11 June 2026
About this episode
Episode 375
The world’s deepest known whale graveyard has been discovered in the southern Indian Ocean. Located at a depth of seven kilometres, it contains millions of whale bones and has been described as a “deep-sea fossil megasite” and a whale necropolis.
Chinese researchers, diving in the crewed Fendouzhe submersible, undertook 32 dives along 1200 kilometres of the seafloor in an area known as the Diamantina Zone. They discovered a vast amount of whale bones of different ages.
Recent carcasses support a thriving ecosystem of invertebrates such as bone eating worms and brittle stars, but there are also fossil bones up to 5 million years old.
Why are the bones collected in this area? Join host Rowan Hooper and reporter James Woodford as they discuss the startling and eerie discovery.
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