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A delegation from Nasa, the US space agency, has been conducting research in the western Australian outback, on 3.5 billion year old fossils of micro-organisms, encased in rock, known as stromatolites.

They are thought to represent the very earliest evidence of life on Earth. Comparing them with samples brought back from Mars, could be revealing about life on the Red planet.

Newshour's Razia Iqbal spoke to Eric Ianson, director of Nasa's Mars Exploration program.

(Picture: A stromatolite found in Western Australia. Credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech)