Scientists have discovered communities of marine life – including jellyfish, tube worms and ophiuras – thriving in a million-year-old whale graveyard.
These cemeteries are formed when whale carcasses fall to the bottom of the sea and become food for the animals in the area. Located about 7 kilometers below the surface of the southeastern Indian Ocean, this is the largest and, to date, the deepest and oldest that has been found.
“The enormous size of whales and the unique chemical composition of their bones are the key factors for the formation of these unique underwater ecosystems,” said Xikun Song, a biologist at the Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“At the same time, the very nature of the deep ocean makes these places exceptionally difficult for scientists to locate.”Song, who was involved in the latest discovery, wrote in an email.
Researchers explored the remains during several dives with a deep-sea submersible in 2023, collecting samples and mapping the extent of the necropolis. They found five sites of remains and fossils, including the skulls of beaked and baleen whales. The oldest bones date back to 5.3 million years ago.
Countless creatures, large and small, fed and lived on the corpses, including sea cucumbers, prawns, and saltwater clams. Many of them are likely species that have never been documented, according to findings published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
“The potential number of specimens is simply astonishing”said paleontologist Stephen Godfrey of the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland, who was not involved in the research.
According to the authors of the study, it is likely that many factors have come together to preserve bones for millions of years. They are dense enough to withstand attacks from bone-eating worms, and they lie deep enough in the ocean to avoid being buried by dust and loose particles. In addition, the bones were covered by a light layer of minerals from the surrounding seawater, which may have prevented their degradation.
Why did so many whales die here? Perhaps they already lived in the area and died of natural causes. It is possible that some perished from exhaustion or from illnesses caused by diving to great depths. The shape of the area, similar to the letter V, could also have funneled the remains toward their resting place, the authors wrote.
These discoveries are important because they offer scientists clues about the communities teeming with life that manage to survive even in remote and difficult-to-access environments.
“Studying whale cemeteries is important to understand how life can adapt to such extreme conditions, not only due to the lack of light and oxygen, but also due to the incredibly high pressure,” study co-author and paleontologist Giovanni Bianucci of the University of Pisa, Italy, said in an email.
This story was translated from English to Spanish with an artificial intelligence tool and was reviewed by an editor before publication.