Morphology: An ambiguous indicator of biogenicity

Juan Manuel García Ruiz, Anna Carnerup, Andrew G. Christy, Nicholas J. Welham, Stephen T. Hyde

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

138 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper deals with the difficulty of decoding the origins of natural structures through the study of their morphological features. We focus on the case of primitive life detection, where it is clear that the principles of comparative anatomy cannot be applied. A range of inorganic processes are described that result in morphologies emulating biological shapes, with particular emphasis on geochemically plausible processes. In particular, the formation of inorganic biomorphs in alkaline silica-rich environments are described in detail.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)353-369
Number of pages17
JournalAstrobiology
Volume2
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2002

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