The deep Indian Ocean has been harboring something incredible. Chinese scientists say they've found what appears to be the biggest whale graveyard ever recorded: a 750-mile stretch of seabed lined with close 500 skeletons. Some fossils in the site, west of Australia in the Diamantina Fracture Zone, are up to 5.3 million years old, making it the deepest and oldest whale necropolis known, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature.
The find was made during a 2023 expedition in which a manned submersible made 32 dives down depths of up to 23,000 feet. (The Guardian notes most similar whale graveyards have been found in waters less than 13,000 feet deep.) Scientists discovered both a new extinct whale species and bustling communities of deep-sea life feeding on the remains—jellyfish, brittle stars, bone-eating worms, sea cucumbers, squat lobsters, and saltwater clams among them, per AFP and the AP. Most of the documented fossils were beaked whale species. As for why so many whales died there, the study authors have this to say:
- "The Diamantina Zone, with its ... abundant squid and fish resources as observed during our dives, provides an ideal deep-water foraging ground for beaked whales. ... The maximum dive depth for beaked whales is estimated to be more than [10,000 feet] on the basis of lung collapse and oxygen storage. Thus, foraging at depths exceeding [10,000 feet] would be too physiologically taxing for beaked whales and may heighten the risk of fatal exhaustion or decompression sickness. Ultimately, the V-shaped topography of the Diamantina Zone may further contribute to this accumulation by funnelling and concentrating onto the sea floor the sinking carcasses."
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