Uncover Some of the Greatest Ocean Discoveries of the Last Century

The ocean has always been a place of wonder and mystery and over the centuries, innumerable fascinating discoveries have been uncovered from under the waves. Some have helped scientists piece together the history of ancient civilisations and our ever-evolving planet, whilst other finds have left scientists with more questions than answers. Let’s delve deep into some of the most incredible oceanic discoveries of the last century.

The lost city of Atlantis might be one of the most famous ocean legends and whilst it is thought that this underwater utopia does not really exist, there are plenty of other ancient underwater civilisations for us to explore. Palvopetri in Greece is thought to be the oldest submerged city in the world, dated at 5,000 years old. This town lay hidden right under our noses for thousands of years until a young oceanographer discovered its walls just three to four metres below the surface of the sea. Divers and experts have spent thousands of hours exploring now and have determined that the area is an early bronze age settlement which is believed to have become submerged around 1,000 BC and has never resurfaced since. Experts have drawn this conclusion as the area shows no signs of being built over or being disrupted by agriculture. Currently, remains of buildings, courtyards, streets and burial places have been uncovered along with smaller everyday objects such as jars and tableware. 

In India, another archaeological discovery has helped turn myth into reality as the tale of the lost Mahabalipuram pagodas came to life. Local myth for many years stated that seven pagodas were built by a young man who was punished for his lack of faith. Many thought this was folklore until 2004 when the enormous and highly destructive Boxing Day earthquake struck the Indian Ocean. Just before the tsunami hit, the water surged back from the shore and retreated towards the ocean, taking with it large amounts of sand and silt and in the process, revealed the tip of the hidden pagodas. Since then, submerged temples have been spotted and statues, walls, pillars and stone blocks uncovered. The myth states that six of the seven original temples were submerged by the Gods who were envious of their prosperity and mesmerising beauty, yet many now believe the eroding coastline and an ancient tsunami might be to blame. 

As if lost civilisations and temples weren’t enough, our oceans also held another great human secret for 2,000 years. The Antikythera mechanism was discovered on a shipwreck in 1901 and is thought to be the world’s earliest computer, manufactured in 100BC! The device has been eroded after centuries hiding beneath the waves but experts have still managed to identify its original purpose. Made from bronze, the mechanism is decorated with Greek characters and is extremely advanced technology for its time, containing 30 gear wheels. Incredibly, no other geared device of such complexity is known until medieval cathedral clocks were constructed a millennium later! The mechanism has two large dials, one showing the 235 lunations in the Metonic cycle which lasts 19 years. This would have been useful for regulating calendars whilst also helping to predict eclipses and other astrological events accurately. The second dial is a four year dial which is believed to show when the ancient Olympic Games should take place.

As well as uncovering the mysteries of our ancestors’ past, the ocean has been an incredible source of information about the evolution of animals. Surprisingly, a whale with legs has recently been excavated in the Sahara Desert in Egypt. Whilst being far from the sea now, the area would have once been completely underwater and today forms an important area for fossils. The four legged whale discovered in the desert is believed to be a staggering 43 million years old and its legs enabled it to walk on the land as well as swim in the ocean. We know that over a period of 10 million years, whales evolved from herbivorous, deer-like terrestrial animals to the top predators in the ocean and this discovery has shown us one of the steps in that incredible evolutionary journey. 

Similarly, fossils have also allowed us to discover the biggest shark to ever live; the megalodon. This enormous and ferocious fish is thought to have grown to 60 feet long, three times the length of our current great white sharks, and had seven inch long teeth. They are believed to have the most powerful bite of any animal that has ever lived; aren’t you glad this creature has become extinct! Fossils of their teeth have been found all over the world and after closer inspection, scientists believe that baby megalodons would have been born at a mighty 6.5 feet. The mother shark would not have been able to provide enough nutrients to allow the unborn baby to grow this big and so they would eat their unborn siblings to gain extra nutrition. Whilst this meant fewer babies were born, the ones that did emerge into the ocean were fighting fit and ready to terrorise the seas. 

One of the most recent discoveries uncovering a part of our ancient animal kingdom happened only last year in the UK. Whilst Rutland Water is no longer under the ocean, the area still contains many marine fossils and the largest UK example of an ichthyosaur fossil has been found. The ichthyosaur is similar in shape to a dolphin but were actually reptiles known as sea dragons which grew to a staggering 80 feet in length! The specimen in Rutland Water is thought to be 180 million years old and is 10 metres long with the skull alone weighing around a tonne. From examining the remains, experts believe that this particular individual was scavenged as the rear fin was facing the wrong way, the spine had a kink in it and a tooth from another individual was found nearby. Nevertheless, this has been described as one of the greatest finds in British palaeontological history, yet its excavation posed many challenges to experts. Firstly, the fossil was found in an area which is now a dedicated bird sanctuary and so the first part of the excavation simply involved shovelling an enormous amount of bird poo out of the way. Once they had access to the bones, they discovered that they were a similar consistency to a biscuit and far too fragile to pick up and move. The bones were encased in Jurassic clay which had been baked hard after years of sunshine but could fracture easily and if the clay cracked, the bones might just crack too. Therefore, it was decided that the skeleton should be protected in layers of plaster before they lifted out large sections from the earth. However, the typical British weather hindered this process as a particularly rainy and cold August meant that the plaster just wouldn’t set. Now that the bones are finally safely out of the ground, scientists can begin to remove the clay, clean the bones and analyse the skeleton before finding a permanent, and very large, home for the ichthyosaur. 

Not only are scientists discovering animal remains all the time but they are also still continuously finding new living species that we had no idea existed, particularly in the deep ocean. Tubeworms were found living in hydrothermal vents in the Galapagos Islands in 1977. These curious creatures live in one of the most inhospitable environments on Earth as they battle extremely high temperatures, toxic levels of sulphur emitted from underwater volcanic vents, no sunlight and incredibly high water pressure. When scientists first visited the area, they did not expect to find any life but actually, these critters are thriving and are one of the fastest growing creatures on the planet. By using bacteria in their gut to transform sulphur into energy, tubeworms can reach over three feet tall in only 18 months. This remarkable discovery has now got scientists questioning whether life could exist on other planets with similar environmental conditions!

The ocean still has so many secrets left for us to uncover, as scientists recently found when they travelled to the Arctic in autumn 2021. The HACON project used an underwater robot to explore the ocean 13,000 feet below the surface of the Arctic Ocean. This is the first time that we have surveyed the incredibly rare volcanic vents, known as black smokers due to the hot dark volcanic liquid they emit, and the creatures that live there in the remote Arctic. This is a unique and truly rare environment, with all the known active vent fields in the world fitting into just 19 square miles. With countries racing to mine the deep sea for minerals and oil, exploration in areas such as this is growing increasingly crucial. We must understand these environments if we want to put together a case to support their conservation. Some of the unusual creatures which live in these harsh ecosystems may produce chemicals which form the basis of future medicines and in fact, it seems likely that this might be the case as marine invertebrates produce more antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer substances than any group of terrestrial organisms. 

We have already made so many astonishing and fascinating discoveries from exploring our oceans but there are also so many more secrets waiting to be uncovered. Yet if we are to find them, we need to protect our marine environment for the future so we can continue to be filled with anticipation, awe, excitement and sometimes, pure bewilderment.

By Neve McCracken-Heywood