An international team of scientists has discovered a massive “whale graveyard” in the depths of the Indian Ocean, identifying hundreds of fossils and remains of cetaceans scattered over an area spanning thousands of square kilometers and at depths exceeding 7,000 meters below the surface. The discovery was published in the scientific journal Nature and was made by researchers from China, Italy and New Zealand in the Diamantina Rift Zone, a deep underwater depression off the west coast of Australia. According to the scientists, this is considered the deepest and oldest “whale graveyard” identified to date.
Researchers have recorded at least 485 finds spread over about 1,200 kilometers, while it is estimated that the actual number of remains may be much higher. The density of fossils reaches up to 759 individuals per square kilometer, suggesting that the area of about 14,000 square kilometers may contain millions of whale remains. Among the finds are modern and extinct species, including beaked whales, Antarctic minke whales, as well as a new fossil species identified as Pterocetus diamantinae.
According to the study, this area has functioned as a “natural archive” for about five million years, making it one of the oldest known deposits of its kind in the world. Beyond its paleontological importance, scientists point out that this “graveyard” is also an active ecosystem at extreme depths. Whale skeletons serve as a food source for a variety of marine organisms, including starfish, mollusks and bone-eating worms, some of which may still be unknown to science.
The discovery is expected to help provide a deeper understanding of the evolution of cetaceans and their vital role in ocean ecosystems, even long after their death.
