As noted at NASA's 2019 Carlsbad Conference, we have good reason to think that life could have started on Mars using the same geo-organic chemistry that started life on Earth. If Martian life persists today on Mars, it may be in near-surface ice, low elevations, and caves, all with transient liquid brines, environments that today on Earth host microbial life. Martian life would likely use informational polymers (like DNA); Darwinian evolution requires these, and Darwinian evolution is the only way matter can organize to give life.
