News from Mars 2018 (trace fossils?)

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

Curiosity ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager photo of novel stick-like features, taken on Dec. 31, 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL

"These features are very small, probably on the order of a millimeter or two (0.04 to 0.08 inches) in width, with the longest of the features stretching to roughly 5 millimeters (0.2 inches)."

https://www.space.com/39294-mars-rover-curiosity-weird-tube-structures.html

"They look remarkably similar to Ordovician trace fossils I have studied and photographed here on Earth,"
Barry DiGregorio
---

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity captured this image on Jan. 2, 2018, with its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI). Using an onboard focusing process, the robot created this product by merging two to eight images previously taken by MAHLI, which is located on the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

While at present it remains unclear whether or not the mystery structures really are the fossil remnants of some ancient alien species, NASA scientists are currently not ready to rule out the possibility.

"If we see more of them... then we begin to say that this is an important process that's going on at Vera Rubin Ridge," said Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada.

---

For comparison here are some
trace fossiles from earth:

Exciting times....

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Aren't the Ordovician trace fossils those of burrows? Is that what these Martian fossils are claimed to be?

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

As far as i know they are not claimed to be anything yet, by burrows excavated into the ground/seafloor or not. This can be anything like fossilized "tube worms"
they could be minerals that filled spaces where crystals dissolved away.
Curiosity Twitter.