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Creation 42(3):7, July 2020

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Oldest fossils are nothing of the sort

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In 1996, a rock that was thought to have somehow made its way to Earth from Mars was a media sensation as news outlets proclaimed “Life on Mars!” A microtubule or filament-like structure was thought to be the fossilized remains of some sort of primitive life. That’s because it was similar to alleged fossils on Earth that were claimed to be 4 billion years old.

Now a team from the University of Edinburgh has created similar-type structures in the lab that closely mimic the alleged Earth/life-on-Mars structures. They did this by mixing iron-rich particles with alkaline solutions that contained silicates or carbonates.

Researcher McMahon said, “These results call for a re-examination of many ancient real-world examples to see if they are more likely to be fossils or non-biological mineral deposits.” Of course, we agree. Indeed, if many of these ‘ancient-life’ examples turn out to be nothing of the sort, then it would be a serious dent for the idea of evolution of alleged primitive life billions of years ago.

See creation.com/life-on-mars.

  • Solving fossil mystery could aid search for alien life on Mars, Engineering and Technology, 2 Dec 2019.