When a whale dies, a very special natural phenomenon can come alive. The carcass might float at the surface for some time, attracting sharks and other predators. As it becomes weathered it may start to sink, falling through the water until it eventually settles on the seafloor where deep sea scavengers feast upon it.

The scientific record of “whale falls” is sparse and fragmentary. But a team of researchers, led by Xiaotong Peng from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has discovered a vast and ancient whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone in the southeastern Indian Ocean.

The site, described in a new paper published in Nature, dates back more than five million years and is one of the deepest known whale fall ecosystems in the world.

A whale-sized find in the middle of the........

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