A 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone

Nature 2026 Open access

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Authors: Xiaotong Peng, Peng Zhou, Xikun Song, Giovanni Bianucci, Mengran Du, Alberto Collareta, Zhaoming Gao, Tongtong Xie, Mingyao Teng, Daniel Leduc, Sadie Mills, Kaiwen Ta
+8 more Jiwei Li, Taoshu Wei, S. Dasgupta, Hao Liu (12832), Yuan He, Wenjing Xu, Shuangquan Liu, Hanyu Zhang
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10546-z
Cited by: 5
References: 64

Abstract

. Here we report the discovery of a vast whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone (4,616- to 7,001-m depth), extending about 1,200 km along the sea floor of the southeastern Indian Ocean. This area has a deep and extensive accumulation comprising five modern natural whale-fall communities and 476 fossil cetaceans recorded. We show that carcasses host specialized communities dominated by brittle stars, bone-boring worms and chemosynthesis-based bivalves and that the fossil record in this area comprises both extant and extinct deep-diving beaked whales. Isotopic dating shows that whale falls in this region have occurred since at least 5.3 million years ago. These findings reshape the understanding of the limits and biogeography of whale-fall ecosystems and establish some deep sea floors as a fossil archive for tracing cetacean evolution over geological time.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Marine animal studies overview Marine and environmental studies Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

Publication details

Journal / source
Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Volume
654
Issue
8120
Pages
978–983
Publication date
10 June 2026
Language
EN