A predictive model for the ichnological suitability of the Jezero crater, Mars: searching for fossilized traces of life-substrate interactions in the 2020 Rover Mission Landing Site.

ABSTRACT: Ichnofossils, the fossilized products of life-substrate interactions, are among the most abundant biosignatures on Earth and therefore they may provide scientific evidence of potential life that may have existed on Mars. Ichnofossils offer unique advantages in the search for extraterrestrial life, including the fact that they are resilient to processes that obliterate other evidence for past life, such as body fossils, as well as chemical and isotopic biosignatures. The goal of this paper is evaluating the suitability of the Mars 2020 Landing Site for ichnofossils. To this goal, we apply palaeontological predictive modelling, a technique used to forecast the location of fossil sites in uninvestigated areas on Earth. Accordingly, a geographic information system (GIS) of the landing site is

SUBMITTER: Baucon A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8466086 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature