Year of Publication
2019

Journal

Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
Volume
208
Date Published
09/2018
Number of Pages
73-84
HCERES category
ACL - Articles in international or national peer-reviewed journals indexed by HCERES or in international databases
Abstract

<p>Shells of the three subphyla of extant and extinct representatives of the phylum Brachiopoda display coloured patterns with diverse shapes and at different degrees. These colourations are readily visible in natural light but are best revealed under UV light for the fossils concerned. To identify these pigments, Raman spectroscopy has been used for the first time on brachiopod shells. The widespread identified pigments belong to the carotenoid family, best represented in all the animal kingdom, the second one concerns themelanin/melanin-like pigments and, surprisingly, additional molecules of the cytochrome family are revealed for the first time in one of the brachiopod shells studied. The putative functions of shell pigmentation, still under debate, are discussed.</p>