The oldest biological color of the Earth discovered in the rocks under the Sahara Desert

Updated

July 10, 2018 08:26:43

The discovery of the world's oldest biological color could explain why it took 4 billion years for animal life to form on Earth.

International research led by the Australian National University (ANU) resulted in the discovery of a 1.1 billion year old color – the oldest of the geological record.

She has more than 500 million years of pigment discoveries and was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Molecular fossils were in the 39th century. Green origin, but they have a concentrated form ranging from blood red to dark purple and are bright pink when diluted.

They were extracted from rocks discovered deep buried under the Sahara desert in Africa. and were taken from marine black shale from the Taoudeni Basin in Mauritania.

The rocks were crushed into powder before extracting molecules with organic solvents to produce oil.

was pink

How can this be the oldest color in the world?

Everything has a color and the colors go back to the beginning of time.

What these researchers have found is the oldest physical color – a biological pigment. It is a molecule that had an organic color more than a billion years ago and still has one today.

One of the researchers said that it was like finding fossils of dinosaurs that kept the color of the animal. "One would find a fossilized dinosaur skin that after 100 million years was still green or blue iridescent," said Jochen Brocks, a scientist from the ground at ANU

"Then you would really have a color and that's what we found, that we found are 10 times older than a T-Rex would have been. "

How did this affect the evolution?

The Earth has 4.543 billion years ago, but complex life forms did not form on the planet up to 600 million years

So why did he it took 4 billion years for bigger creatures to appear?

At first, scientists thought it was a lack of oxygen, but it may not be the case. ] "The pigments we found tell us a different story – they tell us we are p." Assistant professor Brocks said:

Pigment badysis confirmed that tiny cyanobacteria dominated the base of food chains in the oceans

The pigments found were produced by photosynthetic organisms that inhabited an ancient ocean.

"These pink pigments, their exact structure and composition, tell us that there was a lack of a source of light. energy energy efficient at the base of the food chain, "he said.

But it took so long for larger creatures to emerge.

But when the ocean disappeared there are 650 Millions of years ago, the algae, which is a much richer food source for larger organisms, has been able to spread more quickly – the explosion of energy needed to keep the body going. evolution of the ecosystem my complex where large animals, including humans, could thrive on Earth, "he said.