User:Robertinventor/Simple animals could live in Martian brines - Extended Interview with planetary scientist Vlada Stamenković: Difference between revisions

==Background information - historicalhistory contextof ideas of oxygen breathing life on Mars==

A historical 101 on multicellular life on Mars may be of interest here. First, of course back in the early twentieth century there was much speculation about oxygen breathing multicellular life there, with Lowell even speculating that intelligent Martians built the canals that he thought he could see in his telescope. By the time of early spaceflight it was already clear that the atmosphere was far too thin for terrestrial animals, but there was some hope for plant life. But the early observations from space showed a barren crater covered land and since then the idea of life on Mars has focused mainly on anaerobic microbes and photosynthetic life.

In 2014, however, researchers for DLR, Vera et al surprised many astrobiologists with their experimental result that multicellular lifelichens could bepotentially possiblegrow on present day Mars. ButThis is multicellular life, but only in the form of photosynthetic life able to produce its own oxygen. SomeThey took some lichens, such as {{w|Pleopsidium chlorophanum}} arethat were able to survive in close to Mars-like conditions high up on Antarctic mountain ranges, andsurviving only on the humidity in the air without any water. These did show promise in Mars simulation chamber experiments. They can do this because the algal component is able to make the oxygen needed by its fungal component. They can also do this without needing any extra water as intermediary, in the experiments they are able to grow in partial shade, using only the night time humidity of the atmosphere itself.

InIt principleis youalso couldpossible alsoto have microscopic (submulticellular millimeteranimals sized)that multicellularcan animalsmanage inwithout anoxicoxygen conditionsat all (sub millimeter sized). There are only a three species of suchthese creatures known on Earth, however, and they are not candidates for life on Mars. They are three species of {{W|Loricifera#In_anoxic_environment| Loricifera}}, tiny animals about the size of a large amoeba, are able to survive without oxygen in deep extremely salty mud sediments in the Mediterranean.<!--See sources in linked Wikipedia article and: Animals thrive without oxygen at sea bottom in background sources -->