It made its way into headlines worldwide in 1996 when scientists announced that it might contain evidence for microscopic fossils of Martian bacteria based on carbonate globules observed.

"Acanthomorph" is also a descriptive name for a spiny-walled subgroup of the microscopic fossils called acritarchs.

He said there was still no evidence that life existed at the site, and the Opportunity does not have the instruments to hunt for microscopic fossils.

Such microscopic fossils are only visible under the scanning electron microscope.

In 1996, it was announced that this meteorite might contain evidence for microscopic fossils of Martian bacteria.

Nothing left but microscopic fossils in the oldest rocks... The sky wound down through degrees of deepening crimson.

Earth's deep time in the Proterozoic and deeper still in the Archean is only "recounted by microscopic fossils and subtle chemical signals."

The idea took wings in 1996 when NASA announced that a Martian meteorite carried what appeared to be microscopic fossils.

The microscopic fossils were embedded in tiny mineral grains, which were encased in another type of rock that scientists were able determine formed 3.485 billion years ago.

Geologists use both large fossils (called macrofossils) and microscopic fossils (called microfossils) for this process, known as biostratigraphy.