At Lunch
@LUNCH - WATCH: Are 'fossils and prehistoric tools found in NASA images' proof of 'life on Mars'?─── 13:30 Mon, 27 Jul 2015
The footage allegedly discovered potentially fossilised remains of creatures exposed in rocks on the Red Planet and prehistoric tools.
The rover, a robot-like all-terrain vehicle, is charting Mars with close-up images which are regularly beamed back to the American space agency's headquarters, with some released publicly.
YouTube channel Martian Archaeology is collating videos made by "researchers" who trawl through images and footage looking for apparent traces of any current or former occupation of the planet by extra terrestrials.
Ever since the Viking Orbiter caught the famous image of what looked like a martian face carved into stone on the surface of Mars in the 1970s, people have been finding examples of "remnants left by alien civilisations on the Red Planet within its rocky, dusty surface.
Scientists say pareidolia - the brain's automatic reaction to trick the eye into seeing faces and familiar objects such as animal shapes in patterns, textures, or clouds.
But in one new video made by Alien Life, it is claimed there are skeletal remains in a rock, and a Humanoid-made device.
US UFO hunter Scott C Waring, who viewed the clip said: "This fossil was discovered by Martian Archeology of YouTube.
"He found the fossilised remains of a creature on Mars."
Mr Waring said: "It's hard to tell what this looked like originally, but some of its remains are a little way away form it, at the lower part of the photo.
"Also I found something that is bowl shaped and has a hinge on the end of it. It is made by intelligent beings."
A few other posters commented that "it looks like bones", but another joke it was the "skeleton" of R2D2 - the two-legged droid from the Star Wars films.
Other videos show what have been called alien bones, a fossilised fish, a dinosaur head and prehistoric tools.
Viewers of each video are split with comments such as "No doubt a fossil" and "It could be an alien creature. The evidence of life on Mars is huge," to "people clearly see what they want to in these images. This is clearly a unique rock formation."
Former NASA software engineer and analysts Tim Reyes remains firmly in the pareidolia camp.
Writing for Universe Today, he said: "As our imagery from Mars continues to return in ever greater detail and depth, scenes of pareidolia will fall to reason and we are left with understanding.
"It might seem sterile and clinical but its not. We can continue to enjoy these fascinating rocks – dinosaurs, rats, skulls, human figures – just as we enjoy a good episode of Saturday Night Live.
"And neither the science or the pareidolia should rob us of our ability to see the shear beauty of Mars, the fourth rock from the Sun."
Nasa has responded to some of the images saying they must be unusually-shaped eroded rocks.
