World's largest whale graveyard found by sub at bottom of ocean

The deepest and oldest known whale graveyard on Earth has been discovered in the Indian Ocean by Chinese scientists, revealing vast communities of deep-sea life thriving on ancient and new whale carcasses. The findings, published in the journal Nature, detail a "necropolis of this scale" with fossils dating back as far as 5.3 million years.

Researchers aboard the Fendouzhe submersible documented nearly 500 skeletons along a 1,200-kilometer corridor west of Australia, at depths reaching 7,000 meters. They were astonished by the sheer size, depth, and age range of the discovery, which far exceeded their expectations. The area, known as the Diamantina Zone, is believed to have been a popular foraging habitat that funneled whale carcasses to the seafloor.

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But discovering a necropolis of this scale was completely unexpected: the size of distribution, the depth and the age range were far beyond anything we had imagined.

"Truly incredible experience," said study co-author Peng Zhou, describing the dives conducted in 2023. The submersible collected fossil samples using robotic arms, documenting a variety of animals, including jellyfish, brittle stars, bone-boring worms, and bivalves, living off the remains. Most of the cataloged fossils belonged to different species of beaked whales, and scientists even identified a new, extinct whale species among the remains. Extrapolating from their findings, researchers estimate that over 10 million carcasses may lie within the Diamantina Zone.

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The vibrant ecosystems we saw offered a completely different perspective on this otherwise dark and cold ocean floor.