Science, Space and Technology News 2024
Colored fossil snail shells and a snail shell from modern times . Credit: Klaus WolkensteinSnail shells are often colorful and strikingly patterned. This is due to pigments that are produced in special cells of the snail and stored in the shell in varying concentrations. Fossil shells, on the other hand, are usually pale and inconspicuous because the pigments are very sensitive and have already decomposed. Residues of ancient color patterns are therefore very rare.
This makes this new discovery by researchers from the University of Göttingen and the Natural History Museum Vienna all the more astonishing: they found pigments in twelve-million-year-old fossilized snail shells. These are the world’s first pigments from the chemical group of polyenes that have been preserved almost unchanged and found in fossils.
Researchers at Göttingen University’s Geoscience Center solved the mystery. They analyzed the pigments using Raman spectroscopy. This involves irradiating samples with laser light. The scattered light reflected from the sample can be used to clearly identify chemical compounds. They detected pigments in the fossilized shells that belong to the polyene group of chemicals.
Dr. Klaus Wolkenstein, who led the study and has been researching the chemistry of fossil pigments at Göttingen University for many years, explains: “Normally, after such a long period of time, the best we can hope for is that there are traces of degradation products of these chemicals. If degraded, however, these compounds would be devoid of color. So, it was really surprising to discover these pigments, preserved almost intact, in fossils that are twelve million years old.
Reference: “Detection of intact polyene pigments in Miocene gastropod shells” by Klaus Wolkenstein, Burkhard C. Schmidt and Mathias Harzhauser, 1 February 2024,SciTechDaily: Home of the best science and technology news since 1998. Keep up with the latest scitech news via email or social media.Scientists have developed a metafluid with programmable response. Scientists at the Harvard John A.
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