Recently (2002) amateur astrobiologists Peter K. Ness and Greg M. Orme
published in JBIS some discovery claims regarding dendritic gullies
and similar features of the Martian landscape, features which the
authors categorize as "Martian spiders". Orme reprints the JBIS
article he

http://www.martianspiders.com/martianspiders.pdf

One of their claims regards the Fibonacci sequence, defined as:

A member of the sequence 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5,...
where each number is the sum of the previous two numbers.

In the article they claim to have discovered Fibonacci (or
"Fibonacci-type") patterns in these surface features. The claims, as
printed, are not entirely consistent. Quoting:

Complex Spider ( or Spider) – These have a
central core, or hollow, with 3 or 4 mounds
(arms or legs) extending from that central point.
These arms adopt fibonacci patterns and bifurcate
in the same way as plants branch on earth. The
arms are often rotated, typically in the same
direction – but not always. These sometimes adopt
an above ground, five-legged, star-fish shape
(Fig. 1b,c,f).

The structure that would prove an organic
model would be a fibonacci one (see below).

Some spiders may follow a fibonacci pattern
(Fig. 10a-d). Unfortunately, after 1,2,3,5 the
relationship was sometimes lost due to poor
definition of pixel size. However, the
fibonacci-type relationship is widespread
over entire platforms of complex branched
spiders.

Fibonacci branching can be counted as a percentage
of the total number of branches seen. It is
unlikely that inorganic features would follow
fibonacci patterns in large numbers by chance, so
by taking large numbers of sample photos one could
calculate the odds against chance of these being a
coincidence. This provides a way to prove whether
they are organic or not by just using the MOC images.
One can take pictures of the same area and
use this to make pictures with a continually smaller
resolution. If one checked ~10,000 bifurcations one
would then know whether spiders were organic.

What is one to make of this? Has a Fibonacci pattern been found, or
merely hypothesized, or only hoped for?

Ness and Orme did not quantify Fibonacci sequences in any of the
photos reproduced in their JBIS article. But they did state in the
article that:

Some spiders may follow a fibonacci pattern...

Curious, I went to the source. I wrote to the authors, asking (among
other things) to see some of the quantitative data behind their
Fibonacci claims. In response, Orme writes back:

I can show every spider fits this
[Fibonacci pattern] but
ultimately it's pointless because the
proof is already there mathematically,
if I traced out every photo people would
wiggle out of it some other way. I
do intend to do this and have been in the
process of this for several years
but I doubt it will make much difference.
-correspondence, Nov. 7, 2003

Orme then takes a different tack:

I'm saying you won't find them because
they don't exist. There are areas where
the branches are too fuzzy to see one way
or another but that has nothing to with anything.
-correspondence, Nov. 8, 2003

Ness follows up with his own disclaimer:

Fibonacci is not proven beyond a reasonable
doubt - it is still a theory - because no
one has ever been to Mars. [Our] conclusion
was based on interpretation.
-correspondence, Nov. 12, 2003

And that's where matters stand with the authors today. (No supporting
data was provided in correspondence.)

----------------

On a related note:

Orme has self-published interpretations of dendritic gully features,
at:

http://www.martianspiders.com/illustrations.htm

Orme has annotated a few of the photos, with interpretative comments.
I should point out one dendritic gully landform which Orme has
interpreted while under the influence of an optical illusion. Orme's
interpretation pertains to the following image, E1201762:

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e07_.../E1201762.html

Orme writes:

At D the branches climb a small hill even
though a fluid flow should just go around it.
This in effect is movement against gravity.
The bush E apparently originates from a small
hill, with the central area also at right
angles to the sun angle. The large bush has
so many branches moving against gravity it
is impossible to list them all. For example
the branch G runs over the top of a hill
instead of going around it. Examples of
Fibonacci branching are shown in white, where
the angles between the branches are
approximately equal[16]. Typically spider
branches have very similar angles between
them which gives the overall even impression.
A fluid flow should have random angles. At H
branches from 2 different spiders point towards
each other. If these were fluid flows then this
should be a depression and the liquids form a pool.

Apart from the Fibonacci claim (see correspondences above) Orme has
another difficulty here. An optical illusion has inverted the
topography, turning depressions into "hills", and vice-versa. More
importantly, the illusion has turned dendritic gullies into illusory
aboveground structures. Where Orme writes:

The bush E apparently originates from a
small hill...

We should see instead gullies converging to form a depression.

Orme acknowledges his error:

Yes it seems in that image they are below
ground after all.
-correspondence, Oct. 13, 2003

----------------

The source of the error is found in the photograph's derived values.
Two images of the same landform:

E1201762 ( http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e07_.../E1201762.html
)

and

E1301971 ( http://barsoom.msss.com/moc_gallery/.../E1301971.html
)

were published by Malin Space Science Systems with the same error.
Each has an erroneous north azimuth. The published north azimuth
values rotate the landform 180 degrees from its true orientation. (Or
said more literally: the azimuth values are correct, only the images
have been rotated.)

The net effect is to produce an optical illusion, in which craters
look like hills, gullies look like ridges, and so forth.

For true orientation, refer to the Planetary Data System's sinusoidal
projection map-image of the region:

http://pdsmaps.wr.usgs.gov/explorer-...E=256&SAMP=256

Wayne Stewart

----------------

Keywords: Peter K. Ness, Peter Ness, Greg M. Orme, Greg Orme, Martian
spider, Martian spiders, dendritic gully, dendritic gullies, spider
ravine, spider ravines, E1201762, E1301971, Fibonacci, "Spider-Ravine
Models and Plant-like Features on Mars - Possible Geophysical and
Biogeophysical Modes of Origin"