Another day, another bizarre speculation surrounding the idea of life on Mars. This time the controversy is due to a strangely shaped object that apparently looks like a fossilized bear, or at least that’s what many alien hunters and UFOlogists are saying.
But before your imagination starts running wild, don’t forget that this is not the first time when ET enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists are making a claim of this sort. There have been numerous instances before when some people thought they saw different forms (e.g. a Bigfoot skull, or an extraterrestrial warrior) on other planets including Mars. It’s another thing that most of those claims/theories are eventually debunked with more plausible natural explanations.
Coming back to the “fossilized bear” theory, popular ufologists like Scott C. Waring are saying that the ‘remains’ in the image released by NASA indeed look quite similar to that of a grizzly bear.
“Even without processing the image, you can clearly see that it looks artificial. Resembles a bear or sloth-like creature to me, possibly with a shell, but to be honest, it could be anything,” he said in a statement to the Daily Star.
However, as usual, skeptics are coming up with seemingly more rational and plausible explanations such as the one that surmises the mysterious object in the image as just a weird-shaped rock.
According to the counter explanation provided by these skeptics, the image might appear similar to an animal to many because of the angle of the lighting, as well as the illumination caused by the probe when clicking the image.
Judging by similar claims and counterclaims from the past, it is highly likely that the image in question could be just another example of pareidolia (a cognitive bias that forces us to find familiar patterns even when there is none).
But now that you have seen the picture yourself, we would like to know what you think about it. Could it really be a fossilized bear? Let us know in the comments.