Wave-driven rapid detachment of the skull in stranded sperm whales

<p dir="ltr">Continuous monitoring of four sperm whales that were simultaneously live-stranded, documenting post-mortem decomposition under natural high-energy wave conditions.</p><p dir="ltr">This dataset documents the post-mortem decomposition of four young male sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) that were found live-stranded at Heisaura Beach, Chiba, Japan (34°56′21″N, 139°49′6″E) in 2025. The whales were assigned individual IDs (A–D), and their post-mortem morphological changes were monitored over one week using ground-based photography, aerial drone observations, photogrammetry, and LiDAR scanning.</p><p dir="ltr">The drone video provides a chronological record of the decomposition, disarticulation, and wave-driven transport of the whale carcasses.

Drone surveys were carried out once on August 5 (16:00), six times on August 6 (08:00, 11:00, 14:00, 16:00, 17:00, and 18:00), and once on August 7 (07:00).</p><p dir="ltr">The 3D datasets were acquired between August 5 and 7 using photogrammetry (iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro with Polycam) and LiDAR scanning (iPad Pro 11-inch, 3rd generation, 2021, with Scaniverse). Each ZIP archive contains a reconstructed 3D model together with the associated files required for visualization.