Eerie deep-sea footage shows whale carcass being devoured by seafloor critters

DEEP sea scavengers have been caught on camera devouring a whale carcass.

Divers exploring the underwater volcano Davidson Seamount off the Californian coast recently spotted the spooky skeletal remains crawling in creatures.

Ocean specialist EVNautilus posted the video to and explained: "During the final dive of this year’s Nautilus expedition season, our team discovered a whale fall while exploring Davidson Seamount off central California’s coast with researchers from Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

"The skeletal remains of the whale lying on its back are estimated to be 4-5 meters long.

"The team is working to identify the species, but it is confirmed to be a baleen whale as indicated by baleen remaining along the whale’s jawbones."

The ocean explorers noted that the whale carcass still had organs and bits of blubber on it.

The scavengers on the carcass included eels and sea worms.

Eels are known to strip whale skeletons of their blubber.

Osedax worms eat bones to consume the fats within.

Other creatures joining in on the feast included deep-sea octopuses and crabs.

E/V Nautilus divers are working to explore unknown regions of the ocean and learn more about biology, geology and archaeology under the sea.

They have highlighted the whale carcass footage as important because it shows "an interesting mid-stage of ecological succession".

In other animal news, a French zoo has unveiled a mysterious new creature, which is a yellowish hunk of gunk called "the blob".

The number of whales and dolphins washing up on UK beaches is on the rise, according to recent figures.

And, the world's fastest ant can cover a yard in a second.

What do you think of the creepy whale footage? Let us know in the comments...

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