Crewed submersible finds whale fossils and active whale-fall sites at up to 7002 metres in Indian Ocean survey

Researchers operating the crewed submersible Fendouzhe located whale fossils and active whale-fall sites at both 7002 metres and 5656 metres during 32 dives in early 2023. The site lies more than 1100 kilometres south-west of Perth, Western Australia. The expedition formed part of the Global Hadal Exploration Programme.

The team documented 485 active whale-fall and fossil-whale sites across 1200 kilometres of seafloor and estimated densities reaching 760 individual whales per square kilometre. 26 million years old. One new species, Pterocetus diamantinae, has been formally described from the material.

Among the younger fossils, most belonged to Andrews’ beaked whale and the strap-toothed whale. A 5-metre-long Antarctic minke whale carcass was also recorded among recent remains. Invertebrates including bone-eating worms and brittle stars reached densities of up to 2800 individuals per square metre at the active sites.

Peng Zhou of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said the submersible’s lighting allowed visibility of tens of metres across the otherwise pitch-dark seafloor. Xiaotong Peng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences noted that beaked-whale rostra are hyper dense, almost like bone armour.

55 millimetres per thousand years, combined with ferromanganese oxide coatings, has preserved many bones for millions of years.

1038/s41586-026-10546-z. Fossils were additionally recorded at 5656 metres elsewhere in the Indian Ocean during the same programme.