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Scientists have discovered the oldest intact biological colors on Earth, according to research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
An international team led by researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) extracted bright pink pigments 1.1 billion years old from deep ancient rocks of the Sahara Desert in Mauritania, Africa from the West
The pigments, found in a deposit of marine black shales, have more than 500 million years Nur Gueneli, senior author of the study of the School of Research ANU Earth Science
"Bright pink pigments are the molecular fossils of chlorophyll that have been produced by ancient photosynthetic organisms inhabiting an ancient ocean that has long since disappeared," Gueneli said in a statement
The color of fossils varies from blood red to deep purple in concentrated form, and bright pink when diluted
The new findings shed new light on the evolution of life on Earth.
For their research, scientists crushed black shale powder, before extracting and badyzing the molecules of ancient organisms. The badysis confirmed that tiny cyanobacteria – a type of bacteria that derive their energy from photosynthesis – dominated the base of the food chain in the first oceans of the Earth billions of years ago.
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This might help explain why animals did not exist at the time, according to the researchers. The evolution of larger and active organisms has likely been delayed by a limited supply of larger food particles, such as algae, at this time.
"The algae, although still microscopic, are a thousand times larger than cyanobacteria and constitute a a much richer food source. " Jochen 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 flourish on Earth. "
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