[CNI News thanks Stig Agermose for forwarding this story from
the BBC's online news service.] (April 16, 1998) -- Researchers
at Glasgow University say a huge rock formation on the planet's
surface is probably a giant fossil created billions of year ago
by microbes. The Glasgow team believes that photographs of the
fossil on the white rock -- a 17 km-wide feature in a giant
crater -- are the strongest proof to date of life on the Red
Planet. Professor Mike Russell says he believes the formation
was caused by bacteria whose growth was fueled by the sun and
nutrients in the water in a crater lake. However, he believes
that the lifeforms probably retreated below ground billions of
years ago when conditions became harder and water disappeared
from the surface. "There probably is still life on Mars, but not
actually on the surface. Wherever there is water on a planet
there is likely to have been life. But Mars now has a dry desert
surface so there probably is not any life near the surface," he
said. Dr. Russell al