title: The Antarctic cold desert and the search for traces of life on Mars.
abstract: The cryptoendolithic microorganisms that live inside rocks in the frigid Ross Desert of Antarctica can serve as a terrestrial model for what may have happened to life forms on Mars when the planet became dry and cold.  Trace fossils of microbial rock colonization exist in Antarctica, and similar structures could have formed on Mars.  In some respects, such trace fossils could be an easier target for life-detection systems than fossils of cellular structures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2043, USA.
authors.forename: E I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Friedmann
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D003081:Cold Climate; D003889:Desert Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D018559:Exobiology; D005580:Fossils; D055593:Geological Phenomena; D005844:Geology; D008011:Lichens / Q000502:physiology*; D018535:Mars