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Scientists have discovered what they say are the world's oldest colors – and they are bright pink.
The pigments were discovered after researchers crushed 1.1bn rocks found in a marine shale deposit, under the Sahara, in the Taoudeni Basin in Mauritania, West Africa.
"Of course, you can say that everything has color," said the principal investigator, Professor Jochen Brocks of the Australian National University. "What we found is the oldest organic color."
Brocks compared it to the discovery of a 100m T Rex bone. "It would also have a color, it would be gray, or brown, but it would not tell you anything about the type of skin color of a rex," he said.
"If you could now find the preserved and fossilized skin of a rex, so that the skin still has the original color of a rex, let's say that it either blue or green, that would be unbelievable.It's basically what we found out … only ten times older than the typical T rex
"And the molecules we found did not come from any of the above. 39, a great creature but microscopic organisms because the animals did not exist at this time. It's the incredible thing. "
The colors were discovered by a doctoral student, Nur Gueneli, who had crushed the powdered rocks and then extracted and analyzed molecules of ancient organisms from the substance.
Gueneli said Pigments were more than half a billion years older than previous discoveries.
"Bright pink pigments are the molecular fossils of chlorophyll that have been produced by ancient living photosynthetic organisms. an old ocean long gone, "she said in a statement.
The research, supported by Geoscience Australia, was conducted by ANU and conducted with US and Japanese scientists.
The rocks were sent to ANU by an oil company that was looking for oil under the rocks and sand of the Sahara about 10 years ago, said Brocks.
"They drilled a hole several hundred meters deep and they reached a black shale, oily and deep," he said. "It's turned out to be 1.1 billion years old, which is absolutely amazing."
Brocks said when Gueneli, who is his student, had discovered the colors, he was initially in a state of disbelief.
"I remember hearing cries in the lab," he said. "She came running into my office and said," Look at this, "and she had that bright pink thing.
" It turned out to be a real pigment, 1.1 billion ds. years. "
Brocks added that the discovery" was not just the coolness of having old and pink things, "but also helped solve a" very big puzzle about life "- why big Complex creatures appeared so late in the history of the Earth.
While the Earth is about 4.6 billion years old, says Brocks, animal-like creatures and others larger things like algae only appeared 600 million years ago.
Researchers analyzed the structure of the pink molecule, able to find what had produced them – tiny cyanobacteria.
"They were at the bottom of the food chain, "he said." In the modern ocean, we have algae at the bottom of the food chain. The microscopic algae are still very small but they are still 1000 times larger than the cyanobacteria.
"And you need these larger particles as a source of food so that the greatest creatures can evolve.By looking at our molecules, it became clear … there was no food source for big creatures. "He solves a very old question."
Asked how he felt when he realized that they had discovered the world's oldest colors, Brocks said, "My first thought was just "wow." I was stunned that these molecules could survive as long
"What I did not know was that these molecules could also solve a big scientific question."
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