I really don't know why I'm wasting my time on this, but here goes:

Here's what a thought provoking post could have looked like:

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Hi everyone, was looking at the raws for spirit today and came across this <a href=""http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pancam/2005-01-05/2P158151042EFFA273P2447R1M1.JPG">interesting photo from the pancam on sol XXX. Anything jump out at you?

It did me. See that rock in the foreground ? Three quarters of the way from the right and a tenth up from the bottom. It's surface isn't smooth like the other igneous rocks we've seen so far, there are a number of random pits or holes. The holes don't look all that deep, and they seem to be of uniform size. If you look around the image, you'll see smaller rocks that have larger holes in them. Other images from the area (include link) show other rocks with holes.

I'm wondering what caused this. Has anyone posted on this?

There is another rock in the image that catches my eye. It's on the far right hand side, about .6 from the bottom. It's triangluar with a strange linear shape midway through it, inclined ~30 degrees to the right. Looks like a snake! (just kidding) It actually looks like a thick dike or vein in there. It certainly does stand out, so it might be harder than the rock around it. That could be interesting. It might be an igneous intrusion, or it might be related to hydrothermal fluids. I think it's worth a closer look if they had the time. Is it too late now?

Could the differential weathing of large crystals (as discussed earlier in this thread) in these rocks be causing the pitting? If so, I wonder what the TES shows from here. (gosh, I wish we could see that data in real time. This is like waiting my normal several weeks for samples to come back from the lab.) Most of the basalts Spirit has seen have been pretty fined-grained. It'd be great to see a larger grained mafic igneous rock. Maybe a gabbro, or a cummulate of some sort. Maybe something more exotic.

(I've got this theory that some of this material may be colluvium (rock fall) from the walls of the crater, so I'm keeping my eyes open.)

But there is another possibility that I'd like your opinions on. I know that there are gastropods (snails) here on earth that actually eat rock. They are pretty neat! They have this amazing radula (that's a snail's "tooth") that can be used to drill into shells to eat the goodies inside Some species can drill straight down into rocks to a depth of an inch or so, which is also great way of hiding from preditors. An article about drilling snails: is here. It's a pdf file.

Could we be seeing something like that in Gusev? I mean, there's absolutely not a shread of evidence of anything ever having lived like this on mars. So there are probably not martian gastropods running around on the surface drilling into rocks. Not now at least. But if the Gusev crater was once a lake, might such life forms have existed in it's murky depths? Trace fossils like this have been un-recognized or mis-interpreted before. How long do you think it would take mollusk type creatures to evolve of mars given ideal conditions. Was it just time that took evolution to create hard-shelled life on earth or was there some sort of new favorable environmental conditions that created the Cambrian explosion here on earth? Might it have happened quicker given different planetary evolution?

Could there be there anything else drilling holes in these rock aside from my imagination?

I know meterorites can have pitted surfaces.

Before you flame me for violating the anti-annomalist tone of this board, I am seriously wondering about this. Any comments you have, or links you can provide, would be appreciated.

BTW, sorry about the double names. I couldn't decide if I was a kook or a crank today. Thanks for the advice.

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See, it's not that hard.

Please show some respect for this place and act like a scientist.