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July 11, 2018 21:51 EDT
When we think about the natural hues of the Earth, the rose does not usually come to mind. Scientists say, however, that it is actually the world's oldest color.
Yes, the color of flamingos, chewing gum and Barbie is officially the first known color to come to life on the planet. Of course, the colors have existed as long as the Earth was alive, but the rose is the very first pigment produced by ancient living organisms that has long since disappeared.
Scientists find the rose of a billion years
published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that the bright pink pigments of 1 , 1 billion years ago were mined rocks buried in the Sahara Desert in Africa. This counts as the oldest known colors in the geological record.
Dr. Nur Gueneli of the Australian National University discovered pigments, which originated from the Taoudeni basin in Mauritania, according to a university press release. This was part of her Ph.D. studies, and she says the pigments found are about half a billion years older than those that were previously discovered
"Bright Pink Pigments are the molecular fossils of chlorophyll. "The photosynthetic organisms that inhabit an ancient ocean have long since disappeared," says Gueneli
. The team of international researchers has crushed the old powdered rocks in order to extract the old molecules of long dead organisms In its concentrated form, the fossils have actually spread from red to purple, but they look pink when diluted
The ancient microscopic bacteria used to rule the world
Another important discovery is that of the oceanic ecosystem, a billion years ago was dominated by cyanobacteria, Gueneli explains that it is probab the reason why there were no animals at that time.
Large organisms could not thrive at the time because they had to eat foods larger than cyanobacteria like algae. However, there was an extremely limited supply of these potential sources of food in the ancient marine environment.
"Algae, although still microscopic, are a thousand times larger than cyanobacteria, and are a much richer food source," says Dr. Jochen Brocks, Senior Researcher and Associate Professor at the School of Medicine. Earth Sciences Research of the ANU. He adds that the most complex ecosystems emerged when algae began to spread more rapidly.
The cyanobacterial oceans would have disappeared about 650 million years ago, stimulating the time of larger organisms on Earth
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