The common ancestors.
" the first issue is to determine whether [eventual forms of life ] had an origin independent of terrestrial life. On Mars, for example, we can imagine that interplanetary exchange had occurred and that Martian and terrestrial life might have a common ancestor. If it doesn't, then the major scientific questions involve determining whether there are fundamentally different solutions to the issues of storing energy (ATP on Earth), reproduction and passing on genetic information (the structure of DNA and RNA) and catalyzing chemical reactions (enzymes). Of course the other, perhaps most important, issue that we would address is the uniqueness of life on Earth. Having even a single example of an independent origin of life would have philosophical consequences on par with the recognition that the Earth goes around the Sun rather than vice versa and that life on Earth has evolved through natural selection from a common ancestor. Knowing of such life would help us to question the underlying issues of who we are as a species and a civilization and, in effect, what it means to be living and what it means to be human" - Bruce Jakosky- space.com article  on April 2001
These are genuine (terrestrial) oysters: these samples are about 8 millions year old.	Now one of the oysters has been inserted into a real MOC image. Does it look so different?
also be shure to check this page
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