World's 'oldest biological colours' found

1.1-billion-year-old porphyrins establish a marine ecosystem dominated by bacterial primary...

The oceans of Earth’s middle age, 1.8–0.8 billion years ago, were devoid of animal-like life. According to one hypothesis, the emergence of large, active organisms was restrained by the limited supply of large food particles such as algae. Through the discovery of molecular fossils of the photopigment chlorophyll in 1.1-billion-year-old marine sedimentary rocks, we were able to quantify the abundance of different phototrophs. The nitrogen...