Ancient bacteria caused a temperature change on Mars, making it less livable.
Simple bacteria that feed on hydrogen and excrete methane could have survived on Mars 3.7 billion years ago, according to the study.
Around the same period that early life began to emerge in Earth's primordial oceans
the birth of primitive life on Earth progressively established an ecosystem.
Sauterey and his colleagues carried out a comprehensive computer modelling exercise in which they reproduced
Mars' lithosphere contains hydrogen-consuming bacteria identical to those found on ancient Earth.
The researchers discovered that the methane produced by those bacteria steadily warmed the planet while it was on Earth.
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