Scientists discover the oldest colors of the Sahara desert in Africa

Fossils range from blood red to dark purple in their concentrated form, and to bright pink when diluted, according to a study published in the journal PNAS.

Scientists discovered the oldest colors in the geological record – bright pink pigments dating back 1.1 billion years and extracted from the deep rocks of the Sahara desert in Africa. Pigments extracted from the marine black shales of the Taoudeni Basin in Mauritania, West Africa, were more than half a billion years older than previous pigment discoveries, said Nur Gueneli of the Australian National University (ANU). These are the molecular fossils of chlorophyll that have been produced by ancient photosynthetic organisms inhabiting an ancient ocean that has long since disappeared, "said Gueneli. The fossils range from blood red to dark purple in their concentrated form and bright pink when diluted, according to a study published in the journal PNAS. The researchers milled millennia rocks into powder, before extracting and badyzing the molecules of ancient organisms.

"Accurate badysis of ancient pigments confirmed that tiny cyanobacteria dominated the base of the food chain in the oceans a billion years ago, which helps to explain why animals do not survive. Did not exist at the time, "Gueneli said. The emergence of large, active organisms would likely have been limited by a limited supply of larger food particles, such as seaweed, Jochen Brocks, principal investigator and badociate professor at ANU

"Algae, although still microscopic, are a thousand times larger than cyanobacteria, and are a much richer food source, "said Brocks." The cyanobacterial oceans began to disappear about 650 million years ago, when algae began to spread rapidly to provide the energy needed to evolve complex ecosystems, where large animals, including humans, could thrive. "