Re: Mars Life Question

From: Dusty (jdb_mars_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 02/23/05 

Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 06:26:05 -0500

Who knows if on one of our machines sent there that a *** roach was not
hiding in some place and is now populating Mars with their kind? :)

"Bard Chainlink-duPont" <epheb@shalchum.org> wrote in message
news:421C3199.424A51C8@shalchum.org...
>
>
> MostlyH2O wrote:
>
> > Hi Folks,
> >
> > Sorry if this is OT, but...
> >
> > I keep reading about speculation for current or recent life on mars -
most
> > recently, the space.com article about methane signatures. Scientists
often
> > point toward terrestrial organisms that survive in the most extreme
places -
> > bone dry deserts, deep ocean vents and so on. My question is: don't
> > these terrestrial organisms owe their existence to a rich and diverse
gene
> > pool - from which their few lucky ancestors were selected?
>
> Not necessarily - just stubborn simple organisms that have been around
> for a couple of billion years. The more stable the conditions however
hostile,
> the less pressure for mutation and natural selection once a genetic strain
has
> managed to find a niche sufficient to its diet. It can sit basically
unchanged
> for a very long time with many of the more complex rules of genetic
> diversification (we know on Earth ) suspended and not active. Diversity is
not
> always the key to success or longeivity ... it would depend more on how
stable
> the Martian
> environment has been for how long following a short period in which simple
forms
> of life may have evolved, some of which survived (if any did).
>
> We usually associate activity with life. Passivity is also a basic
important
> quality
> of some life forms.
>
> There is also a seldom discussed aspect of evolution called 'anticipatory
> selection' which may affect basic life 'forms' some of which survive
precisely
> because they somehow anticipated hostile conditions and evolved to be
> in place (and in condition) to survive, while the majority of species went
> extinct.
>
> Simplicity sometimes outperforms diversity and proves most important in
the
> end, for subsequent generations.
>
> Kalab
>
>
>
> > Wouldn't mars
> > also have needed a rich diversity of life in order for these *extreme*
> > organisms to have evolved? It doesn't seem likely that life would start
and
> > flourish in very inhospitable areas - would it?
> >
> > just curious about what y'all think,
> >
> > Jack Coletti
> > St. Petersburg, FL
>

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