summer) in a high Arctic fjord (Kongsfjorden, 79° N, Spitsbergen, Svalbard Archipelago). It compares the shallow-water scavenging fauna observed during two contrasting seasons (winter vs. This investigation aims to reveal the level of scavenger activity during both Arctic polar night and day. Yet, the first records from this very little-explored period showcased a surprisingly rich and active ecosystem. Until recently, polar night constituted truly a “ mare incognitum” of our times. 7Department of Biology, Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.6Department of Biology, University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Norway.5Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.4PRIMER-e (Quest Research Limited), Auckland, New Zealand.3New Zealand Institute for Advanced Study, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand.2Centre for Polar Studies KNOW (Leading National Research Centre)/Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Sopot, Poland.1Marine Ecology Department, Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Sopot, Poland.Anderson 3,4, Maciej Chelchowski 1, Maria Włodarska-Kowalczuk 1, Piotr Kuklinski 1 and Jørgen Berge 5,6,7 Some bones were coated with pyrite, an indicator of high sulfur content, another characteristic common in modern whale-fall communities.Ĭretaceous seas were filled with many organisms that would look strange to a modern scuba diver, but this report seems to support that adage: The more things change, the more they stay the same.Piotr Balazy 1,2*, Marti J. Intimately associated with both skeletons were fossil snail shells of species closely related to snails found in nearby Cretaceous cold-seep fauna.Īlso, the bones were filled with channels and canals similar to those made by microorganisms in modern whalebones. One was a 26- to 39-foot-long elasmosaur and the other a 36-foot pliosaur. The report concerned two plesiosaur skeletons found in northern Japan.

Plesiosaurs came in two varieties: pliosaurs, which had short necks and large skulls, superficially resembling killer whales and elasmosaurs, which had small heads on long necks. Plesiosaurs are just one group of reptiles that took to the high seas during the Mesozoic Era. That was long before whales evolved, so what was supplying large bones to the bottom of the sea? Plesiosaurs. Such whale-fall communities are known but rare in the fossil record, going back to some of the earliest whales 34 million years ago.Ī recent article in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica extends the known record of such communities back to the Cretaceous Period 90 million years ago. Those snails often are close relatives of species that live around deep-sea vents, either hot ones (so-called 'black smokers') or cool seeps, both of which also support large populations of bacteria and algae. Those microorganisms in turn are fed upon by larger animals, especially snails. The soft parts are consumed quickly, but the bones can remain for years, to be slowly eaten away by algae and bacteria that feed on the fats and oils in the bones. When a whale dies and sinks to the bottom of the ocean, its carcass provides a windfall of food for deep-sea organisms.

Sea scavengers