The indicated region (white box) shows black fungi at a sharp boundary
Posted on 12/28/2010 1:35:28 PM PST by decimon
A particular type of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintains its vivid colours because it is alive, researchers have found.
While some rock art fades in hundreds of years, the "Bradshaw art" remains colourful after at least 40,000 years.
Jack Pettigrew of the University of Queensland in Australia has shown that the paintings have been colonised by colourful bacteria and fungi.
These "biofilms" may explain previous difficulties in dating such rock art.
Professor Pettigrew and his colleagues studied 80 of these Bradshaw rock artworks - named for the 19th-Century naturalist who first identified them - in 16 locations within Western Australia's Kimberley region.
They concentrated on two of the oldest known styles of Bradshaw art - Tassel and Sash - and found that a vast majority of them showed signs of life, but no paint.
The team dubbed the phenomenon "Living pigments".
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Taint tint ping.
Pretty amazing imo.
Perpetual slime. But purty.
Bacteria are there because these art pigments are a bunch of crap.
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Some of the Bradshaw paintings predate and rival the Aurignacian cave paintings of Southern France.
There’s a fungus amongus.
My crobe, your crobe, everybody’s crobe.
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