Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo - Season 2 Episode 06- Monstrous Marvels
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00:00Mysteries can be buried anywhere, under the earth, beneath the sea, or even right under
00:14our own feet. And when we stumble upon them, sometimes what we find can change history.
00:22Tonight, discoveries that prove monsters aren't just make-believe. From a mythical creature,
00:33it's incredibly well-preserved, and it has an unmistakable base of a giant horn.
00:39This is not the unicorns of make-believe. This unicorn was built like a tank.
00:45To a prehistoric predator, they could hit running speeds up to 60 miles per hour.
00:50This bird was truly a monstrous killer.
00:54To a terrifying beast lurking in the deep.
00:58Nobody has ever seen anything like it.
01:01It has massive eyes, a gaping mouth, and its body looks like some kind of deep-sea mutant.
01:10Join us now, because nothing stays hidden forever.
01:20For one family, a simple summer hike is nothing out of the ordinary, until they spot something
01:31strange in the dirt that ends up being the fine of a lifetime.
01:36In July 2022, Sam Fisher is hiking with his pre-teen sons, Jessen and Liam, and their cousin Caden,
01:47in a rocky and rugged area of the North Dakota Badlands.
01:52The kids are running and playing, and then suddenly, they see something sticking out of a rock.
01:59It looks like long, pale bones.
02:05The father snaps a picture of Liam lying next to the bone, which is pretty much the size of his entire body.
02:11He sends it to an old high school friend, Tyler Lyssen, who is a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
02:19Lyssen takes a look at the picture, and a chill goes down his spine.
02:23It sure looks like a leg bone of a dinosaur.
02:30He thinks that it might belong to a duck-billed species.
02:35Duck-billed dinosaurs, also known as hadrosaurs, were giant plant eaters that roamed the Earth almost 100 million years ago.
02:44Patrosaurs evolved these grooved, shovel-shaped beaks that were perfect for chewing, kind of like a duck.
02:54Their fossils turn up fairly regularly in North America, China, and Europe.
03:00But any discovery that's over 65 million years old is a big deal.
03:05So Lyssen can't wait to get boots on the ground and take a look at this thing.
03:10Tyler gets a permit, and he brings his team to North Dakota to start digging.
03:15They're joined by a few extra hands, Sam, his sons, and their sister, Emmeline.
03:22On the first day of the dig, the team finds three giant serrated teeth.
03:27They carefully excavate the area, and they find the entire lower jaw of a dinosaur.
03:38Lyssen gets goosebumps.
03:39Now it's clear.
03:41This is no duck-billed plant eater.
03:44To Lyssen's surprise, the Fisher family has actually uncovered a Tyrannosaurus rex.
03:52Everyone knows T. rex is the king of the dinosaurs.
03:55These apex predators grew up to 40 feet long and weighed up to 10 tons.
04:00This one, though, seems much smaller.
04:04Lyssen takes a closer look at the size of the jaw and the length of the tibia
04:08and realizes this is even more rare than he suspected.
04:12It's a juvenile, between 12 and 14 years old.
04:17Adult T. rex specimens are incredibly rare.
04:20There's only a few dozen that have ever been found in good condition.
04:25But finding a T. rex that was still growing?
04:28That's almost unheard of.
04:30Only a handful of juvenile specimens have ever been discovered.
04:34The specimen offers a missing link in the understanding of the growth cycle of the king of the dinosaurs.
04:40Scientists gain insight into T. rex puberty,
04:44a rapid adolescent growth spurt similar to human teenagers.
04:49The specimen also has tiny maxillary teeth, highlighting the process of losing and regrowing teeth
04:54the T. rex goes through throughout its entire life.
04:57This is an absolutely mind-boggling discovery, and it's made by a few kids under the age of 10.
05:03Dinosaurs aren't the only predators that haunt our imagination.
05:09Nearly 2,000 miles away, friends on a beach stumble upon something far weirder, but just as terrifying.
05:18On July 12, 2008, Jenna Hewitt and two friends are taking a stroll along Vitch Plains Beach,
05:28a well-known surfing spot on the Montauk Peninsula.
05:31They're looking for a good place to stop and relax when they notice something in the sand.
05:37They get a little bit closer, and they realize it's some kind of a carcass,
05:42but not anything that they can identify.
05:44This creature is bizarre.
05:48It's completely hairless. Its skin is shiny and leathery.
05:53Its limbs are oddly misshapen, and it's got a beak-like snout.
05:57Jenna snaps a photo of this creepy, bruised animal,
06:01and then she and her friends go on their way.
06:05Later, Jenna posts her picture online, and almost instantly, it goes viral.
06:10On July 23, the East Hampton Independent publishes a story about Jenna's very bizarre discovery,
06:17titled The Hound of Bonnetville.
06:19Once online news site Gawker picks up the story and publishes the picture,
06:24it goes crazy, and mainstream news outlets, like NBC News, Fox News, Huffington Post,
06:29begin covering the story.
06:30And of course, they give it an even catchier nickname,
06:34The Montauk Monster.
06:36Some think it's a sea creature that washed up dead.
06:42Others think it's a land animal that walked out on the beach and died.
06:46Some say it's a pit bull.
06:48It's a turtle without its shell.
06:50It's a chupacabra.
06:52The New York City Parks Department even claims that it's a pig left over from a cookout.
06:57Most people agree it's an animal of some kind.
07:01Problem is, nobody can really agree on what, specifically, the animal is.
07:06Naturalists and animal experts begin to weigh in on what this animal could possibly be.
07:11The sharp teeth on the bottom jaw indicate that it's a carnivore,
07:15but that strange, curved, beak-like top jaw confuses people.
07:20The color, its hairless nature, the beak, everything.
07:24The thing is just freaking weird.
07:28As the mystery grows, the story takes a strange turn when the creature suddenly disappears.
07:35Locals tell the media that the carcass was allegedly moved to somebody's house,
07:39but nobody knows exactly where.
07:42Others aren't buying it and propose theories that are straight out of science fiction.
07:45Now, there is a notorious animal research facility nearby on Plum Island.
07:51So some speculate that this Montauk monster is, in fact,
07:55some kind of genetically engineered animal that escaped from the lab
07:59and then whose carcass was secretly reclaimed by these mad scientists.
08:04Then, in 2009, a headline-grabbing revelation surfaces
08:09that's a little harder to swallow.
08:11Fox News reports that one man claims responsibility for the creature.
08:17He says it's a dead raccoon.
08:21He and some friends discovered it the weekend before the 4th of July holiday in 2008.
08:26Because they were young and stupid and more than a little drunk,
08:31they decide that they're going to give this raccoon a Viking burial.
08:35They put the raccoon on an inflatable swim float,
08:40set it on fire, and push it out to sea.
08:43Two weeks later, a Montauk monster is discovered.
08:46So they think that the monster is really their dead Viking raccoon
08:51that has drifted to the other side of Long Island's South Fork.
08:54Many remain skeptical.
08:56But with the creature gone, there's no way to know for sure.
09:00To this day, there's no real consensus
09:03on the strange monster found by Jenna and her friends.
09:07Was it a normal animal that just decayed in a creepy way?
09:11Was it a cryptid?
09:12Or was it a monstrous lab experiment gone awry?
09:16In Colombia, ranchers are used to facing predators like wolves and coyotes.
09:29But for one man, a routine day's work turns into a brush
09:33with something straight out of a nightmare.
09:35In 2008, long-time rancher Cesar Perdomo
09:42is repairing a fence on his ranch in Colombia's Tadakoa Desert
09:47when he spots something on the ground.
09:52As he clears away some dirt surrounding the object,
09:56he sees what appears to be a five-inch-long fossil.
10:02He carefully cleans it off, and he takes it home,
10:05and he adds it to the collection of interesting finds and fossils
10:09that he's collected through the years.
10:11Eventually, Perdomo decides to share his discoveries with the public
10:16and opens a small museum where he can display his most curious finds.
10:22In 2023, paleontologist Rodolfo Salas Gismondi
10:26comes to the museum to see the collection.
10:29Gismondi is going through the little museum,
10:31checking out Perdomo's various bones and fossils.
10:35One in particular really grabs his attention.
10:39It's that five-inch fossil that Perdomo pulled up near the fence.
10:45Salas Gismondi can tell that it's from a bird.
10:49But not just any bird.
10:50This is a giant, flesh-ripping predator
10:53that ruled the Americas millions of years ago.
10:56The terror bird.
11:00Terror birds were apex predators that could weigh up to 330 pounds.
11:05They had massive beaks, which they could use to crack open skulls.
11:09But surprisingly, they were flightless.
11:12They inflicted their terror entirely on the ground,
11:15where they could hit running speeds up to 60 miles per hour.
11:18This fast-running, monstrous bird was absolutely terrifying.
11:25An ostrich from hell.
11:28About 20 terror bird species are known to researchers.
11:32And while there have been terror birds found in Florida and Texas,
11:36almost all terror bird fossils have been recovered from Argentina.
11:41And until Perdomo found this bone in Colombia,
11:44nothing was found in between.
11:45This particular fossil comes from the terror bird's left lower leg bone.
11:52It's similar to a human's tibia or shin bone.
11:55When the bone is analyzed,
11:56they realize that this might be a new species,
11:59even more terrifying than the rest.
12:03Perdomo's fossil is estimated to be up to 20% bigger
12:06than any previously found terror bird.
12:09At over 8 feet tall and 350 pounds,
12:13Perdomo's terror bird was truly a monstrous killer.
12:17Even more astonishing than its size is its age.
12:21It turns out this fossil is almost 13 million years old
12:27from the Middle Miocene epoch.
12:28This is a wild time in history.
12:31All of the non-flying dinosaurs are long extinct
12:34from the asteroid event that wiped out 75% of life on the planet.
12:39In this time period,
12:41South America is crawling with crazy huge animals
12:45like giant sloths, 30-foot crocodiles,
12:48and armored creatures called glyptodonts
12:50that can reach the size of cars.
12:53And right there with them were the aptly named terror birds.
12:57Unfortunately, this particular bird's final hunt didn't end well.
13:03On the leg bone are these massive puncture marks,
13:07teeth marks from a purosaurus,
13:10essentially an ancient 30-foot crocodile.
13:17In a way, the terror bird survives to this day.
13:21Their closest living descendant, the red-legged Sariema,
13:24are still used by Brazilian ranchers to guard livestock.
13:28Much like their fearsome ancestors,
13:30these birds still eat meat.
13:33But don't worry, they don't present nearly as much danger.
13:36They're only three feet tall.
13:39Discovering a monster that died out millions of years ago
13:43is one thing.
13:44But finding one that's still alive,
13:47that's a whole different kind of shock.
13:49On November 15, 1976,
13:54the crew of a U.S. Navy vessel
13:56is conducting research in the deep waters
13:58off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii.
14:01While they're doing their work,
14:03the team has deployed anchors
14:05to help keep the ship in place.
14:07But when it's time to retrieve the anchors,
14:09one of them just doesn't want to come back up.
14:13The crew tugs, the cables strained.
14:18It feels like something is pulling back
14:21in the other direction.
14:22But whatever's down there is not letting go.
14:27Eventually, slowly, they are able to haul it up.
14:30And when they do,
14:32they discover a terrifying creature.
14:34Staring back at them is a set of massive eyes
14:40and a gigantic mouth.
14:43And its body looks like some kind of deep-sea mutant.
14:48It is big.
14:51It has an enormous, bulbous head,
14:54a rounded snout,
14:56and a 14-and-a-half-foot body.
14:58It weighs about the same amount as a car.
15:01And that enormous mouth is about three feet wide
15:06and contains hundreds of teeth.
15:10Nobody on board has ever seen anything like it.
15:13The team transports the creature to a Navy lab
15:17where marine biologists examine the mysterious specimen.
15:21Scientists try to make sense of the animal,
15:23but even they come up empty.
15:25They think it's some kind of shark,
15:26but they can't find any records or references
15:29that are anything close to this sort of thing.
15:32The mystery makes headlines all around the world.
15:36And the find is so bizarre
15:38that scientists have to create an entirely new genus,
15:42family, and species just to classify it.
15:45They name it Megachasma pelagios,
15:48which means the giant yawner of the open sea.
15:52But the press comes up with a catchier name,
15:56the Megamouth shark.
15:57And just like its name suggests,
16:00this mysterious shark's feeding style
16:02is all about that enormous mouth.
16:06Interestingly, though,
16:07they discover the Megamouth shark
16:10has a different approach
16:11from some of its shark brethren.
16:14It swallows its prey whole.
16:17It glides through the water,
16:19opens its huge mouth,
16:21and just engulfs about 150 gallons of water
16:26at a single time.
16:27That's basically the equivalent
16:28to two bathtubs of water
16:31and anything else that flows in with it.
16:33So essentially, it's a filter feeder
16:35vacuuming up plankton.
16:37What's crazy is that
16:39even though it's one of the biggest sharks
16:41on the planet,
16:42before this,
16:43no one even knew it existed.
16:45And even after its discovery,
16:47the Megamouth shark
16:48still remains elusive.
16:51Despite being discovered
16:53almost 50 years ago,
16:55there's still been fewer
16:56than 300 specimens observed.
16:59Researchers believe
17:01that it lives so deep
17:02among the darkest shadows
17:04in the ocean,
17:05it actively avoids light
17:06so that it can hide.
17:08The only time it would come up
17:09near the surface of the water
17:10would probably be at night.
17:12Scientists continue to study
17:14the behavior and the ecology
17:16of this elusive creature,
17:17where it goes,
17:18how it hunts,
17:20and what other secrets
17:20it may be keeping.
17:22But here's the thing.
17:24If something this big
17:25can stay hidden
17:27for this long,
17:29who knows what other massive monsters
17:31could be lurking down there.
17:37Siberia's frozen tundra
17:39hides many treasures,
17:41some worth a lot of money.
17:43But in 2020,
17:45hunters unearthed
17:46something surprising
17:47and priceless.
17:51A group of hunters
17:53are searching
17:54the melting permafrost
17:55of Yakutia, Russia
17:56for mammoth tusks,
17:58or as they call it,
18:00ice ivory.
18:02This material
18:03is highly valued in China,
18:05where it's used for carvings
18:06seen as a status symbol,
18:07with each one
18:08potentially fetching
18:09up to $10,000.
18:11The discovery
18:12of even one tusk
18:13can make or break
18:14an expedition.
18:16As the hunters search
18:18near the Badiarca River,
18:20they spot something.
18:23But it's not ivory.
18:25It looks like a small,
18:28fur-covered bundle
18:29protruding from the ice.
18:30So they carefully
18:32begin to pry
18:33out of the ice.
18:34What they see
18:35is astonishing.
18:38It's a perfectly
18:39preserved cat.
18:41It's small enough
18:43to fit in one hand,
18:44with dark golden fur,
18:46baby teeth,
18:47and eyelids
18:48that seem frozen
18:49mid-blink.
18:50It looks like
18:51it could have died
18:51yesterday,
18:52but it doesn't look
18:53like any cat species
18:55that these hunters
18:56have seen.
18:56The hunters bring it
18:58to experts
18:59from the Russian
19:00Academy of Sciences
19:01for more insight.
19:03Using CT scans
19:04and DNA analysis,
19:06the scientists
19:07realize that this
19:08is a saber-toothed
19:09kitten.
19:12This is a species
19:13that went extinct
19:14around 12,000 years ago.
19:17Carbon dating reveals
19:18that the kitten
19:18is approximately
19:1937,000 years old,
19:22dating it
19:22to the late
19:23Pleistocene era.
19:23This isn't just rare,
19:26it's unprecedented,
19:28and it opens a window
19:29into a long-lost world.
19:32Finding fossils
19:34from saber-toothed cats
19:35is a significant discovery
19:37under any circumstances,
19:38but before this,
19:40only skeletal remains
19:41of the species
19:42have been found.
19:44This is the first time
19:46that a complete specimen
19:47with fur and soft tissue
19:49on it has been found.
19:51Since the specimen
19:52is so well-preserved,
19:54scientists get their
19:55first clear picture
19:56of what the living animal
19:57actually looked like.
19:59They can tell
19:59the young saber-toothed
20:01tiger's fur
20:01was thick and brown.
20:04Researchers are also
20:05able to study
20:06the other features
20:07of the kitten,
20:07like its whiskers,
20:08even its paws.
20:11By comparing the growth
20:12of its incisors
20:12to the lions of today,
20:14scientists were able
20:15to determine
20:15that this baby cub
20:17died at only
20:18about three weeks
20:19of age.
20:19when fully grown,
20:21this saber-toothed cat
20:22would have been
20:22about the size
20:23of a modern-day lion
20:25with large,
20:26serrated,
20:27saber-like teeth.
20:28The research team
20:29is still hard at work
20:30studying this extinct species,
20:32but the cub opens up
20:33new realms of exploration,
20:36a variety of fields,
20:37including Ice Age ecosystems,
20:40the development
20:41of large prehistoric felines,
20:43and even the climate conditions
20:44that preserved this kitten
20:46so hauntingly well.
20:51Digging up a saber-toothed kitten
20:53is more than
20:54a little surprising.
20:55So is a find
20:57made by a young boy
20:58in China.
21:03It's July 23rd, 2019,
21:05and nine-year-old
21:07Zhang Yangtze
21:07was out exploring
21:08with his mother
21:09near the Dongjiang River
21:10in China.
21:12Eventually,
21:13he works up an appetite
21:14and stops to have a snack.
21:16His mom gives him
21:17some walnuts,
21:18and he looks for a rock
21:19to crack them open over.
21:21And that's when
21:22something catches his eye.
21:24It's a weird-looking rock
21:26sitting on the bluff
21:27with strange,
21:28swirling patterns on it.
21:30Overcome with excitement,
21:32the boy calls his mother
21:34over to look at what he found.
21:36Zhang tells his mom
21:37that what he's found
21:38isn't just a rock.
21:39It's a dinosaur egg.
21:41Now, of course,
21:44he's nine.
21:46You have a very vivid imagination
21:47when you're a child,
21:48so everything probably looks
21:50like a dinosaur egg
21:51to this kid.
21:52Here's the thing.
21:54Zhang is obsessed
21:55with dinosaurs,
21:57and he recently saw
21:58an exhibit at a museum
21:59with fossils
22:00that looked exactly
22:01like this.
22:03His mom believes him,
22:04and she calls the police.
22:06And she and Zhang
22:07stay with this
22:08potentially priceless discovery,
22:10guarding the egg.
22:12The police arrive,
22:13bringing with them scientists
22:14from the Heiyuan Dinosaur Museum.
22:16And they're excited, too,
22:18because when they get a chance
22:19to see the strange rock,
22:21they realize Zhang nailed it.
22:23It actually is a dinosaur egg.
22:27The pros start to excavate
22:29and soon find 10 eggs
22:31in a dinosaur nest.
22:33All the eggs
22:35are embedded
22:35in rough red sandstone,
22:38so the museum workers
22:39have to very carefully
22:40drill them out
22:41in large chunks,
22:43and then they haul them
22:44back to their lab.
22:46At the museum,
22:47researchers begin
22:48the slow process
22:50of freeing the eggs
22:51from the sandstone
22:52and restoring them.
22:53It takes over three years,
22:55but the team eventually
22:56carves, polishes,
22:58and restores
22:59all of the eggs
23:00and puts them on display.
23:02When their analysis
23:03is complete,
23:04the experts can see
23:05that these 3 1⁄2-inch eggs
23:07are remarkably preserved,
23:09and they date back
23:10to the last moments
23:12of the dinosaurs.
23:13They're 66 million years old.
23:16Dinosaur eggs
23:17aren't just cool.
23:18They're like scientific gold,
23:20because unlike footprints
23:22or bones,
23:23they give scientists
23:24reproductive information.
23:26What we see
23:27is that certain species
23:28of dinosaurs
23:28seem to have preferred
23:30nesting grounds,
23:31and we see this today
23:32with birds and reptiles.
23:33They find areas
23:34that they know
23:34from experience
23:35are more safe
23:37from predators,
23:37are more safe
23:38from the elements.
23:40Beyond the eggs,
23:42this region of China
23:43turns out to be
23:43a gold mine
23:44for paleontologists.
23:46It's one of the few
23:47places on Earth
23:48where the trifecta
23:49of dinosaur eggs,
23:51bones,
23:51and footprints
23:52have all been discovered.
23:54As for Yang Zhang's discovery,
23:56somehow,
23:56despite being buried
23:58for so long,
23:59they're in incredible shape.
24:02The ancient embryos
24:04inside those eggs
24:05never got to hatch,
24:07but 66 million years later,
24:09they would hatch
24:10a spark of curiosity
24:11in this young boy.
24:17Say you're a student
24:18at a typical public high school
24:20in Los Angeles.
24:21Everything seems normal
24:22until one day,
24:24construction workers
24:25uncover something remarkable
24:27and terrifying.
24:32It's June 2022,
24:34and construction workers
24:36are renovating
24:37San Pedro High School
24:38some 20 miles south
24:40of Los Angeles.
24:42While digging a trench,
24:44they find something
24:45unexpected,
24:46a dense layer
24:48of shells.
24:51This isn't just like
24:53a bunch of shells
24:53you'd find on the beach.
24:55The school is about
24:56two miles inland
24:57and 800 feet
24:58above sea level,
25:00so shells
25:01really shouldn't be here.
25:03Thinking that something
25:04might be unusual,
25:05construction stops,
25:07and they call in
25:07a team of consultants
25:08to investigate.
25:10When the scientists arrive,
25:12they're excited
25:13at what they see.
25:15The deposit
25:16is unlike anything
25:17ever before
25:18found in California.
25:20This shell bank
25:22is incredibly dense,
25:23and they estimate
25:24that it's probably
25:25120,000 years old.
25:27As the researchers
25:28excavate around
25:29the shells,
25:30they begin to find
25:31fossilized animal bones.
25:33Lots of them.
25:36Massive piles
25:37of fish and mammal bones.
25:38It appears to be
25:40an enormous marine graveyard
25:42packed with millions
25:44of fossils.
25:45And this collection
25:46is much older
25:47than the shells.
25:49Scientists estimate
25:50that it's 9 million years old.
25:52One of the most
25:54amazing discoveries
25:55is a saber-toothed salmon.
25:58This isn't like
25:59the salmon you'll find
26:00in your sushi roll.
26:02This is a massive fish.
26:04It's 8 feet long
26:06and nearly 400 pounds,
26:08making it
26:08the largest salmon
26:10to ever exist.
26:12They had razor-sharp spikes,
26:14which they used
26:14to defend their territory
26:16in prehistoric waters.
26:18Nearby,
26:18researchers also find
26:20vertebrae
26:20of a colossal
26:22baleen whale,
26:23a behemoth
26:24100 feet long.
26:27Alongside it,
26:28they come across
26:28remains of
26:30sea turtles,
26:31ancient clams,
26:32and birds.
26:33And then,
26:34probably the most
26:35fearsome discovery
26:36of them all,
26:38the megalodon.
26:40This is an ancient shark
26:43over 80 feet in length.
26:44That's three times larger
26:46than a modern-day
26:47great white.
26:48It's believed to be
26:49one of the largest
26:50and most fearsome
26:51marine predators
26:52of all time.
26:53It consumed
26:542,500 pounds
26:56of prey every day,
26:58including whales
26:59and other sharks.
27:02This shark
27:03had a massive mouth
27:05packed with
27:06276 teeth,
27:08each of which
27:09is the size of your hand.
27:10And they discovered
27:11many of them
27:12at the dig.
27:14Long before
27:15it was a high school campus,
27:17this ground
27:17was part of
27:18the ocean floor,
27:20an ancient marine graveyard
27:22teeming with giants.
27:24Based on fossil evidence,
27:26San Pedro
27:27might have been near
27:28a now-lost
27:29prehistoric island.
27:31Scientists think
27:32that millions of years ago,
27:34heavy storms
27:35might have swept
27:36marine life
27:37from this island
27:38into a canyon,
27:40burying them
27:41under layers of sediment,
27:42where San Pedro High School
27:44is standing today.
27:46Then around
27:479 million years ago,
27:48local volcanic eruptions
27:49helped to seal
27:51these fossils in place,
27:53preserving them
27:53for all time.
27:55In total,
27:56the team
27:57uncovers remains
27:58from more than
27:59200 different species,
28:01with some like
28:02the saber-toothed salmon
28:03having never been found
28:05before
28:06in Southern California.
28:08Scientists have now moved
28:09from cataloging bones
28:11to reconstructing
28:13how this lost
28:14prehistoric ecosystem
28:15functioned,
28:16how it changed,
28:18and how it shapes
28:19the world
28:19we live in today.
28:20For students,
28:23the discovery
28:23of this marine graveyard
28:24turns their campus
28:25into a prehistoric wonderland.
28:28Many take active roles
28:29in excavating
28:29and cataloging
28:30the specimens,
28:31giving them opportunities
28:32that most students
28:33can only dream of.
28:35The scientific team
28:36and students
28:37excavate fossils
28:38side by side
28:39for more than two years.
28:41For them,
28:42history isn't
28:43in a textbook
28:44or in a museum.
28:46It's here,
28:47right beneath their feet.
28:48We usually think
28:56of monsters
28:56as creatures
28:57that are huge
28:59and clearly visible.
29:00But one Australian woman
29:02and her doctor
29:03had a very different
29:05monstrous experience.
29:10In 2021,
29:12a 64-year-old woman
29:13in New South Wales, Australia
29:15arrives at the hospital.
29:17For three weeks,
29:18she's suffered
29:18from abdominal pain,
29:20a dry cough,
29:22and night sweats.
29:23Tests reveal lesions
29:25in the woman's lungs,
29:26liver, and spleen,
29:28and a very high
29:29white blood cell count,
29:31suggesting that her body's
29:32fighting off an infection.
29:34But the search
29:35for a cause
29:36comes up empty.
29:37Doctors can't find
29:38any sign of an infection,
29:40bacterial,
29:41viral,
29:41or fungal.
29:42Eventually,
29:43the woman's conditions
29:44begin to improve,
29:45but then
29:45they take a nosedive.
29:47she's experiencing
29:48symptoms that include
29:49forgetfulness,
29:51difficulty processing thoughts,
29:52and she's even experiencing
29:53pretty severe depression.
29:56When an MRI is performed,
29:57it shows something concerning.
29:59There appears to be a lesion
30:00in the woman's
30:01right frontal lobe.
30:02To figure out what it is,
30:04surgeons perform a biopsy,
30:06and what they find
30:08is astonishing.
30:10When Dr. Hari Priya Bondi
30:12removes part of the patient's skull
30:14to access the brain,
30:15she sees something strange.
30:18She describes it as
30:19a string-like structure
30:21embedded in the patient's brain.
30:23It's red,
30:25but too pale to be a blood vessel.
30:28She grabs it
30:29with her surgical tools,
30:30and she starts to pull,
30:32and then
30:33it starts to move.
30:38Dr. Bondi
30:40can't believe her eyes.
30:42There's a worm
30:43in her patient's brain
30:44and is still alive.
30:48The medical team
30:50removes a
30:51three-inch-long worm
30:53and sends it
30:54to a parasite specialist.
30:56It turns out to be
30:58an Ophidescharis robertsi,
31:00a species of roundworm
31:02commonly found in pythons.
31:05So just how did
31:07a python parasite
31:08end up inside
31:09this woman's brain?
31:11An investigation reveals
31:13that the patient lives
31:14next to a lake
31:15that is inhabited
31:16by carpet pythons.
31:18Now, the patient
31:19had never had
31:20any direct contact
31:21with pythons,
31:22but she did collect
31:24spinach that grew
31:24around the lake
31:25which she used
31:26in her cooking.
31:27Doctors and scientists
31:28believe that a python
31:29may have shed
31:30the parasite
31:31into the grass
31:32through its feces,
31:33and then eggs
31:34of the parasite
31:35could have been
31:35transferred from the grass
31:36into the woman's home
31:38where it could have
31:39infected food
31:40or been on kitchen tools.
31:42Once ingested,
31:44the roundworm eggs
31:45hatched larvae
31:46that burrowed
31:47into the host's
31:47stomach wall.
31:49The larvae would usually
31:50stay near the stomach,
31:51but this roundworm
31:52may have burrowed
31:53to other organs
31:54in confusion,
31:55causing the lesions
31:56in her liver.
31:57From there,
31:58it migrated up
31:58to the head.
31:59It turns out
32:00roundworms
32:01are incredibly resilient
32:03and they're able
32:04to survive
32:04in a wide range
32:05of environments,
32:07and apparently
32:07including a human brain.
32:10The patient
32:11is immediately treated
32:12and her symptoms
32:13finally begin to subside
32:14and she makes
32:15a full recovery.
32:17Thankfully,
32:17this kind of infection
32:18can't be transmitted
32:20between people,
32:21so there won't be
32:22a roundworm pandemic
32:24anytime soon.
32:25But it's a cautionary tale
32:26for all of us
32:27to carefully watch
32:29and wash
32:30what you eat.
32:36Something taking over
32:37your brain
32:38is a nightmare,
32:39but what if it took
32:40over your whole body?
32:41In 2021,
32:45a film crew
32:46is making
32:47a nature documentary
32:48about the harsh conditions
32:50British wildlife face
32:52in the winter.
32:53They're shooting
32:54around the grounds
32:54of Castle Espen
32:55in Northern Ireland
32:56in an old
32:57abandoned gunpowder shed.
32:59And as they're
33:00looking around,
33:01they see a dead spider
33:03hanging from the ceiling.
33:05Now, it's not
33:06particularly unusual
33:07to find a dead spider,
33:08but this documentary crew
33:10are keen observers
33:11of wildlife.
33:13Volunteers from
33:14a local wetlands
33:15conservation group
33:16are assisting
33:17the filmmakers,
33:19and they notice
33:20something strange
33:21about this dead spider.
33:22First,
33:23it's an orb-weaver spider.
33:25These are usually
33:26found in deep,
33:27dark caves,
33:28not in man-made spaces.
33:31Even weirder,
33:33the spider has
33:34a lacy white fungus
33:36erupting out of its body.
33:37In treat,
33:41the team sends a photo
33:43to fungus expert
33:44Dr. Harry Evans.
33:46When he looks closely
33:48at the spider,
33:49Evans is surprised.
33:51It looks like
33:52the fungus
33:53has infested the spider,
33:55eating it
33:56from the inside out.
33:57This isn't just
33:58an infection,
33:59it's a hostile takeover.
34:01And he believes
34:02it's never been seen before.
34:04After the film project
34:07is over,
34:08Evans requests
34:08a sample
34:09of the dead spider.
34:11And he then
34:12puts together a team
34:13to look for
34:13more of them.
34:16They hunt for evidence
34:18near caves,
34:19and sure enough,
34:20they find more
34:21of these orb-weaver spiders
34:22that have crawled
34:23out of the darkness.
34:25Though orb-weavers
34:26naturally prefer
34:28dark,
34:29dank,
34:29tight spaces,
34:31something in the fungus
34:32is compelling them
34:34to go towards
34:36the light
34:36before they die.
34:38What the crew
34:39has stumbled upon
34:40is no ordinary fungus.
34:42It's something
34:43much more diabolical.
34:45The fungus
34:46doesn't just destroy
34:47its host,
34:47it manipulates it.
34:49It works by flooding
34:50the spider's system
34:51with mind-altering
34:52chemicals like dopamine,
34:54which can control
34:55its movement
34:56and also helps create
34:57a false sense
34:58of feeling good.
34:59The hijacked spiders
35:00leave their lair
35:01and fulfill
35:02the parasite's wishes
35:04by moving closer
35:05to the mouth
35:06of the cave
35:06before dying.
35:08This is so
35:09the air currents
35:10can better disperse
35:11the spores
35:11to find new victims.
35:14It's like the fungus
35:15is turning the spiders
35:17into zombies.
35:21Similar parasitic fungi
35:23have been found
35:24to attack wasps
35:26and ants,
35:27but this is the first time
35:28it's ever been found
35:29in a stronger,
35:31more resilient animal.
35:33The research team
35:35has continued
35:35to examine the fungus,
35:37trying to understand
35:38its origin
35:39and whether it might have
35:40beneficial applications
35:41in agriculture
35:42or medicine.
35:44After all,
35:45whatever the fungus
35:45is doing to control
35:46the spider's brain,
35:48it's extraordinary.
35:50There's even speculation
35:51that it could potentially
35:52provide new treatments
35:54for diseases
35:54like Alzheimer's.
35:56While it's nice
35:57to look on the bright side
35:59of finding
36:00a zombie spider fungus,
36:02one unsettling fact remains.
36:0595% of the fungus species
36:08on the planet
36:09have yet to be discovered.
36:11So if nature
36:13has already created
36:14a zombie spider fungus,
36:17who's to say
36:18there isn't out there
36:20somewhere
36:21a zombie human fungus
36:22just waiting to be found?
36:25People think unicorns
36:33are magical,
36:35but what villagers
36:36find in Siberia
36:37is far from
36:38a fairy tale.
36:42In the 1980s,
36:44locals in the
36:45Pavlodar region
36:46of Kazakhstan
36:46begin stumbling
36:48upon fragments
36:49of bone and fossils
36:50along the Ertish River.
36:51Most residents
36:55don't pay
36:56much attention
36:56to these,
36:57but a few
36:58curious collectors
36:59hold on to their finds.
37:0130 years go by
37:03before one collector
37:04brings his stash
37:05to the Museum of Nature.
37:07They investigate
37:08the samples
37:09and find it's a
37:10hodgepodge
37:11of different animals
37:12from different times.
37:14It's interesting,
37:15certainly,
37:15but not necessarily
37:16anything important.
37:18So they accept
37:19the donation
37:20and store it away.
37:23In 2016,
37:25researchers from
37:25Tomsk State University
37:27in Russia
37:27take another look.
37:29They're examining
37:30fossils from the area
37:31in the hopes
37:33of putting together
37:34a complete specimen.
37:36In the mess
37:37of all the
37:38jumbled up bones,
37:39one of the researchers
37:40finds a piece
37:41that definitely
37:42shouldn't have been
37:42overlooked.
37:44It's a skull.
37:46It's massive.
37:47It's incredibly
37:48well-preserved.
37:49And it has
37:50a giant base
37:52for where a horn
37:53once was.
37:55Officially,
37:56this specimen
37:57is a Lasmotherium
37:58Siberica,
38:00otherwise known
38:01as the
38:02Siberian Unicorn.
38:04Before you start
38:05picturing a magical
38:06white creature
38:07prancing through
38:08a fairy tale forest,
38:09this is not
38:10the unicorns
38:11of make-believe.
38:12This unicorn
38:13was built
38:14like a tank.
38:14It was 15 feet long,
38:176 to 7 feet
38:19in height,
38:20and weighed
38:20a whopping
38:218 to 10,000 pounds.
38:24And of course,
38:25on top of its skull,
38:27a 3-foot horn.
38:30Despite its
38:31massive size
38:32and girth,
38:33the Siberian unicorn
38:34had relatively
38:35slender limbs,
38:37which suggested
38:37that it was
38:38a pretty fast runner.
38:39It was also covered
38:40in a lot of
38:41shaggy hair.
38:42Basically,
38:43it was a cross
38:44between a rhinoceros
38:45and a woolly mammoth,
38:47but with the gait
38:48of a horse.
38:49When the skull
38:50is sent to experts
38:52in Northern Ireland
38:53for carbon dating,
38:54the results
38:55are shocking.
38:57Up until this discovery,
38:59scientists believed
38:59the Siberian unicorn
39:01went extinct
39:01350,000 years ago.
39:04But this specimen
39:05is actually only
39:0629,000 years old,
39:08which means unicorns
39:09coexisted with humans.
39:10This discovery
39:12rewrites the timeline
39:13of Siberian unicorns'
39:15extinction to the
39:15last ice age,
39:16which reshaped
39:17the Earth's ecosystem,
39:19wiping out
39:20other ancient megafauna
39:21like the woolly mammoth,
39:23the Irish elk,
39:24and the saber-toothed cat.
39:26But why did this
39:27giant beast disappear?
39:29By studying isotopes
39:31in the specimen's teeth,
39:32researchers came
39:33to the conclusion
39:34that it primarily fed
39:35on tough grasses.
39:37When the last ice age
39:39took hold
39:40of 40,000 years ago,
39:41the temperature changed,
39:43the ground froze over,
39:44vegetation disappeared,
39:46and the Siberian unicorn
39:47just couldn't adapt.
39:49It may be extinct,
39:50but researchers find
39:51a surprising trace
39:53of the unicorn's legacy
39:54still intact.
39:56Scientists were able
39:57to isolate DNA
39:58from this specimen
39:58for the first time,
40:00demonstrating that
40:01this Siberian unicorn
40:02is a distant relative
40:03of today's rhinoceros.
40:04It isn't totally surprising
40:06because there is
40:06some resemblance,
40:07but it's a very
40:08distant cousin.
40:09Those lineages may have
40:10split off more than
40:1140 million years ago.
40:13The Siberian unicorn skull
40:15now resides
40:16at the Natural History Museum
40:18in London,
40:19where it amazes visitors
40:21from all over the world.
40:23Legends of unicorns
40:24have been told
40:24for millennia,
40:25but now we know
40:27the truth.
40:28Unicorns were real,
40:30and once upon a time,
40:32we walked the Earth
40:33from the bottom of the scene
40:37to the back of your brain.
40:39Monsters are out there,
40:41and sometimes
40:42they're closer than you think.
40:44I'm Danny Tregel.
40:46Thanks for watching
40:46Mysteries Hunter.
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