What is the world’s oldest biological colour?

Australian researchers have discovered the earliest known biological colour, and it is bright pink.

Discovered in the Taoudeni Basin, Mauritania’s black shale rocks, microscopic organisms called cyanobacteria, when held against sunlight, produced a bright pink pigment. The 1.1 billion-year-old pigments range from blood red to deep purple in their concentrated form.

In ancient oceans that no longer exist, molecular fossils of chlorophyll that were generated by photosynthetic organisms called cyanobacteria created the pink pigments found. Cyanobacteria are 15 times older than a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The earth is about 4.5 billion years old.

This data has helped scientists understand why complex plant and animal life did not appear until 600 million years ago. Cyanobacteria many times smaller than algae choked out the rich food source needed to create life, until it began to vanish about 650 million years ago allowing algae to spread, and sustain complex life.