澳大利亞現"活顏料"爲萬年巖畫着色

A particular type of ancient rock art in Western Australia maintains its vivid colors because it is alive, researchers have found。

研究人員最近發現，澳大利亞西部一種特殊的古岩石畫依然色澤鮮豔，原因是它們是"活的"。

澳大利亞現“活顏料”爲萬年巖畫着色

Jack Pettigrew and his colleagues of the University of Queensland in Australia 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 and found that a vast majority of them showed signs of life。

澳大利亞昆士蘭大學的傑克 佩蒂格魯和他的同事們選取澳大利亞金伯利地區16處地點共80幅古代巖畫—“布拉德肖巖畫”作爲研究對象，這些巖畫據說是以首次發現它們的19世紀博物學家布拉德肖的名字命名的。研究人員發現巖畫有生長的跡象。

The team dubbed the phenomenon "living pigments". "living pigments" is a metaphorical device to refer to the fact that the pigments of the original paint have been replaced by pigmented micro-organisms。

研究人員把這種現象稱爲"活顏料"。“活顏料”是個比喻，意味着繪製巖畫最初使用的顏料已被畫作表面微生物取代。

Professor Pettigrew told BBC News, "These organisms are alive and could have replenished themselves over endless millennia to explain the freshness of the paintings' appearance."

傑克 佩蒂格魯教授告訴英國廣播公司，“這些微生物是活的，幾萬年以來它們不斷繁衍，這解釋了這些巖畫何以歷久彌新”。