Mondo Knows Facts
Tyrian purple came from sea snails
Murex molluscs yield a dye so costly it became a mark of emperors Glands in the snail contain a colourless precursor that turns purple after exposure to air and light. Thousands of animals were needed for a single gram of dye, which kept the colour rare and expensive. Chemists later identified the main compound as a brominated indigo. It sits in Mondo's science collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: chemistry, colour, history
Tyrian purple came from sea snails: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Murex molluscs yield a dye so costly it became a mark of emperors. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a science fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Science shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.