The planet formation process, of which we know very little,but which most agree involve molten cores, volcanic activity and expansion and contraction to form a hard crust would indicate that such planets must go through a stage of warmth while their cores are still very active.

When their cores stabilize or are no longer as active, cooling of the surface ensues.

I suspect core activity is directly related to the position of the planet from the sun and is primarily a helio-magnetic reaction between the core plasma and the solar field.

The core temperatures and frequencies generated make the process an electrochemical reaction to the field and it's give and take. Earthquakes, plate tectonics and volcanic activity would be triggered by adjustments in the field.

The easiest way to envision this is that the molten core is like applesauce in a microwave - it starts popping and spraying as it reacts to the high frequencies put upon it. However, when the frequencies subside, so does the activity and movement. If molten core planets interact in this manner with the sun then different points in the solar field will react differently. A planet that changes it's orbit may suddenly go from hot active core to a relatively cold inactive core.

Naturally, such a change would completely confound those in trying to estimate the age of such cold, inactive planets if they believe that core activity is linked to some internal cycle.

So Mars almost certainly had a warm period of high volcanic activity. In the condensation, cooling process, as Mars' core became less active, elements such as water and then ice were formed as temperatures dropped - first at the poles due to polarity with the geofield and then depending on the planetary field mechanics on element formation, elsewhere.

Life therefore may have had a chance to form, or not, in such regions where field activity and element development were high and stable for a period.

Take Earth out of it's current orbit, make it more eccentric and we would likely soon see all life, vegetation and oceans vanish from the earth. First in a sea of heightened volcanic action spurred by field hot spots and then by subsequent cooling in cold spots. Earth would soon look much like Mars, with perhaps some ice remaining at our poles and an alternating cold and hot wasteland elsewhere. Any remnants of life would be swallowed whole by the planet. The atmosphere would dissipate as the planet's fields diminish and to explorers from other worlds Earth would look brownish, desolate and lifeless - a far cry from the blue marble we are accustomed to seeing.