Colors of 100 million years ago insects unveiled
NANJING: Colors of Insects belonging to Mesozoic ers, some 100 billion years ago, have been unveiled by Chinese and British Paleontologists. There was a range of colors from vivid green to blue to bluish-green to yellowish-green and sometimes they showed metallic purple color too, when strong light was directed to them. Their effects were stringer against a black background. These observations were reported by the team leader of the project Cai Chenyang, an associate researcher from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Chenyang added that 35 fossil specimens, preserved in mid-Cretaceous anmber, went under a microscopy analysis which revealed that majority insects were partly in vibrant colors. “Sadly, with the fossils we uncovered in the past, it was very rare for the color of creatures to be preserved. With this discovery, we know more about the ancient world,” said Cai. He further added “With the further deepening of research, people may be able to reconstruct the true colors of ancient times.”
One sample of insects, of a bluish-green color cukoo wasp, unfolded that these insects had a nanostructure that form multilayer reflectors, which gives off a bright metallic color when they are under natural light. The size of the cukoo wasp is small, which is why they can be easily preserved in the amber.
All of these findings were done in collaboration with the Institute and Department of Animal Science, Hartpury College, and were published in the beginning of this month, in a journal names “Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
