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So if there were life on Mars, they'd probably be carbon-based and have similar proportions of Hydrogen, Oxygen, and so forth. But the exact mechanism of DNA and RNA is only going to be in use there if we share a common ancestor.
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Or if we can't prove they're related and they have huge similarities to Earth-based life that would also be significant. Whatever happens, if there is or has been life on Mars we're going to learn a hell of a lot about what the spark is. It won't be an overnight realization, but the more we explore and dissect mars to learn about it's geological history to more information we'll have to compare to life starting on Earth.
I'd love for Life to become a significant taxonomic rank. Earth or Mars life, that are totally distinct. Not even a fork in the tree*, but another starting point for a second tree entirely.
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Tree or other more appropriate graph-based representation of the evolution of life on Earth