{"id":2557,"date":"2026-06-12T17:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T17:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2557"},"modified":"2026-06-12T17:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T17:05:14","slug":"a-submersible-ride-revealed-a-vast-whale-graveyard-and-it-holds-more-than-just-bones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2557","title":{"rendered":"A submersible ride revealed a vast whale graveyard. And it holds more than just bones"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div> <div>\n<button>\n<strong>\n<span><svg>\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n<span>Summary<\/span>\n<\/strong>\n<span><svg><\/svg>\n<\/span>\n<span><svg><\/svg>\n<\/span>\n<\/button>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Scientists exploring the southeastern Indian Ocean discovered one of the largest and deepest whale graveyards spanning 746 miles.<\/li>\n<li>The site contains fossils accumulated over at least 5 million years.<\/li>\n<li>Recent whale carcasses in the site feed communities of deep-sea species, some of which may be new to science.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<span>AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            Scientists who recently piloted a submersible to a remote spot in the southeastern Indian Ocean have identified one of the largest and deepest whale graveyards containing hundreds of fossils, including one representing a previously unknown species. But not everything in this deep-sea necropolis is dead.\n    <\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2547\">Exclusive: US military rushed to prepare ground mission to capture Iran\u2019s uranium, but Trump paused it, sources say<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            Tens of thousands of feet below the surface, dead or dying whales have drifted to the vast graveyard, their bones commingling across an area measuring approximately 746 miles (1,200 kilometers) long. Alongside the oldest bones are modern skeletons, suggesting that whale remains have settled on this spot continuously for at least 5 million years, based on the ages of the fossils, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Most of the remains belong to beaked whales, which have skulls that taper into slender snouts like those of dolphins. These whales are deep-diving and spend little time near the surface, so they are rarely seen and very little is known about their habits.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Researchers observed some sunken whale cadavers in the graveyard that were recent enough to still have scavengers attached to them; known as whale falls, these carcasses nourish diverse communities of deep-sea life, including bone-eating worms, snails, long-armed brittle stars and bivalves that survive through chemosynthesis \u2014 using chemical energy to produce their food. Many of these species may also be new to science, the study authors reported.\n    <\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"This 16-foot-long (5-meter-long) Antarctic minke whale carcass on the seafloor of the Diamantina Zone hosts 26 invertebrate species, including brittle stars, bone-eating worms, tubeworms, sea anemones&lt;em&gt; &lt;\/em&gt;and tiny amphipods.\" class=\"wp-image-2553\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bbe7501658287904dbf1f1880f5fa5be.jpg\" width=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bbe7501658287904dbf1f1880f5fa5be.jpg 768w, https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bbe7501658287904dbf1f1880f5fa5be-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bbe7501658287904dbf1f1880f5fa5be-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<span>This 16-foot-long (5-meter-long) Antarctic minke whale carcass on the seafloor of the Diamantina Zone hosts 26 invertebrate species, including brittle stars, bone-eating worms, tubeworms, sea anemonesand tiny amphipods.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<figcaption>Global TREnD<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            \u201cUntil now, whale falls were mostly based on large cetacean carcasses, mostly baleen whales,\u201d Olivier Lambert, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels, told CNN in an email. \u201cHere the authors show that beaked whale carcasses can play a similar role in some specific deep oceanic regions.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            It isn\u2019t entirely surprising to learn that a graveyard full of whale bones has been accumulating for millions of years, Lambert added. This ocean region is known to host numerous species of beaked whales, and fossil skulls of such whales have been discovered nearby, snagged by trawlers or long-line fishing vessels in deep-sea regions off Iberia, South Africa and the Kerguelen Islands.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Nevertheless, \u201cit is still really spectacular,\u201d said Lambert, who was not involved in the discovery.\n    <\/p>\n<h2>\n        \u2018It came as a complete surprise\u2019\n<\/h2>\n<p>\n            Paleontologists found the graveyard in the Diamantina Fracture Zone, an area of marine ridges and trenches to the southwest of Australia. It formed between 30 and 40 million years ago during the breakup of the Australian and Antarctic continents, and reaches depths of about 15,000 to 23,000 feet (5,000 to 7,00 meters) below sea level.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cAlthough this is a truly massive whale graveyard, reaching it is extremely difficult due to the great depth,\u201d said the study\u2019s co-lead author Peng Zhou, a researcher with the \u200b\u200bInstitute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering (IDSSE) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. The expedition was part of the Global Hadal Trench Exploration Program, an international collaboration to explore some of the least-known areas in the deepest parts of Earth\u2019s oceans, Zhou told CNN in an email.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cThat said, when we first observed this site, it came as a complete surprise to everyone,\u201d Zhou added.\n    <\/p>\n<div>\n<header>\n<span>\n      Related article\n    <\/span>\n<\/header>\n<section>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Members of a sperm whale family near the Caribbean island of Dominica are part of a clan that's culturally distinct from others. Each clan communicates in its own dialect of click patterns, like Morse code.\" class=\"wp-image-2554\" height=\"144\" src=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b9efd02a9fc73e1f9bfb93a7f590a21d.jpg\" width=\"256\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<span>Members of a sperm whale family near the Caribbean island of Dominica are part of a clan that&#8217;s culturally distinct from others. Each clan communicates in its own dialect of click patterns, like Morse code.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<figcaption>Brian J. Skerry\/National Geographic\/Courtesy Project Ceti<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\n<span>\u2018And then we saw the little head.\u2019 Scientists witness rare sperm whale birth<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div>7  min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            Zhou and his colleagues explored the zone from the research vehicle Tan Suo Yi Hao, using a submersible named Fendouzhe (\u201cStriver\u201d in Chinese), which had visited the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench \u2014 the deepest spot on Earth \u2014 in 2020. In the Diamantina Zone, they captured images of the necropolis and used the submersible\u2019s robotic arm to collect 43 fossils as well as some of the scavenging animals, using a device called a slurp sampler.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            What surprised the scientists most was the density of the fossils and the continuity of their distribution across the site, with some areas holding roughly 760 remains per square kilometer \u2014 \u201cfar higher than anything previously documented,\u201d from similar sites, Zhou said.\n    <\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2545\">Social media use at a young age is linked to earlier experimentation with drugs and alcohol<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cAccording to our estimate, there are over 10 million whale remains lying on the ocean bottom of this trench.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            As staggering as that number may seem, even more bones could be buried there under sediments on the seafloor, he added.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The researchers conducted 32 dives that took place between February and March in 2023 and found 485 whale-fossil deposits in addition to five modern whale falls. Scavengers were plentiful on the more recent remains, with one whale fall hosting up to 2,840 organisms in a single square meter. Scientists identified one of the modern cadavers as a minke whale, or Balaenoptera acutorostrata, that measured about 10 feet (3 meters) long. Remains of another modern species, Andrew\u2019s beaked whale \u2014 scientifically known as Mesoplodon bowdoini \u2014 rested near fossils from an extinct genus called Pterocetus. The oldest fossils, belonging to Pterocetus benguelae, were 5.3 million years old.\n    <\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Possible baleen whale ribs, pictured here, lie in&lt;strong&gt; &lt;\/strong&gt;the vast whale graveyard in the Diamantina Zone.\" class=\"wp-image-2555\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/06ffc97816c722ca46f5fc738d1f5348.jpg\" width=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/06ffc97816c722ca46f5fc738d1f5348.jpg 768w, https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/06ffc97816c722ca46f5fc738d1f5348-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<span>Possible baleen whale ribs, pictured here, lie inthe vast whale graveyard in the Diamantina Zone.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<figcaption>Global TREnD<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            \u201cFinding both extinct genera like Pterocetus and living species like Mesoplodon bowdoini preserved together in the same region, across 1,200 kilometres of seafloor at such extreme depths \u2014 that was truly unexpected,\u201d Zhou said.\n    <\/p>\n<h2>\n        Funnel to a graveyard\n<\/h2>\n<p>\n            As for why many beaked whale corpses ended up on this one stretch of seafloor, the answer may lie in part in the Diamantina Zone\u2019s V-shaped topography, said study co-lead author Xikun Song, a professor at the IDSSE.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cThe area serves as a habitat or migratory corridor for cetaceans,\u201d Song told CNN in an email. Beaked whales are deep-diving, but when they exceed depths of 9,800 feet (3,000 meters) they may reach their limit, \u201cincreasing the risk of fatal exhaustion or decompression sickness.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The zone then funnels carcasses to the seafloor, and very little sediment movement at those depths means that the carcasses stay exposed to scavengers. Over time, deep-sea minerals, such as ferromanganese oxide, form crusts on the bones and preserve them as fossils, Song said.\n    <\/p>\n<div>\n<header>\n<span>\n      Related article\n    <\/span>\n<\/header>\n<section>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"WhiteShark_DR-2 Derk Remmers.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-2556\" height=\"144\" src=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/283057375925f26b615ff8edccdc399a.jpg\" width=\"256\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<figcaption>Derk Remmers\/Ghost Diving\/Healthy Seas<\/figcaption>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\n<span>Rare footage of Mediterranean great white shark captured by ghost diver<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div>4  min read<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n            Another unexpected find at the site was a partial skull belonging to a previously unknown species, which the scientists named Pterocetus diamantinae. Though the fossil\u2019s age is not yet known, \u201cits discovery helps document the evolutionary history of the group and shows that highly specialized beaked whales had already evolved by the time these fossils were deposited,\u201d said study co-lead author Giovanni Bianucci, an associate professor in the department of Earth sciences at the University of Pisa.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cIt was certainly a fortunate discovery,\u201d Bianucci told CNN in an email, \u201cbut it is likely that many more fossil beaked whales remain on the seafloor of the Diamantina necropolis.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n    Mindy Weisberger is a science writer and media producer whose work has appeared in Live Science, Scientific American and How It Works magazine. She is the author of \u201cRise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind-Control\u201d (Hopkins Press).\n<\/p>\n<p>\n    Sign up for CNN\u2019s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.\n<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2537\">Judge says she doesn\u2019t believe \u2018anti-weaponization\u2019 fund is dead; extends order blocking it<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers found a huge whale graveyard dating back millions of years, with fossils, modern carcasses and deep-sea scavengers, some of which may be new to science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paleontology","category-science","category-unearthed"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A submersible ride revealed a vast whale graveyard. And it holds more than just bones - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=2557\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A submersible ride revealed a vast whale graveyard. 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