Taviani Marco, Montagna Paolo, Hosie Andrew M, Castellan Giorgio, Kemper Catherine, Foglini Federica, McCulloch Malcom, Trotter Julie
Istituto di Scienze Marine (ISMAR), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Bologna, Italy.
Stazione Zoologica 'Anton Dohrn', Naples, Italy.
Heliyon. 2024 Apr 4;10(8):e29206. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29206. eCollection 2024 Apr 30.
A whale fall community of chemosymbiotic invertebrates living on cetacean bones has been identified off southwestern Australia during a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) survey at bathyal depths within the Bremer Marine Park, which is part of important marine mammal areas (IMMA) of the Albany Canyon Region. Cetacean bones on the seafloor of the Hood Canyon, consisted of isolated skulls of three species of beaked whales (family Ziphiidae): cf. , , and , a few vertebrae, and lower jaws. One of the beaked whale skulls ( cf. ) was sampled and found to be intensely colonised by hundreds of specimens of a bathymodilinae mussel (" s.l.) Live polychaetes (?), skeneimorph gastropods, and amphipods (, ) colonised the skull bone, which represent a later stage (sulfophilic) of carcass decomposition. The reducing sediment below the skull was inhabited by lucinid () and vesicomyid () chemosymbiotic bivalves. Additionally, the sediment thanatocoenosis comprised shells of various other chemosymbiotic bivalves, such as , thyasirids, lucinids, vesicomyids, and limpets, representing the complex ecological turnover phases through time in this whale fall chemosynthetic habitat. With one exception, all bones recovered were colonized by bathymodiolin mussels. This is the first documented case of a chemosynthetic community and associated chemosymbiotic fauna relating to beaked whales, and the first fully documented record of a whale fall community within the Australian Southern Ocean region.
在对布雷默海洋公园深海区域进行的一次遥控潜水器（ROV）调查中，于澳大利亚西南部海域发现了一个以鲸类骨骼为生存依托的化能自养无脊椎动物群落。布雷默海洋公园是奥尔巴尼峡谷地区重要海洋哺乳动物区域（IMMA）的一部分。胡德峡谷海底的鲸类骨骼包括三种喙鲸（剑吻鲸科）的孤立头骨： cf. ， ，和 ，还有一些椎骨和下颌骨。其中一个喙鲸头骨（ cf. ）被采样，发现上面密集地栖息着数百只深海贻贝（“ s.l.”）的标本。活的多毛类动物（？）、斯凯内莫尔腹足类动物和双足虾类（ ， ）在头骨上栖息，这代表了尸体分解的后期阶段（嗜硫阶段）。头骨下方的还原性沉积物中有发光蛤类（ ）和囊蛤类（ ）化能自养双壳贝类。此外，沉积物中的死亡群落包括各种其他化能自养双壳贝类的壳，如 、孔螂、发光蛤类、囊蛤类和帽贝，代表了这个鲸落化学合成栖息地随时间变化的复杂生态周转阶段。除了一个例外，所有回收的骨头都被深海贻贝占据。这是有记录的首例与喙鲸相关的化学合成群落及相关化能自养动物群，也是澳大利亚南部海洋区域内首个有完整记录的鲸落群落。
