Fossil-like object spotted by Opportunity

Found a thread on Badastronomy.com about this interesting organic looking spiral-shaped object in the center of this photo, taken from the Opportunity rover on Mars. What do you suppose it is?

Here's a link to the full picture:
marsrovers.nasa.gov...

good find.
can't say what it might be, but it doesn't look indigenous to the dry, lifeless mars i keep hearing about..

they where creating threnses on mars to see what is under the top soil. they are doing this with the wheels so I think its just the prints of the wheels.
I pasted a image just look at the wheels they got the same profile on the tires to gain grip in the loose soil.

Its not from the treads, the image in question is of a RAT'd area and has been taken with the microscopic imager. The object in question is tiny. Very interesting though, it looks like the one on the rock 'McKittrick Middle Rat' on Sol 30 or so.

It looks like a fossil called Archimedes. Check out the links for pictures.

www.uky.edu...
www.museum.vic.gov.au...
www.physci.wsc.ma.edu...

I'm telling you people--the spheres look like Hindia sponge fossils and now this bryozoan looking fossil? Not to mention the rocks that look like stromatolites. Opportunity landed in what was once a warm shallow sea!

I believe that Mars was warm and wet, until the impact of the asteroid or comet that formed the Hellas Planitia and the Tharsis bulge on the opposite side of the planet. I think it basically vaporized the liquid water and atmosphere of Mars, and ejected large amounts of matter into space. Even if this happened 350 million years ago, it would have allowed enough time for these lifeforms to have developed if they followed the same timeline as our own planet.

NASA is supposed to make an announcement on the rover findings today at 2 pm est. I wonder if they will even mention the possibility of life on Mars...

It could be a tiny shell fish. I doubt its anything but just a rock formation but who knows. It also looks like a macoroni!

It's just what would be expected to be seen from a dried up sea floor. And since it is the "simplest of life-forms we would expect"...

I wonder... haven't seen it mentioned lately...

Remember when scientists found the Martian Meteor in Antarctica, and how it had microscopic life signs? Why isn't NASA making a connection, or trying to 'disprove' that as they 'disproved' the Martian Sphynx?

Originally posted by soothsayer
It's just what would be expected to be seen from a dried up sea floor. And since it is the "simplest of life-forms we would expect"...

I wonder... haven't seen it mentioned lately...

Remember when scientists found the Martian Meteor in Antarctica, and how it had microscopic life signs? Why isn't NASA making a connection, or trying to 'disprove' that as they 'disproved' the Martian Sphynx?

And there are more occurrences of this shape.

NASA is dodging the issue as fast as they can,
other folk are pointing this out before any of the
fotos 'approved for public consumption' are posted.
What you see is far less than 100% of the data beamed down,
and only that which gets past the NASA censor committee is posted.
Dig through the archives and you will find hints of the approval processing (file naming, etc.).

See another little serrated edge
(Look carefully in the foto in the lead post)

Notice NASA is silent regarding stems on the mistletoe

Also: they haven't addressed the issue of seasonal sediment layering:
- why layers are weak bonded (!biomass).


[Edited on 2004-3-4 by Teknik]