Groo's Wanderings

The oldest, deepest and most extensive whale graveyard yet discovered has been found in the south-eastern Indian Ocean, with fossils dating back more than 5m years. Whale falls – the term for dead whales that sink to the ocean floor – are not uncommon, but most have been found at depths of less than 4km (2.5 miles). By contrast, the newly discovered necropolis reaches depths of more than 7km, and extends hundreds of miles across the sea floor. The largest carcass discovered by the researchers was a five-metre long skeleton of an Antarctic minke whale. They also encountered remains of extinct species including a fossilised skull from a species of beaked whale called Pterocetus benguelae, which was dated to 5.3m years ago, and another fossilised skull from a new species the team have named Pterocetus diamantinae. Jon Copley, a professor of ocean exploration and science communication at the University of Southampton, who was not involved in the work, said: “It’s an exciting and rare discovery – not only the world’s deepest known ‘whale-fall’ colony of deep sea animals, but also such an abundance of modern whale skeletons and fossils in this particular location.” “Finding a ‘whale necropolis’ where there are nearly 800 skeletons per square kilometre is a surprise, and the mix of whale types is a puzzle,” Copley said, noting that it included some shallow-diving filter-feeding species such as Minke whales as well as many bones and fossils of beaked whales, which are very deep-diving hunters. “As the researchers suggest, such a necropolis probably results from being on a migration route for filter-feeding species, while also a good place for the hunter species to dive deep for squid, but perhaps pushing them perilously close to their limits as they dive into this crack in the ocean floor,” he said.

Every Door Keeps A Secret

Portugal

The reason apples are so complicated is because apple genetics are really unpredictable so if you grow an apple tree from seed, there's a really good chance you're gonna end up with something nasty. So, to make sure you get something that doesn't taste like garbage, apple trees are mostly propagated by graft. You like what a tree is making? You take a graft of that tree. The wide variety of apple characteristics and the fact that most apples are grown as clones means apple varieties lend themselves to creative & specialized cultivation and patenting of results. So there are many varieties and they have fun names.

Artist: Tim Brierley

I vetted the above, and it's mostly all correct...but here's some modern science to throw in the face of every one of the above bloggers because we are now exploring bio-mordants and technically not every mordant is a metal salt:

if you want the technical layout of it all: