September 13, 2007

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When a whale dies and falls to the bottom in the deep ocean, it attracts a weird community of mollusks, crabs and worms that feed on its oil-rich bones. A 15 million-year-old fossilized whale discovered on Año Nuevo Island is the first fossil whale fall discovered in California, and one of the youngest and most complete fossil whale falls ever found. It shows that whale-fall organisms look for oily bones rather than large whale carcasses.Full Story

Source
University of California, Berkeley

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