Chuck asked me for more info about my thoughts, and I sent him a note -- then I realized, well, maybe others in the group would enjoy reading this. So I'm posting it here too. Thanks, Joe Hi Chuck, No, it's not that I have a bet or expected anything -- I was just startled by these things. I have spent many years searching for and finding extremely strange fossils from the Middle Cambrian era. You want to see really odd life forms, check out the Middle Cambrian. Anyhow, there's something about these Mars objects that reminds me of peculiar life forms. In one of the recent views, Opportunity used the RAT to slice through the rock where some of these things were. One of the spheres shows rootlike extensions going off, and at least one other seems to have similar structures though the RAT didn't go deep enough to really exposure them. Here's a URL: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/035/1M131296201EFF0500P2933M2... Look at the things going off the sphere on the upper right. If it were a strictly geological process I'd suspect the form would be one thing or another, that is, kind of an undifferentiated mass or spiky or spherical, but not spherical with extensions going off parallel to the rock face. They remind me of "holdfasts" that some ancient organisms had to anchor themselves in the mud of the ocean floor. The sphere on the upper left also seems to have extensions just under the surface from where the RAT stopped. Then on the lower left there's something twiglike. Maybe it is just a crack, or maybe it was formed by solution moving through the matrix when it was softer, but what if it's a sort of fossil root? At least they should investigate these things and say they're doing it. I'm surprised by the symmetry these things display above the surface, and by kind of rootlets below the surface. I hope you don't think I'm a nut or a fanatic. It has nothing to do with a belief system, and everything to do with looking at really strange Middle Cambrian fossils. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/cambrian/house.html Take a look at the Gogia fossil, third from the left under "Other Invertebrates." It's a Middle Cambrian fossil from Utah that has a basically round body plan with things radiating out -- I have found Gogia myself. I'm not saying these are anything like Gogia except that maybe they have a slightly similar look in some ways. Anyhow, after really years and years of splitting open rocks, studying reports, and finding very strange fossils, I was struck that these don't look much like any mineral form I know. But they do look a little bit like some early life forms. Just a thought I thought was worth looking into. Thanks for your patience, friend. -- Joe