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Another Perfect Trilobite

Opportunity, Charlie Flats, Sol 020

   Here is another perfect and easy to see trilobite from Opportunity.  This image is the composite from left filters 3, 5, and 6.  These are the best red, green, and blue filters available for true color images.  The original images are here at the NASA web site.

   The image from filter L5 has the best contrast and brightness overall.  In the green band, the features are strong and easy to identify.  I have magnified the image at 300% and inset it in the original color image.

Trilobite found in the images from Charlie Flats, Sol 020 by Opportunity

   Now to compare this image with a terrestrial trilobite fossil.  Look at the similarities.  The head and body are very similar to the species Phacops rana found on Earth.

   Any argument about the wild improbability of Martian animals being similar to terrestrial ones is moot- a single hard fact beats any amount of opinion or speculation every time.  This picture is that hard fact.

   Terrestrial trilobite image credit: Geology Department, University of Calgary, Canada

   Here is another perfect example - this is a trilobite specimen called Raphiophorus rouaulti and it is about 426 million years old.  Even with the angle, it is a nearly perfect image of the above Martian trilobite. Image credits - used without permission - click here to see the original image.  This is #322. 322radiophorus.jpg (11235 bytes)

 

   No matter who you are, what your background is, or what you may believe, this is very clearly a trilobite.  There are so many trilobites and other fossils on Mars that very closely match terrestrial fossils, that it makes a very clear statement.  Mars had a parallel course of evolution with the Earth, and its creatures found similar solutions to the problems of survival.

   Form and function go hand in hand.  A fish will look like a fish, a bird will look like a bird, and a trilobite will look like a trilobite.  That is the result of the laws of survival.  This is not to say that we will not find something truly alien in the Martian fossil record.  All it says is that we don't know what to look for to recognize it.  We will recognize those things we are most familiar with.