Boundary

A trilogy of novels co-written by Ryk E. Spoor and Eric Flint: Boundary, Threshold, and Portal (upcoming). Discovery of alien archaeological artifacts drives a mission to Mars.

Tropes in the Boundary series:

 * Canis Latinicus: Finding a mysterious fossil of a never-before-seen organism, one of the protagonists names it Bemmius secordi. The secordi is for the Secord family, on whose land it was found. Only a few people catch on that the Bemmius is her covert reference to "Bug Eyed Monster", as she's convinced it's the fossil of an alien but which isn't something she dares state publicly.
 * Christmas Cake: Helen, the paeleontologist, is forty at the beginning of the first book.
 * Cool Starship: The Nebula Storm.
 * Designated Victim: Boundary incorporates the Baen Books house joke of killing off Joe Buckley. In this book,.
 * Did Do the Research
 * Everything Sensor: The Fairy Dust is a relatively realistic version.
 * He Is Not My Boyfriend: A.J. and Jackie are two scientists who work together and are friends; they also bicker a lot. As such, Jackie always gets ribbed by the other people in their team about her "boyfriend" A.J. She vehemently denies these accusations to the knowing reaction of the others.
 * Load-Bearing Hero: A cave-in in an ancient ice tunnel. Luckily,
 * Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs
 * Shout-Out: to Fullmetal Alchemist and Saint Seiya.