While many people are excited about NASA’s recent revelation that water may be just inches below Mars’ surface, others have been left scratching their heads at a recently deleted press releases from Ohio University that claimed the Red Planet is teeming with both “fossilized and living creatures”.

Ohio University emeritus professor William Romoser, who is also an entomologist, made the shocking claim in an article posted to the university’s website.

“It appears that the ‘Red Planet’ enjoys a surprising abundance of higher life forms,” Romoser alleged in the statement.

He further claimed to have seen both insect-like and reptile-like beings in photos from Mars rovers.

“There has been and still is life on Mars,” Romoser wrote, “There is apparent diversity among the Martian insect-like fauna which display many features similar to Terran insects that are interpreted as advanced groups — for example, the presence of wings, wing flexion, agile gliding/flight, and variously structured leg elements.”

While the post has since been removed the university’s website, Romoser’s research is still available on other platforms.

Not all of his allegations are outlandish. For example, he said “The presence of higher metazoan organisms on Mars implies the presence of nutrient/energy sources and processes, food chains and webs, and water as elements functioning in a viable, if extreme, ecological setting sufficient to sustain life.”

While the part about higher metazoan organisms on Mars is controversial, his insistence that there are energy sources such as water on Mars is accurate.

This isn’t the first time an expert in the field has made such bold claims either. Engineer Gilbert Levin, known for working on NASA’s Viking missions to Mars in the 1970s, also published his belief that the space agency “found evidence of life” on Mars.

A spokesperson for NASA quickly pushed back on Levin’s assertions.