Pink rock salt.
(Image credit: iStock.)

Earth may be known as the Blue Planet now, but evidence suggests that back in the day, it was probably pink.

Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence for a color appearing in nature: "bright pink pigments" that exist in an ancient kind of chlorophyll, said Dr. Nur Gueneli, a researcher with the Australian National University. Discovered inside rocks found under the Sahara Desert in West Africa, these pigments are believed to be over 1.1 billion years old, Interesting Engineering reported.

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Shivani is the editorial assistant at TheWeek.com and has previously written for StreetEasy and Mic.com. A graduate of the physics and journalism departments at NYU, Shivani currently lives in Brooklyn and spends free time cooking, watching TV, and taking too many selfies.