Massive underwater ‘whale graveyard’ found with 5 million-year-old skeleton
Scientists say they have discovered a vast 1,200km-long “whale necropolis” up to 7km deep in the Indian Ocean’s Diamantina fracture zone, containing hundreds of fossil cetaceans
Scientists have uncovered an enormous “whale graveyard”
Scientists have uncovered an enormous “whale graveyard” in the Indian Ocean that is 1,200km (745 miles) long. The site, which is 7km (four miles) under the water, has been found in the Diamantina fracture zone, a range on the sea floor of ridges and trenches.
Some of the remains in the “whale necropolis” are as much as 5.3 million years old. It was discovered by a team of researchers from China, Italy and New Zealand.
The area is teeming with organisms and species that “may be new to science”, according to scientists writing in the journal Nature. “We report the discovery of a vast whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone (4,616- to 7,001-m depth), extending about 1,200km along the sea floor of the southeastern Indian Ocean,” they explained.
“This area has a deep and extensive accumulation comprising five modern natural whale-fall communities and 476 fossil cetaceans recorded.” During 32 dives to the site, explorers found a treasure trove of remains, including one extinct whale’s skeleton.
The beaked Pterocetus benguelae, which is 5.3 million years old, was discovered to be one of the fossilised skulls in the graves. A five-metre long Antarctic minke whale’s carcass was the largest discovery made.
A new species which the team has called Pterocetus diamantinae, after the site, was also uncovered. Jellyfish, worms and crustaceans are among the community of creatures living off the huge spread of carcasses. “The discovery of whale-fall communities in the Diamantina Zone at depths exceeding 6,700m establishes one of the deepest known whale-fall ecosystems in the ocean, extending the known depth range of such habitats by more than 2,500m,” the team added.
“Isolation, imposed by extreme depth, apparently has facilitated the development of a distinct, specialised whale-fall community dominated by species that may be new to science.” Whales are an ancient evolutionary success story, with the earliest ancestors appearing around 50 to 53 million years ago during the Eocene epoch.
Scientists say those first proto-whales evolved from furry, four-legged land mammals often compared to wolf-sized creatures such as Pakicetus – which gradually adapted to life in the water over millions of years.
While the whale family tree stretches back tens of millions of years, individual whales can also live for an astonishingly long time.
Lifespans vary widely between species: blue whales typically live around 80 to 90 years, but bowhead whales – which live in Arctic waters – are considered the longest-lived mammals on Earth, with some estimated to have reached more than 200 years.
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