I'm pretty certain, and maybe the wish is the father of the thought, that DNA would have found it's way to Mars. Whether from Earth or Panspermia I don't know.

After it got there, what happened? Life as we know it needs liquid water, and life to develop needs time. The radiation on Mars would seem to be a mixed blessing. It might help life mutate faster, but would probably kill it faster after it did.

The cold temperatures, thin atmosphere and low gravity, coupled with direct sun would seem to all work against the liquid phase of H2O, the only one useful to life as I understand it.

Maybe, if there is heat toward the core, and some liquid water is trapped under rocks, and if some DNA found it's way down there, maybe frozen in ice before the ice got trapped, maybe there's something. And if that life developed intelligence, I wonder what their world-view would be?

The hell with it. On to Europa.

Arf