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Ancient River Bed Snakes Like the Spine of a Dragon Over Martian Valley

Slowly but surely, we’re getting closer to the moment when we’ll discover the remnants of life on Mars. We say “when” because the piling amount of evidence of it having existed there is slowly pushing the “if” out of the equation.
River bed in the Mawrth Vallis region of Mars 6 photos
Photo: NASA/JPL/UArizona
River bed in the Mawrth Vallis region of MarsRiver bed in the Mawrth Vallis region of MarsRiver bed in the Mawrth Vallis region of MarsRiver bed in the Mawrth Vallis region of MarsRiver bed in the Mawrth Vallis region of Mars
Some people are so convinced that we will eventually find traces of life on the neighboring planet that have now begun wondering “what” type of life that will be. Will we find traces of some microscopic bug, too little to have impacted the planet in any way? Will there be larger creatures, such as insects, or maybe even rodents? Or did Mars have enough time and resources to develop, sometime in its long-forgotten past, much larger creatures?

Until we get the answer to all those questions, we're left with imagining stuff, and to do that, as you already know by now, we here at autoevolution use the images the HiRISE camera has been sending back for years now from Martian orbit.

This one, shot back in September last year from an altitude of 286 km (178 km), shows a portion of the Mawrth Vallis that seems to contain the remnants of an ancient river.

In fact, scientists from NASA and the University of Arizona, who study these pics for a living, say that for certain a river flowed across this portion of the planet long ago. They can tell by the rocky bed left behind after all the water disappeared.

The area is enhanced by a dark ridge, officially named inverted channel (and there are plenty such features scattered on the surface of the Red Planet), that is in fact the river bed that rose above the eroded surroundings.

But to the life-on-Mars-hungry minds, the entire image seems to show the fossilized remnants of a dragon-like creature, snaking over the reddish Martian soil.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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