People have been preoccupied with finding life on Mars for hundreds of years, ever since Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli turned his telescope to the red Planet, making him the first man to map Mars. Schiaparelli observed dark areas, which he presumed to be seas, connected by linear features hundreds of kilometres long, he called “canals.” The findings fired the public’s imagination, triggering an obsession that has lingered ever-since.

Fifteen specimens were photographed by NASA growing out of the ground in just three days

What appears to be algae, lichens and "Martian mushrooms" have all been photographed by the NASA Opportunity and Curiosity Mars rovers.

And photos of 15 mushroom-shaped specimens purport to show them growing and even emerging from beneath the red sands of Mars.

Dr Regina Dass, of the Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, India, the study's co-author said: "There are no geological or other abiogenic forces on Earth which can produce sedimentary structures, by the hundreds, which have mushroom shapes, stems, stalks, and shed what looks like spores on the surrounding surface.

“In fact, fifteen specimens were photographed by NASA growing out of the ground in just three days."

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