• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

The Oldest Colored Molecules On Earth Are Bright Pink

April 15, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Long before black became the world’s most fashionable color, life on Earth was dressed in neon pink. Remnants of this distant rose-tinted era can still be seen in the fossilized remains of bacteria that lived in an ancient ocean 1.1 billion years ago, making them the oldest known biological pigments on the planet.

The discovery was made in 2018, when researchers analyzed rocks found in a marine shale deposit hundreds of meters below the surface of the Taoudeni Basin in Mauritania. Amazingly, the researchers were able to extract molecular fossils of chlorophyll from the fossilized cyanobacteria within this primordial rock, surpassing the next oldest examples by around 600 million years.

Advertisement

Normally green in color, chlorophyll is the primary pigment found in photosynthesizing plants and algae, yet took on dark red and purple hues when extracted in concentrated form from the ancient microbes. After dilution, the pigment appeared bright pink, providing a glimpse of the tint that may have colored the early seas.

“The bright pink pigments are the molecular fossils of chlorophyll that were produced by ancient photosynthetic organisms inhabiting an ancient ocean that has long since vanished,” explained study author Dr Nur Gueneli in a statement.

In addition to resurrecting the earliest known biological color, the researchers were also able to reconstruct the composition of photosynthetic life in the oceans of the mid-Proterozoic era, which lasted from around 1.8 billion to 800 million years ago. By analyzing the nitrogen isotopic values within the fossilized pigment, they determined that these ancient seas were dominated by tiny cyanobacteria, while larger planktonic algae were virtually absent.

Such a finding helps to explain why complex animals had not yet evolved at this time, suggesting that the kinds of photosynthesizing microbes that existed at the time simply weren’t big enough to sustain highly developed life forms. 

Advertisement

“The precise analysis of the ancient pigments confirmed that tiny cyanobacteria dominated the base of the food chain in the oceans a billion years ago, which helps to explain why animals did not exist at the time,” Dr Gueneli said.

“Algae, although still microscopic, are a thousand times larger in volume than cyanobacteria, and are a much richer food source,” continued study author Dr Jochen Brocks.

“The cyanobacterial oceans started to vanish about 650 million years ago, when algae began to rapidly spread to provide the burst of energy needed for the evolution of complex ecosystems, where large animals, including humans, could thrive on Earth,” added Brocks.

The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Canadian opposition leader tells debate: ‘I’m driving the bus,’ won’t bow to party hardliners
  2. “Man Of The Hole”: Last Known Member Of Uncontacted Amazon Tribe Has Died
  3. This Is What Cannabis Looks Like Under A Microscope – You Might Be Surprised
  4. Will Lake Mead Go Back To Normal In 2024?

Source Link: The Oldest Colored Molecules On Earth Are Bright Pink

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • World’s Oldest Pots: 20,000-Year-Old Vessels May Have Been Used For Cooking Clams Or Brewing Beer
  • “The Body Is Slowly And Continuously Heated”: 14,000-Year-Old Smoked Mummies Are World’s Oldest
  • Pizza Slices, Polaroid Pictures, And Over 300 Hats: What’s Left Behind In Yellowstone’s Hydrothermal Areas?
  • The Mathematical Paradox That Lets You Create Something From Nothing
  • Ancient Asteroid Ripped Apart In Collision Had Flowing Water
  • Flying Foxes Include The World’s Biggest Bat And The Largest Mammal Capable Of True Flight
  • NASA Responds To Claims That Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Is An Advanced Alien Spacecraft
  • Millions Of Tons Of Gold Are In Earth’s Oceans, Potentially Worth Over $2 Quadrillion
  • The Race Back To The Moon: US Vs China, Will What Happens Next Change The Future?
  • NOAA Issues G3 Geomagnetic Storm Warning As 500,000 Kilometer Hole Sends Solar Wind At Earth
  • Lasting 776 Days, This Is The Longest Case Of COVID-19 Ever Recorded
  • Living Cement: The Microbes In Your Walls Could Power The Future
  • What Can Your Earwax Reveal About Your Health?
  • Ever Seen A Giraffe Use An Inhaler? Now You Can, And It’s Incredibly Wholesome
  • Martian Mudstone Has Features That Might Be Biosignatures, New Brain Implant Can Decode Your Internal Monologue, And Much More This Week
  • Crocodiles Weren’t All Blood-Thirsty Killers, Some Evolved To Be Plant-Eating Vegetarians
  • Stratospheric Warming Event May Be Unfolding In The Southern Polar Vortex, Shaking Up Global Weather Systems
  • 15 Years Ago, Bees In Brooklyn Appeared Red After Snacking Where They Shouldn’t
  • Carnian Pluvial Event: It Rained For 2 Million Years — And It Changed Planet Earth Forever
  • There’s Volcanic Unrest At The Campi Flegrei Caldera – Here’s What We Know
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version