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News Science Gingers have been around for 10 million years, new study reveals The scientists behind the startling discovery were Irish
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University College Cork (UCC) palaeontologists discovered molecular evidence of phaeomelanin, the pigment that produces ginger colouration, in the amphibians dating back 10 million years. (Getty Images Europe) Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
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Your support makes all the difference. Read more Gingers have been around for 10 million years a new study has revealed after Irish scientists found fragments of ginger pigment molecules in fossilised frogs.
University College Cork (UCC) palaeontologists discovered molecular evidence of phaeomelanin, the pigment that produces ginger colouration, in the amphibians dating back 10 million years.
They say their findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, will enable scientists to better reconstruct the original colours of extinct organisms.
The research was led by Dr Tiffany Slater and Professor Maria McNamara of UCCās School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences. They worked with an international team of scientists from Lund University, Sweden. Fujita Health University in Japan and Linyi University, China.
Dr Slater said: āThis finding is so exciting because it puts palaeontologists in a better place to detect different melanin pigments in many more fossils.
āThis will paint a more accurate picture of ancient animal colour and will answer important questions about the evolution of colours in animals .
āScientists still donāt know how - or why - phaeomelanin evolved because it is toxic to animals, but the fossil record might just unlock the mystery.ā
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Dr Tiffany Slater at UCCās School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences said: "Scientists still donāt know how - or why - phaeomelanin evolved because it is toxic to animals, but the fossil record might just unlock the mystery.ā (University Cork College/Stephen Beech) The team performed a series of lab experiments on black, ginger, and white feathers to track how phaeomelanin pigments degrade during the fossilisation process, which backs up their interpretations of the fossil chemistry.
Study senior author Prof. McNamara said: āFossils are invariably altered by the ravages of heat and pressure during burial, but that doesnāt mean that we lose all original biomolecular information.
āOur fossilisation experiments were the key to understanding the chemistry of the fossils, and prove that traces of biomolecules can survive being cooked during the fossilisation process.ā
She added: āThere is huge potential to explore the biochemical evolution of animals using the fossil record, when we account for chemical changes during fossilisation.ā
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