My research on the Secolo XIX newspaper

My astrobiological research has been featured on the Secolo XIX newspaper!

The article focuses on my PeerJ paper*. On Mars, all around the Belva Crater, there could be burrows and trails left by the ancient inhabitants of the Red Planet. This groundbreaking conclusion has been reached in a new study carried out by a multidisciplinary team of scientists led by me (Andrea Baucon – University of Genoa) and including Carlos Neto de Carvalho (Naturtejo UNESCO Global Geopark / D. Luiz Institute, Portugal), Antonino Briguglio (University of Genoa), Michele Piazza (University of Genoa) and Fabrizio Felletti (University of Milan). The study has been published in the September issue of the PeerJ journal (https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11784). The study combines fossil burrows (ichnofossils) from 18 terrestrial paleontological sites and sophisticated computer models to answer one of science’s most fundamental questions: where to find (eventual) life on Mars?

* Baucon A, Neto de Carvalho C, Briguglio A, Piazza M, Felletti F. 2021. A predictive model for the ichnological suitability of the Jezero crater, Mars: searching for fossilized traces of life-substrate interactions in the 2020 Rover Mission Landing Site. PeerJ 9:e11784 (https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.11784)