Chinese scientists discover a large whale “necropolis” on the seafloor in the south-eastern Indian Ocean, near the Diamantina fracture zone off Western Australia. Multiple outlets describe it as the largest, deepest and oldest whale graveyard found so far. Reporting based on research published in Nature says the site contains an extensive accumulation of whale remains spanning hundreds of miles (with one account describing an area about 1,200 kilometres long) and reaching depths of roughly 7 kilometres. Fossils and carcass remains date back more than 5 million years, with some reporting a specific age around 5.3 million years. The findings indicate that whale falls create long-term, specialized deep-sea ecosystems, not just isolated carcasses. Sources also note that the remains show evidence of multiple whale types, including beaked and baleen whales, and that the site supports marine life feeding on the carcasses. Several reports say the surrounding fauna includes species believed to be new to science, alongside a broader fossil record that provides information about deep-ocean biodiversity and whale evolutionary history.