International Journal of Molecular Ecology and Conservation, 2025, Vol.15, No.4, 163-174 http://ecoevopublisher.com/index.php/ijmec 1 70 Palmer Deep accidentally discovered a complete minke whale skeleton (963 meters deep) during a diving voyage in the western Antarctic Peninsula in 2017. This was the first time that a natural whale fall had been observed on-site in Antarctica (Figure 2) (Sumida et al., 2016; Bolstad et al., 2023). The community composition of this whale fall is different from that in temperate or tropical regions: During the mobile scavenging stage, there are almost no large predators such as sharks, and mainly deep-sea fish, shrimp and isopods endemic to Antarctica clean the soft tissues (Zhou et al., 2020). Overall comparison shows that the North Atlantic whale fall community lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean: it has chemogenic groups similar to those in the Pacific Ocean, but is also limited by its own species pool. The Southern Ocean, on the other hand, exhibits characteristics of low diversity and a bias towards background communities, with relatively few chemoenergy-specialized species. Figure 2 Remains of an Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) and associated biota, observed at 963 m in Palmer Deep, Western Antarctic Peninsula (Adopted from Bolstad et al., 2023) Image caption:2, Entire skeleton, largely intact, with baleen plates downslope (lower left) and caudal vertebrae upslope (upper right); 3, Anterior view; 4, Enlargement of disarticulated caudal vertebrae; a, Anemone (Actinaria indet.); b, Brachioteuthid squid Slosarczykovia circumantarctica; d, Drift algae (Cystosphaera jacquinotii and Himantothallus grandifolius); m, ‘Sea pig’ Protelpidia murrayi; n, Barracudina Notolepis coatesi; r, Rhodaliid siphonophore (novel taxon); s, Salpa thompsoni; z, Deep-sea eelpout (Zoarcidae indet.) (Adopted from Bolstad et al., 2023) 6.3 Differences in whale settlement communities of specific whale species The differences in body size, physiology and fat content among different whale species can also lead to certain variations in their whale fall ecology. Body type and fat reserves are key factors. Large filter-feeding whales (such as blue whales and fin whales) are large in size and have fat-rich bones, and their whale falls tend to be larger in scale and last longer (Li et al., 2022). Behavioral differences: Whether some whale species sink after death
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