Researchers found the world’s oldest biological color, a pink pigment produced by cyanobacteria, in ancient rocks from a Mauritanian marine shale deposit. The cyanobacteria lived over a billion years ago and were 1,000 times smaller than today’s microscopic algae. The fossilized chlorophyll inside the bacteria was dark red and purple and would give the land and sea a pink hue if diluted. The colors were discovered by Dr. Nur Gueneli, who found that they are over 500 million years older than the next oldest known pigments.
When researchers at the Australian National University began studying ancient rocks from a marine shale deposit under the Sahara Desert in Mauritania, they discovered evidence of something amazing: the world’s oldest known ‘biological color’, a pink pigment brilliant produced by cyanobacteria, photosynthetic microorganisms that lived more than a billion years ago. Cyanobacteria occupied a place at the bottom of the food chain in Earth’s ancient, long-vanished oceans and were 1,000 times smaller than today’s microscopic algae.
Back when the Earth was pink:
The fossilized chlorophyll inside the bacteria was dark red and purple in its concentrated form. If diluted by water or soil, the scientists said, it would give the land and sea a pink hue.
The ancient rocks were unearthed by an oil company drilling in the Sahara about a decade ago. They hit black oil shale, which turned out to be 1.1 billion years old.
The colors were discovered by Dr. Nur Gueneli, who was working on her doctorate at the time. You said the bright pink colors are more than 500 million years older than the next oldest known pigments.
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