Bright pink is the oldest color in the world

Scientists at the Australian National University have discovered the world's oldest colors, and they are pigments from bright pink color

be "old", not to mention the "older"? Well, bright pink molecules represent the first colored molecules in the geological record – 600 million years older than the previous results. At about 1.1 billion years old, they are even anterior to the dinosaurs .

Nur Gueneli a paleobiogeochimist who earned him his doctorate. at the Australian National University, she discovered the molecules by studying shale crushed during her doctoral program.

"I heard her screaming at the lab when she came out and she ran into my office," said Jochen Brocks . 19659007] a professor of Earth Sciences at the ANU, according to the BBC .

The molecules range from blood red to deep purple in their concentrated form, and are bright pink when diluted. The search for Gueneli and Brocks on them appears in the July 9, 2018 issue of PNAS a scientific journal.

The shale rocks containing the pigments come from the West African country. Mauritania. A mining company mined the shale some ten years ago from the Taoudeni Basin, under the Sahara Desert, after digging several hundred meters into the ground. (100 meters is about 328 feet.)

Bright pink pigments are "molecular fossils" of an ancient ocean that has long since disappeared. The shale containing these fossils has been found deep beneath the Sahara Desert in Mauritania. (Photo by Keith Hamshere / Getty Images)

Gueneli says that bright pink pigments are "molecular fossils" of an "old ocean that's long gone." Brocks says that they really represent "the oldest biological color" since if you dug up a bone Tyrannosaurus rex "it would also have a color, it would be gray, or brown, but that would not tell you anything about the skin color of a T. Rex, " he says The Guardian .

"If you find now preserved, the fossilized skin of a T. Rex, so that the skin still has the original color of a T. Rex, say that it is blue or green, that would be incredible, "he continues. (We actually have a preserved dinosaur skin 110 million years scientists hope to study the microscopic residue of its original pigments .) "It's basically what we discovered … only 10 times older than the typical T. Rex."

In addition to being the oldest colors, these pink molecules alive also tell us about the evolution of life. Although the Earth dates back to 4.6 billion years ago, large, complex creatures appeared about 600 million years ago. Pigments aged 1.1 billion years old were made by microscopic creatures. "Accurate badysis of ancient pigments has confirmed that tiny cyanobacteria dominated the base of the food chain in the oceans a billion years ago, which is why animals do not have it. been in existence at the time, "Gueneli said in the UNA press release.

To have a bigger life, you need a larger, non-microscopic food.