World's Largest Whale Graveyard Discovered by Sub at Bottom of Ocean: "Completely Unexpected"
Researchers identified 485 fossil sites and five active whale falls, with remains dating back 5.3 million years and a density of 759.5 per square kilometer.
- Researchers led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered a vast whale necropolis in the Indian Ocean's Diamantina Zone, detailed in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
- During a 2023 expedition using the Fendouzhe submersible, scientists mapped 485 whale fossil sites and five active ecosystems along a 1,200 kilometre stretch of the seafloor.
- Fossils dating back 5.3 million years include an extinct species named Pterocetus diamantinae, with researchers estimating the area holds over 10 million carcasses accumulated over geological time.
- Active whale falls support thriving ecosystems of invertebrates like jellyfish and brittle stars; lead author Xiaotong Peng said the scale was "far beyond anything we had imagined."
- The findings reshape understanding of deep-sea biodiversity and evolutionary history, with researchers suggesting similar whale necropolises likely exist in other core beaked-whale habitats worldwide.
176 Articles
176 Articles
Ancient Whale Necropolis Found 23,000 Feet Beneath the Indian Ocean
A 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale necropolis. Credit: Xiaotong Peng / CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Scientists have discovered a massive whale necropolis deep beneath the Indian Ocean, at depths reaching nearly 7,000 meters (22,966 feet), stretching almost 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) along the seafloor and containing hundreds of fossils dating back more than five million years. The findings, published in Nature, offer a rare look at one of the ocean’s mo…
kreiszeitung.de
tz.deIn the deep sea, researchers have discovered a million - year - old Walfriedhof, where an estimated ten million skeletons are stored.
Scientists Discover the World's Largest, Deepest Whale Graveyard, Where Cetacean Remains Have Been Piling Up for Five Million Years
The massive necropolis, located deep in the southeastern Indian Ocean, is teeming with marine life supported by the whale carcasses, including many suspected new species
Scientists Found a Massive Whale Graveyard That's Been Filling Up for 5 Million Years
A team of researchers recently found out what happens to a whale carcass sitting at the bottom of the ocean for 15 years. Now, according to findings published in Nature, a completely different team of marine researchers has one-upped that discovery by finding a whale “necropolis,” as the researchers are calling it, in the southeastern Indian Ocean: a massive whale burial ground that has been accumulating bodies for millions of years. The site si…
A huge whale cemetery discovered in the Indian Ocean has surprised the scientific community for its colossal dimensions, its age and the extraordinary biodiversity it houses. Located more than 7,000 meters deep, this gigantic site could contain up to 10 million remains of cetaceans accumulated over millions of years. The research, published in Nature magazine, reveals that this immense marine necropolis not only conserves fossils of extinct spec…
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