Bright pink 1.1-billion-year-old molecules from deep beneath the Sahara desert are now the oldest biological colors that scientists have discovered so far, and could shed light on why complex, multicellular life took so long to evolve on Earth.

This discovery “really came as a fluke,” said study senior author Jochen Brocks, a paleobiogeochemist at the Australian National University in Canberra. “About 10 years ago, a petroleum company looking for oil in the Sahara was exploring the black