too great for my equipment and I always end up destroying the structure before I can get a good photograph. The glassies do seem to have a purpose. They seem to "know," just as fungi might "know," where to find "food" and how to get at it. They congregate around the dead bodies of older creatures, but they also seem to "eat" the rock itself, or at least the sand that is contained within the vesicles of the rock..

Thus, I think all of the life observed within the Frass Meteorite is consistent with what one would expect to evolve under those circumstances

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