Suppose we are able to terraform Mars-we manage to heat up the planet, restore the atmospere, and melt the subsurface ice. Now Mars has planet-wide seas-how long would it take for life to evolve in these oceans? I assume that blue-green algae would be the first Martian life form to emerge.
But is it possible that long-dormant Martian life would emerge?
I suppose we would be seeding these seas with earth-based plants and bacteria-if we did this, how long before the Martain seas would be teamng with life?
Near as I can tell the earliest microbial fossils date from about 1 billion years after the formation of Earth. It’s another 2 billion years or so for multi-cellular fossils. So I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Much more likely that we seed it with Earth organisms and see what happens. Though I’d expect it wouldn’t take too long for seeded life to spread I couldn’t put a number on it.
I’d give it less than one billion years. The first billion years after the Earth was formed the Earth was very inhospitable. Life formed on Earth pretty much as soon as Earth became a bit more stable.
Start this thread over in a different forum, ralph124c. I’ll give you a hint: the name of the correct forum rhymes with “Beneral Questions.”