What is a palaeontologist doing on Mars? Pushing her boundaries...Problematica, n: a term used in palaeontology to refer to fossils that appear to be either of unknown taxonomic origin, or whose occurrence in the location they are found contradicts current beliefs of the field. The find was made by a teenager, a "funny fossil" no one has seen before out in the middle of the Arizona desert. And right in the middle of controversy: the strange shaped fossil could help to explain one of the greatest mysteries of Earth's past, the great die off at the KT boundary. It warranted a big dig, one that could lead to the mother lode, and professional immortality. But what Dr Helen Sutter didn't realise was that it would take her all the way to Mars!
Description:
What is a palaeontologist doing on Mars? Pushing her boundaries...Problematica, n: a term used in palaeontology to refer to fossils that appear to be either of unknown taxonomic origin, or whose occurrence in the location they are found contradicts current beliefs of the field. The find was made by a teenager, a "funny fossil" no one has seen before out in the middle of the Arizona desert. And right in the middle of controversy: the strange shaped fossil could help to explain one of the greatest mysteries of Earth's past, the great die off at the KT boundary. It warranted a big dig, one that could lead to the mother lode, and professional immortality. But what Dr Helen Sutter didn't realise was that it would take her all the way to Mars!
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