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00:09Mysteries can be buried anywhere, under the earth, beneath the sea, or even right under
00:19our own feet.
00:21And when we stumble upon them, sometimes what we find can change history.
00:31Tonight, strange discoveries that inspire fear and awe from an eerie grave.
00:40There are skeletons weighed down with stones.
00:43These aren't typical grave sites that they're used to unearthing.
00:48Two unusual bones.
00:50It has a long body, two pairs of paddle-like limbs, a tail, a pointed snout full of sharp
00:57teeth, and creepiest of all, giant eyes.
01:02To a bizarre blob.
01:04It begins pulsing and contracting.
01:08This thing isn't debris, it's alive.
01:12Join us now, because nothing stays hidden forever.
01:27Siberia is a land known for dark, buried secrets, and on one cold morning, a fisherman stumbles
01:34on 54 of them.
01:38It's March 2018, and a fisherman is walking along the snowy banks of the Amur River in
01:43Siberia.
01:44He's looking for signs of trout or pike beneath the ice.
01:47The fisherman is alone.
01:49The air is still the only sound of the crunch of the snow beneath his boots.
01:56When suddenly, in the distance, something catches his eye, a pink and blue shape protruding out
02:02of the snow.
02:03He steps closer, and what he sees stops him cold.
02:08It's a frozen human hand.
02:12He immediately starts looking around, thinking, well, where's the rest of the body?
02:16But there's nothing around him.
02:18And then he looks further down, and he notices that there's a sack that's sticking out of
02:23the snow.
02:24He opens the sack and finds more hands.
02:28There are 54 in total, all shapes and sizes, each severed very cleanly at the wrist.
02:36The fisherman rushes back to town and alerts the local police.
02:40At first, the authorities treat this as a crime scene, but the scale of the crime, 54 human
02:48hands, forces them to escalate this to the special committee of the Russian Federation.
02:53The forensic teams sweep in.
02:56They scour the shoreline looking for evidence.
02:59They examine the hands, and they ultimately determine that these 54 hands are actually
03:05pairs from 27 different individuals.
03:08The find is unsettling, and comes with an obvious question.
03:13Who did the severed hands once belong to?
03:16Authorities claim they're only able to lift prints from one hand, and those prints don't
03:21match anything in the database.
03:23Speculation runs wild.
03:25Investigators wonder, are these victims of a serial killer or some mass execution?
03:30Then, investigators discover a major clue.
03:34According to the authorities, they find surgical bandages, as well as hospital shoe covers scattered
03:40across the site.
03:41This points to medical waste and shifts the investigation in a different direction.
03:47After ruling out area hospitals and morgues, investigators trace the trail to a medical facility just outside
03:56Kabarovsk, 18 miles from the riverbank.
03:59Records show that the lab did remove hands from over 400 unidentified corpses in the course of
04:05the last year.
04:07According to experts, some Russian morgues sever the hands of unidentified corpses to help
04:14with future identification.
04:16But when questioned, the facility gives a surprising answer.
04:20The lab denies any involvement in the 54 hands that were found.
04:26Before investigators can press any further, the Russian government abruptly shuts down the case.
04:33The official report states that this was a case of improperly disposed medical waste.
04:39But others raised questions about why this case was wrapped up so quickly.
04:47Adding to that suspicion is a key detail revealed by the man who first made the discovery.
04:54The fisherman who discovered the sack claims he never saw any surgical bandages or hospital shoe covers
05:00that were supposed to indicate medical waste.
05:02So many wonder whether this really is a case of a negligent medical facility,
05:06or if that's just a convenient cover story that the real truth has been swept under the rug.
05:11In the end, these 54 hands found in a snowbank next to a frozen river remain maybe the ultimate cold
05:19case.
05:21We may never know the full truth behind this macabre discovery,
05:26but one thing's certain, our next find is just as strange, and it's fully alive.
05:35In Raleigh, North Carolina, a city maintenance crew is examining sewer lines
05:40underneath Cameron Village Shopping Center.
05:43They feed a robotic camera into the sewer line,
05:46and they're looking for any cracks, root intrusions,
05:50or other things that might require maintenance.
05:54The camera is making its way through the six-inch pipe,
05:57and above ground, inspectors are watching the grainy video appear on a monitor,
06:03and what they're seeing at first is typical.
06:06You've got water, you've got some sludge, you've got dirt, you've got mud,
06:10but then they come across something that is totally unexpected.
06:13It's this pink blob.
06:17The team suspects the blockage is a clump of roots or a rodent nest
06:22until the camera gets closer and it starts moving.
06:26The blob begins shifting, pulsing, and contracting,
06:30almost like muscle tissue or an organ.
06:34This thing isn't debris or a nest.
06:36It's alive.
06:39Needless to say, the crew has no idea what it is,
06:42so they just hit record on the camera to get a few minutes of footage.
06:46One of the crew then uploads the footage to YouTube,
06:50hoping that someone out there can help identify this strange creature.
06:55The video goes viral, and speculation runs rampant.
07:01All online forums just blow up.
07:04Some say it's a mutated parasite.
07:07Some claim it's a fungus.
07:09Some people think it could be an entirely new species,
07:12and that it might not even be from Earth at all.
07:16Eventually, biologists from North Carolina State take a closer look.
07:21They don't just watch the video.
07:23They break this thing down second by second, frame by frame.
07:27They're watching the way that the object moves,
07:30the way that it shifts, the way that it's pulsating,
07:33and then finally it clicks.
07:35They realize that this isn't a single creature, but thousands.
07:41It's a colony of tubifex worms.
07:44These are aquatic invertebrates that typically live in sludge or decaying matter.
07:51You usually find tubifex worms in lakes and wetlands,
07:54but not in a city sewer.
07:56That's extremely rare.
07:58What's crazy is that these worms are tiny.
08:01Individually, you almost can't even see one.
08:04But when under stress, say from vibration, heat,
08:08or the approaching light of a camera,
08:09they clump together for safety.
08:12They twist around and use their mucus
08:14to glue themselves into a single throbbing mass.
08:18As freaky as it appears,
08:21the pulsating blob isn't dangerous.
08:24Engineers confirm that it's not blocking
08:26the flow of water through the sewer,
08:28and biologists confirm that
08:30there's no hazard on that front either.
08:32So because it doesn't pose any danger,
08:36the sewer blob is left to its own devices.
08:39The original footage is still online.
08:42You can go and watch it,
08:43like many people still do today.
08:45And when you do watch it,
08:46there is something that is weirdly transfixing
08:50about this pulsating blob.
08:52Like, I know what it is,
08:54but I also don't want to know what it is.
08:55Ugh.
09:02Imagine going out for a casual stroll
09:04and spotting something odd
09:05poking out of a hillside nearby.
09:08Could it be old driftwood
09:09or something more alarming?
09:14Summer 2017, southeastern Utah.
09:17An employee from the Utah Geological Survey
09:20is walking along the eastern border near Colorado
09:22when something catches his eye.
09:25It looks like bones.
09:29He climbs up to take a closer look
09:31and sees more bones,
09:33along with plant fragments
09:34and petrified driftwood.
09:36Now, the rock in this area
09:38is 150 million years old.
09:40So whatever he's looking at
09:41could be very, very old.
09:43So he calls in some experts.
09:45Paleontologist John Foster
09:46arrives on site
09:48to investigate further.
09:50At first, he's not quite sure
09:52what he's looking at.
09:53It appears to be
09:54fossilized plant fragments,
09:57but they're too small
09:58to extract from the rock
10:00in order to examine in the field.
10:01So he carves out
10:03a fossilized slab
10:04and takes it back to the lab.
10:06When Foster examines it
10:08under a microscope,
10:10things get weirder.
10:14Now, his eye is drawn
10:16to a one-inch section
10:17that's particularly dense
10:19with fragments.
10:19And when he looks closer,
10:21he recognizes that
10:23it's not plant fragments.
10:25It's these tiny amphibian bones.
10:29There are remains
10:30from at least
10:31three individual animals
10:33and two different species.
10:34And they're also
10:35mixed in with scales.
10:37It's a mess, really,
10:39unlike what you normally see
10:40in Jurassic-era fossils.
10:42To Foster,
10:43it looks like these creatures
10:44were eaten
10:45by some kind of
10:47ancient predator.
10:50But one detail
10:51makes Foster's theory
10:52hard to swallow.
10:55When digested fossils
10:57are found,
10:58they usually show signs
10:59of breakdown,
11:01erosion,
11:01or acid damage.
11:03But these bones
11:04don't have any sign of that.
11:06Foster realizes
11:07this can only mean
11:09one thing.
11:10These animals were swallowed,
11:11but never digested.
11:13It's a pile of vomit
11:15frozen in time.
11:17The official name
11:18is regurgitolite.
11:20And it's a very rare find.
11:22For regurgitolite
11:24to fossilize,
11:25the vomit, first of all,
11:26has to land just right.
11:27It has to be buried
11:28very quickly
11:29by sediment
11:30and then immediately
11:31sealed from decay.
11:33The odds
11:34of all of these things
11:35happening exactly
11:36as they should
11:37are microscopic.
11:40Foster dates this slab
11:41up to around 152 million
11:43years ago,
11:43which makes this regurgitolite
11:45one of the oldest
11:46samples ever discovered.
11:48Since this area
11:49was underwater
11:50during the Jurassic period,
11:52experts focused
11:53their attention
11:54on a handful
11:55of marine creatures
11:56who could have
11:57coughed this up.
11:59Their best guess
12:01is that it was a bowfin,
12:02a long-bodied,
12:03sharp-toothed fish
12:04that still exists today.
12:07But 152 million years ago,
12:09it was the apex
12:10marine predator
12:11in this area.
12:12At over two feet long,
12:14it's the only
12:15water predator
12:15at the time
12:16large enough
12:17to swallow a meal
12:18like this whole.
12:19Though,
12:20considering it was
12:20quickly coughed back up,
12:22we can't rule out
12:23that it was a smaller predator
12:24that bit off
12:25a little more
12:26than it could chew.
12:29It's one thing
12:30to dig up something
12:31weird from the past.
12:32It's another
12:33when you find
12:34something alarming
12:35hidden in the
12:36inside you.
12:39In June of 1999,
12:41Sanju Ibagat
12:42is a farm worker
12:44that's living
12:44in Nagpur, India.
12:46He's always had
12:46a bit of a pot belly,
12:47but he's strong,
12:49he's active,
12:49and he works hard
12:51in the fields.
12:53As he's become older,
12:55Sanju's stomach
12:56has started to grow
12:57and swell.
12:59Now,
12:59adding a few pounds
13:00is nothing,
13:01but Sanju's stomach
13:02continues to grow.
13:04By the time
13:05he turns 30,
13:05his friends
13:06can't help themselves,
13:08poking fun at him
13:09and asking
13:10when the baby is due.
13:11He tries to ignore
13:12the jokes
13:13and just keep up
13:14his farm work,
13:14but over time,
13:16the swelling
13:16just gets worse
13:17and worse.
13:18Then one night,
13:20Sanju
13:20bolts awake
13:21in a panic
13:22gasping for air.
13:24His belly
13:25is so distended,
13:26it's pressing
13:27on his diaphragm
13:28and preventing
13:29his lungs
13:30from filling.
13:30He can barely breathe.
13:32His family
13:33rushes him
13:34to a hospital
13:35in Mumbai
13:35where doctors
13:36immediately suspect
13:37he has some kind
13:38of abdominal tumor,
13:39but with the patient
13:40suffocating before them,
13:41they don't have time
13:42for an x-ray
13:43or CT scan,
13:44and they rush him
13:45into surgery.
13:47When the surgeon
13:48makes the first incision,
13:50he feels something strange.
13:54It feels hard,
13:56and the doctor
13:57swears that he thinks
13:59he can feel fingers,
14:01like a hand
14:02is inside of
14:04Sanju's abdomen.
14:07He works to remove
14:08the object
14:09and ultimately
14:10pulls out
14:11a fully formed
14:13human arm.
14:14The hand
14:15even has
14:16fingernails on it,
14:17and then he pulls out
14:19another arm,
14:20and then
14:20a pair of genitalia,
14:22and as if
14:23it couldn't get
14:23any stranger,
14:25he then removes
14:26a partially formed
14:28human face,
14:30complete with hair.
14:32It's not a tumor.
14:34It's Sanju's
14:35undeveloped twin,
14:37hidden inside him
14:38since birth.
14:40Roughly 3%
14:41of babies born
14:42today are twins,
14:44and sometimes
14:45a small percentage
14:46of those twins
14:47are conjoined,
14:48and that's what occurs
14:49when the egg
14:50doesn't fully split
14:52into two separate
14:53embryos.
14:55Conjoined twins
14:56rarely survive
14:57until birth,
14:58but then there's
14:59a small set of cases
15:00where the larger twin
15:02can sometimes
15:04grow around
15:05the smaller one,
15:06completely engulfing it,
15:07and then
15:08the smaller twin
15:09can continue
15:10to grow
15:11inside the larger twin.
15:13It's known
15:14as parasitic
15:15twin syndrome.
15:17Less than 200 cases
15:18have ever been documented,
15:20and almost never
15:22in adults.
15:23Sanju's secret sibling
15:25weighs over 9 pounds,
15:27and 2 of those
15:289 pounds
15:29are just
15:30hair.
15:33Once his sibling
15:34is fully removed
15:35from his abdomen,
15:36all the pressure
15:37on Sanju's diaphragm
15:38goes away,
15:39and it becomes
15:39significantly easier
15:41for him to breathe.
15:42In the end,
15:44Sanju makes
15:45a full recovery
15:45and is able to keep
15:47on with his farm work,
15:48despite what I would
15:49imagine was a very
15:50traumatic experience.
15:56Most weird ocean finds
15:58come from the deep,
15:59but one of the
16:00strangest ever
16:01showed up
16:02in a quiet little
16:03lab in Italy.
16:06It's 1988.
16:07A German graduate student
16:09named Christian Sommer
16:10studies marine biology,
16:12and for the summer,
16:13he's taken an assignment
16:14at a marine station
16:15near Portofino, Italy.
16:16The deep waters
16:17off Portofino's coasts
16:19are teeming with life,
16:20and have amazed
16:21scientists for centuries,
16:23but Christian's job
16:25is a little bit
16:26less exciting.
16:27He's stuck inside
16:31watching jellyfish
16:32in a tank.
16:34He's there to observe
16:36a species of jellyfish
16:37grow from half-inch polyps
16:40up to full-size,
16:42foot-and-a-half adults
16:43called medusas,
16:45which kind of look like
16:46a red stomach
16:47suspended
16:48in a transparent gel.
16:49The life cycle
16:50of these particular
16:51jellyfish
16:52is pretty well-known.
16:54He's just there
16:54to confirm
16:55what scientists
16:56are already very aware of.
16:58After just a few
16:59mundane shifts,
17:01Christian arrives
17:01for work,
17:02only to discover
17:04that all the jellyfish
17:06are dead.
17:09He's devastated.
17:11He was supposed
17:11to observe
17:12these animals'
17:13life cycle.
17:13Instead,
17:14they're all dead
17:15within days.
17:16still,
17:17he's a dedicated
17:18young scientist
17:19determined to see
17:20the project through.
17:22So,
17:22he continues
17:23to monitor
17:24the jellyfish,
17:24hoping to document
17:26their decaying process.
17:28Then,
17:29something unexpected
17:30happens.
17:32The jellyfish
17:33don't begin
17:34to dissolve
17:35or decay.
17:37Instead,
17:37they have
17:37completely transformed.
17:40It seems like
17:41they've burned
17:42back the clock
17:43and then restarted.
17:44What he sees
17:45are polyps,
17:46the earliest stage
17:48of jellyfish life.
17:50Further studies
17:51confirm
17:52Christian's observations.
17:55Essentially,
17:56when adult
17:57teratopsis dornii
17:58are exposed
17:59to stress
18:00or starvation
18:02or confinement,
18:03they don't die.
18:04They revert back
18:06to their juvenile form.
18:08The process
18:09is called
18:10transdifferentiation.
18:12The cells
18:13spontaneously
18:14change their identity
18:16and reorganize
18:17themselves
18:18into completely
18:19new types
18:19of tissue.
18:20So,
18:21they don't die.
18:22And it's not exactly
18:23like a healing factor.
18:25It's more
18:25of a rebirth.
18:26And in theory,
18:28they can do this
18:29over and over again
18:30forever.
18:32This incredible phenomenon
18:34has scientists wondering,
18:36is this nature's version
18:38of immortality?
18:41Of course,
18:42they can still die
18:43by accident
18:44or be eaten
18:45by predators.
18:46But left undisturbed,
18:47it's possible
18:48that they may never die
18:49from natural causes.
18:51Researchers are still
18:52trying to figure out
18:53how this process works,
18:54what triggers the change,
18:56and if other creatures
18:57can do this.
18:58And most intriguingly,
19:00if they could replicate
19:01this phenomena
19:02in human beings.
19:04For now,
19:05one thing is clear.
19:07Turretops' dornii
19:08doesn't just challenge
19:09the notion
19:10of life and death.
19:11They may be
19:11the first known organism
19:13to cheat death entirely.
19:18What small
19:19has big feet
19:20and is featured
19:21in a Hollywood blockbuster?
19:23If you said hobbits,
19:24you'd be right.
19:25And you'd also believe
19:27they couldn't be real.
19:28But what if
19:29one unusual find
19:31makes you rethink that?
19:35It's 1950
19:36on the Indonesian
19:38island of Flores,
19:40and Dutch Catholic
19:41missionary
19:42Father Theodore
19:43Verhoeven
19:44spends his day-to-day
19:46teaching classical languages
19:47to the residents.
19:49But in his free time,
19:50he's out there
19:51exploring the island.
19:53One day,
19:54while wandering
19:54the countryside,
19:56Verhoeven spots
19:57some strange objects
19:58scattered on the ground
20:00near the entrance
20:01to a cave.
20:03Curious,
20:04he starts digging.
20:06And soon,
20:09he finds
20:10a bunch of fossils.
20:12Eventually,
20:13Verhoeven stumbles
20:14on something
20:15much stranger.
20:18It is a small,
20:20fully formed,
20:21human-like skeleton
20:23that's barely
20:24three and a half feet tall.
20:27But because the skull
20:28is fully formed,
20:30Verhoeven realizes
20:31this little skeleton
20:33can't be from a child.
20:35Baffled,
20:37Verhoeven publishes
20:38his findings,
20:39but the mystery
20:40stays buried
20:41until decades later
20:43when another archaeologist
20:45picks up the trail.
20:48In 2003,
20:49Sep Tomo and his team
20:50are excavating deep
20:52in Liangboa,
20:53one of the caves
20:54that Verhoeven explored.
20:55And as they dig
20:58through layers
20:58of sediment,
20:59they also begin
21:00finding loads
21:02of smaller,
21:03human-like bones.
21:06Before long,
21:07the team unearths
21:08an entire human skeleton.
21:10It's a fully adult woman,
21:12but she's only
21:13three and a half feet tall
21:14and only weighs 66 pounds.
21:16She comes to be known
21:18as the Little Lady of Florals,
21:21or Flo for short.
21:23Her bones show
21:24absolutely no signs
21:26of any kind of disease
21:27or disorder.
21:29They're completely
21:29normal, healthy bones.
21:31They are just smaller,
21:32with the exception
21:34of her strangely
21:35oversized feet.
21:37Eventually,
21:38scientists find
21:3913 more skeletons,
21:42all of the same stature,
21:44all with unusually
21:45large feet.
21:48Carbon dating indicates
21:49that the bones
21:50date back
21:50about 50,000 years.
21:52That means that
21:53they're too recent
21:54and too small
21:55to be an early
21:56human ancestor
21:57known as Homo erectus.
21:59And Neanderthals
22:01never reached
22:02this part of the world.
22:03So who are
22:04these mysterious people?
22:06And why were they
22:07so small?
22:08Researchers determined
22:10that this is
22:11an entirely new species
22:13of an early
22:14human ancestor.
22:16They end up
22:17naming it
22:17Homo floresiensis.
22:19And paleoanthropologists
22:21consider it to be
22:22one of the most
22:23important finds
22:25in terms of human
22:26evolution
22:26in decades.
22:28Despite their
22:29small stature,
22:30they were just
22:31as capable
22:32as their larger
22:33human cousins.
22:34And researchers
22:35think geography
22:36might have played
22:37a role
22:38in their tiny physique.
22:40Scientists hypothesized
22:41that it was
22:42the pressures
22:42of island life
22:43that led
22:44to their small stature.
22:45Cut off
22:46from the mainland
22:47by a deep ocean,
22:48resources would
22:49have been scarce.
22:50Over the generations,
22:52Homo floresiensis
22:53evolved to need
22:54less food.
22:55In this limited
22:57environment,
22:58being small
22:59was an advantage.
23:00The discovery
23:01makes headlines
23:02around the globe,
23:04sparking
23:04an immediate comparison.
23:08At the time,
23:10the Lord of the Rings
23:10films are arguably
23:12some of the most
23:13popular films
23:14on planet Earth.
23:15And this sudden
23:16discovery of
23:17tiny humans
23:19that were small
23:19in stature
23:20with big feet
23:21gets a load
23:22of attention.
23:23But being that
23:24Tolkien wrote his books
23:25back in the 30s
23:26and 40s,
23:27it's pretty unlikely
23:28that he was inspired
23:29by Homo floresiensis
23:31when he conceived
23:32of the Hobbits.
23:34Today,
23:35replicas of the Flores
23:37Hobbit bones
23:38are on display
23:38at a museum
23:39in Australia.
23:40And a 3D model
23:42of Flo
23:42is on display
23:43at the Smithsonian.
23:44But anyone hoping
23:46to spot the One Ring
23:47will have to look
23:49elsewhere.
23:54One night in Poland
23:55200 years ago,
23:57a storm shook loose
23:58more than mud.
24:00It stirred up
24:01a strange find
24:02the villagers hoped
24:03would stay buried
24:05forever.
24:07After a heavy
24:08summer storm,
24:09villagers in Pien
24:10in Poland
24:11begin the work
24:12of clearing away
24:12runoff and debris
24:13from a nearby hill.
24:16But as they work
24:17to clear the road,
24:18something unsettling
24:19emerges from the mud.
24:22It's a human skull.
24:26As they continue
24:27to dig,
24:28they find more bones
24:29from more than
24:30one skeleton.
24:32and they all seem
24:33to be coming
24:34from the hill
24:34that's just above them.
24:36There was something
24:37very disturbing
24:39about that hill.
24:41Animals avoided it.
24:42Parents told their children
24:43not to go near it.
24:45And every time
24:46there was a heavy rain,
24:48more bones emerged
24:49from the side of it.
24:50Almost as if
24:51the earth was trying
24:52to give something back.
24:54Locals stay away
24:55and the site sits
24:57untouched
24:57for almost 200 years
24:59until 2022
25:01when two archaeologists
25:03arrive to investigate
25:04further.
25:06And what they find
25:07is disturbing.
25:11As they start
25:13excavating,
25:14the ground
25:14is riddled
25:15with bodies.
25:16But these aren't
25:17the typical grave sites
25:19that they're used
25:20to unearthing.
25:21There are skeletons
25:22weighed down
25:23with stones.
25:24There's even
25:25a skeleton
25:26with the body
25:27of a child
25:28laid across its legs
25:29forming a kind
25:30of cross.
25:32The team uncovers
25:34100 of these
25:35strange unmarked graves
25:37but is confused
25:38by their purpose
25:39until one digger's
25:40discovery helps
25:42make it more clear.
25:44His trowel
25:45hits something
25:46with a clink.
25:47Working carefully,
25:48he brushes away
25:49the dirt
25:49and he uncovers
25:51a long curved
25:52metal piece.
25:53It's a sickle
25:54and it's been
25:55deliberately placed
25:56over the neck
25:57of a young woman's
25:58skeleton.
26:01But then
26:02they make
26:02another unsettling
26:04discovery.
26:04There's a padlock
26:05that has been
26:07clamped
26:08around her foot
26:11as if it were
26:12chaining her
26:13to the earth.
26:14They then
26:15turn to
26:16not only history
26:17but folklore
26:18but folklore
26:18to help understand
26:19why this woman
26:20and all of the
26:21other burials
26:21are here.
26:23It turns out
26:24that over 400 years ago
26:26a wave of panic
26:28swept across Poland
26:29one driven
26:31by fear
26:32of the undead.
26:33Villagers
26:34believed that
26:35the dead
26:36were rising
26:36from the graves
26:37to hunt the living.
26:40Described as pale
26:41with sharp claws
26:43and sharp teeth
26:44these beings
26:46would feed
26:46on the blood
26:47of the living
26:48and spread disease
26:49and fear.
26:53The Polish
26:54called these people
26:55upier
26:56which is an early
26:58version of the word
26:58vampire.
27:00These beings
27:01were resurrected
27:03bodies
27:03of people
27:04who had died
27:05early or violent
27:06deaths.
27:07And if you had
27:09suffered that kind
27:09of a fate
27:10the danger
27:11is that you
27:11might come back
27:12as a yuppir.
27:13To stop them
27:15communities
27:15took drastic measures.
27:17Some were bound
27:18in rope.
27:20Others had bricks
27:21stuck in their mouths
27:23to try to stop
27:24them from biting.
27:25The most feared
27:27were actually
27:28padlocked
27:29to the ground
27:29or buried
27:31with a sharp
27:32sickle
27:32arranged over
27:33their neck
27:34so if they
27:35suddenly sat up
27:36they would effectively
27:37decapitate themselves.
27:41The researchers
27:42document
27:43the young woman's
27:44grave in full
27:45then transfer
27:46her remains
27:47back to the lab
27:48for analysis.
27:49But there's one thing
27:51they leave alone.
27:53The padlock
27:55is never open
27:56because sometimes
27:57even in science
28:00it's better to be
28:01safe than sorry.
28:05Next up
28:06another strange body
28:07but this one
28:08wasn't buried.
28:09It was propped up
28:10in a dusty basement.
28:15Katoomba, New South Wales
28:17is a quiet town
28:18known for its
28:19misty mountain views
28:20and abundance
28:21of antique shops.
28:23B. Bellingham
28:24is browsing
28:25the basement
28:25of the Katoomba
28:26Vintage Emporium.
28:27This is the type
28:28of place
28:29where you might
28:29pick up an old lamp
28:31or a piece
28:32of vintage furniture.
28:33As she turns a corner
28:34she freezes.
28:35she sees something
28:36strange.
28:37She moves closer
28:38and inspects it.
28:40There's a human figure
28:41in front of her.
28:42It's tied to a dolly
28:43kneeling
28:44and completely nude.
28:48It's an extremely
28:49lifelike
28:50and strange
28:51mannequin.
28:52And the face
28:53is awfully familiar.
28:55She snaps a photo
28:57and uploads it
28:58to Instagram.
28:59It doesn't take long
29:00to get a response.
29:01The post quickly
29:03goes viral
29:03and in no time
29:04people identify
29:06this freaky figure.
29:08It's Sylvester Stallone.
29:09Or more specifically
29:11it's Stallone
29:12as the character
29:12John Spartan
29:14from his 1993 movie
29:16Demolition Man.
29:17In one of the movie's
29:18most iconic scenes
29:19his character
29:21is cryogenically frozen,
29:22nude,
29:24vulnerable,
29:24and suspended
29:25in mid-air.
29:26And this figure
29:27looks very much
29:29like Stallone's character
29:30from that movie.
29:31So it must have been
29:33a prop
29:33from the actual production.
29:35Once that connection
29:37is made
29:37the mystery shifts
29:39to how did it get here.
29:41Another poster
29:42quickly chimes in
29:43that he's
29:44seen this Stallone
29:46before.
29:47Only it wasn't
29:48at the movies.
29:49It was at a restaurant
29:50in Sydney, Australia.
29:51Not just any restaurant.
29:53One of the most famous
29:54Hollywood ventures
29:55of the 1990s,
29:58Planet Hollywood.
30:00In the early 1990s,
30:02Planet Hollywood
30:03exploded onto the scene.
30:05It was a restaurant chain
30:07backed by big Hollywood stars
30:09with movie memorabilia
30:11plastered on the walls.
30:12In 1996,
30:15Planet Hollywood
30:15opened its doors
30:16in Sydney
30:17and on hand
30:18for the festivities
30:19was none other
30:20than one of the chain's
30:21celebrity investors,
30:23Sylvester Stallone.
30:25And on display,
30:28a life-size replica
30:29of Stallone's character
30:30cryogenically frozen
30:31in Demolition.
30:33Unfortunately,
30:35Planet Hollywood
30:36went bankrupt
30:36in 1999
30:38and when its doors
30:39closed,
30:41much of the memorabilia
30:42vanished.
30:44No one's quite sure
30:45how it ended up
30:46in Katoomba,
30:47but B says
30:48it was so bizarre
30:49that she had
30:50to document it.
30:57You never know
30:58when or where
30:59you're going to find
31:00something strange.
31:01For one man in England,
31:03his freaky discovery
31:04began with nothing more
31:06than a nagging cough.
31:10It's 2017
31:11in Preston
31:13in the north of England
31:14and a man by the name
31:15of Paul Baxter
31:16for months
31:17has been plagued
31:18by severe coughs
31:20and chest infections
31:21that just keep coming back
31:23again and again and again.
31:25At first,
31:26he thinks it's maybe
31:27bronchitis
31:28or pneumonia,
31:29but it's not going away
31:31so he finally decides
31:32to see his doctor.
31:34His doctor sends him
31:35for a chest x-ray
31:36and they do see
31:37that there is something
31:38in his lungs,
31:39but it's inconclusive.
31:41So the doctor sends him
31:43for a CT scan.
31:45The results reveal
31:47a mass
31:48deep inside Paul's lung.
31:50The mass
31:51is irregular,
31:53dense,
31:54enlarged,
31:55deep
31:55in the bronchus.
31:56Doctors assume
31:57the worst.
31:58This could be a tumor,
31:59maybe cancerous.
32:01Paul is referred
32:02to the respiratory team
32:03at the Royal Preston Hospital.
32:05They schedule
32:06a bronchoscopy,
32:07which is a procedure
32:08that lets doctors
32:09look directly
32:10into the lungs
32:10using this flexible tube
32:12that has a light
32:13and a camera on.
32:15Pulmonologist
32:15Dr. Mohamed Munavur
32:17begins what should be
32:18a routine procedure.
32:21Watching from the monitor,
32:23Munavur guides
32:24the scope
32:24down Paul's trachea
32:26into the bronchial tree
32:28until the mass
32:29comes into sight.
32:31But this is not like
32:32any tumor
32:33the doctor has ever seen.
32:36It's about half an inch long,
32:39it's bright orange,
32:40and it seems to be
32:41made of plastic.
32:43So Munavur
32:44carefully inserts
32:46mini biopsy forceps
32:48to retrieve the object,
32:50and he looks at it
32:51on the screen,
32:52and it's a toy.
32:54It's a mini plastic
32:56traffic cone.
32:58When Paul wakes up,
33:00doctors hand him
33:01this strange orange object.
33:04At first,
33:05he's confused,
33:06but then a long-forgotten memory
33:09comes rushing back.
33:11When Paul was seven,
33:13he got a Playmobil toy set
33:14for his birthday.
33:16It came with
33:17orange-vested construction workers,
33:19stop signs,
33:20and traffic cones.
33:22One day,
33:23like a lot of young
33:24curious kids,
33:25he put one of these
33:26little toy traffic cones
33:27in his mouth
33:28and accidentally
33:29inhaled it.
33:31He coughed a few times,
33:33felt fine,
33:34so he just went
33:35right back to playing.
33:37Incredibly,
33:38the cone slipped
33:39into his lung
33:40and stayed there
33:41for 41 years.
33:43Over time,
33:44the lung formed
33:45a protective layer
33:46of tissue
33:47around the traffic cone.
33:49The cone itself
33:51remained fine,
33:53essentially mummified
33:54in Paul's lung,
33:55not causing any problems
33:57until it began
33:58to impact his breathing.
34:00The unusual find
34:02is published
34:03by the British Medical Journal.
34:05Experts called it
34:06one of the most unusual
34:07bronchial obstructions
34:09ever documented,
34:10and they all agree
34:11that Paul
34:12was incredibly lucky.
34:13Four months after surgery,
34:15Paul fully recovers.
34:16The cough is gone,
34:17his lungs are clear.
34:19Oh, and that little
34:20orange traffic cone,
34:21it sits on his mantle
34:22as a conversation piece.
34:25If you think a toy
34:26inside a lung
34:27is freaky,
34:29just wait until you see
34:30what one young girl
34:31finds inside
34:33a stone cliff.
34:36On the windswept cliffs
34:38of Lime Regis
34:39in Dorset, England,
34:4112-year-old Mary Anning
34:42and her brother Joseph
34:43are out exploring
34:44after a storm.
34:45As they walk
34:47by the shoreline,
34:48Joseph spots something
34:49poking out of some limestone
34:51in the cliffside.
34:52They get closer
34:53and realize
34:54that half-buried
34:55is a strange,
34:57fossilized skull.
34:58This doesn't look like
35:00a normal animal skull.
35:02It's got sharp teeth,
35:04unusually large eye sockets,
35:06and it's abnormally long.
35:08Most 12-year-olds
35:10would move on
35:11and forget about it,
35:12but not Mary.
35:15She returns to the site
35:17day after day
35:18for nearly a year
35:20as she excavates
35:22the fossil
35:22from the cliffside.
35:23Eventually,
35:24she digs out
35:25a massive 17-foot-long skeleton.
35:29It has a long body,
35:31two pairs of paddle-like limbs,
35:32a tail,
35:34a pointed snout,
35:35full of sharp teeth,
35:37and creepiest of all,
35:40giant eyes.
35:42Mary becomes a local legend,
35:43but her strange discovery
35:45doesn't look like anything
35:47anyone's seen before,
35:49leaving experts
35:51divided and baffled.
35:53At first,
35:54scientists brush it off
35:55as maybe just the remains
35:56of a crocodile.
35:58And it does have
35:59a crocodile-like snout,
36:01but others
36:02aren't so sure.
36:05After a few years
36:05of debate,
36:06the scientific community
36:07finally agrees
36:08this is no croc.
36:10They also agree
36:11it is very,
36:12very old.
36:15Eventually,
36:17paleontologists
36:17call the strange find
36:20ichthyosaurus,
36:21or fish lizard,
36:22but it takes
36:23four more years
36:24to figure out
36:25exactly what it is.
36:27It isn't until 1821
36:30that scientists
36:31determined that
36:31this isn't a fish
36:33or a mammal,
36:34but actually
36:35a previously unknown
36:36200-million-year-old
36:38marine reptile.
36:41Meanwhile,
36:42Mary continues
36:42to actively explore
36:44the world around her.
36:45In 1823,
36:47she finds
36:48a nearly complete
36:49plesiosaurus skeleton.
36:51And a few years later,
36:53she digs up
36:53Britain's first-ever
36:54pterosaur.
36:56With each new discovery,
36:58Mary Anning's reputation
36:59grows as one of the
37:01most remarkable
37:02fossil hunters
37:03of her time.
37:05Mary Anning dies
37:06of breast cancer
37:06in 1847,
37:08and her death
37:09is noted
37:09in the Journal
37:10of the Geological Society,
37:12which is a big deal
37:14for a woman
37:14at the time.
37:15Then in 2015,
37:16she gets another honor
37:18when the name
37:19of her first find
37:20is updated
37:21to ichthyosaurus
37:22anninge,
37:23which is the credit
37:24she deserves
37:25as one of the most
37:26skilled,
37:27self-taught paleontologists
37:29of her time.
37:34In the jungles
37:35of southern Mexico,
37:36a routine swing
37:37of a machete
37:38is about to strike
37:40something unexpected.
37:42It's the early 1860s
37:45near the remote
37:46Mexican village
37:47of Tres Zapotes,
37:48and a farm worker
37:50is clearing away
37:51some brush
37:52so he can plant
37:53some crops there
37:54when he notices
37:55something unusual.
37:57His blade hits
37:58something in the soil,
37:59so he starts
38:01clearing away the earth
38:03to try and see
38:04what he's hit.
38:05What he finds
38:06is hard, smooth,
38:08and absolutely huge.
38:10As he clears more dirt,
38:12contours start to emerge.
38:14They look like lips,
38:16a nose,
38:17an eyelid.
38:18To his surprise,
38:19it's no ordinary stone.
38:21It's a nine-foot-tall head.
38:24Word spreads quickly,
38:25and locals
38:26begin to gather around it,
38:27unsure of
38:28what exactly
38:29has been found.
38:30Some in the village
38:31think they've uncovered
38:32a god.
38:33Others worry
38:34that they've disturbed
38:36something,
38:36something that might
38:37even be cursed,
38:38and so advocate
38:39to leave this alone.
38:40The strange stone
38:42sits there,
38:43untouched for the next
38:4470 years,
38:45until an American
38:46archaeologist
38:47named Matthew Sterling
38:49hears about
38:50the massive stone head
38:51and decides
38:52to investigate.
38:54Sterling
38:55locates the statue
38:56and then begins
38:57excavating
38:58around the area.
39:00Soon,
39:01he digs up
39:02more heads,
39:03many more,
39:0417,
39:05in fact,
39:05the largest of which
39:06weighs around
39:0740 tons.
39:10Not only that,
39:11they look unlike
39:13anything archaeologists
39:14have ever seen
39:15in this area,
39:15and they're not alone,
39:17because alongside
39:17these statues,
39:18they find things like
39:19altars,
39:20thrones,
39:20and other items
39:21carved in the same style.
39:23Sterling thinks
39:24this could be evidence
39:26of an ancient civilization
39:27no one knew existed.
39:30He names this ancient people
39:31the Olmec,
39:32which means
39:33people from the land
39:34of rubber,
39:35a reference to the fact
39:36that this region
39:37is important
39:38in natural rubber production.
39:41Radiocarbon dating
39:42of materials
39:42located near
39:44these sculptures
39:44dates them back
39:45to anywhere between
39:461500 to 400 BCE,
39:49which suggests
39:50that it is possible
39:52that the Olmec people
39:53may have been
39:54in the mother culture
39:55that would later
39:56give way
39:57to other civilizations
39:58like the Aztec
39:59and the Maya.
40:01If true,
40:02the Olmec's techniques
40:03would have been
40:04revolutionary
40:05for their time,
40:06with stone crafting
40:07as advanced
40:08as Stonehenge
40:09or the Pyramids of Giza.
40:13Geologists identified
40:15the stone
40:15that was used
40:16for the heads
40:17as basalt
40:18that comes
40:18from the Tuzla Mountains,
40:20which were about
40:2150 miles away.
40:22So,
40:23imagine
40:23these people
40:24were able
40:25to transport
40:2640-ton pieces
40:28of stone
40:2950 miles
40:30over thick jungles.
40:32Experts think
40:33that they might
40:34have used
40:35rafts,
40:36rollers,
40:36or ramps
40:37to move them,
40:38but nobody's
40:39entirely sure.
40:40Moving them
40:41is one challenge.
40:43Understanding them
40:44is another.
40:46Some experts
40:47believe that
40:48these are the faces
40:48of ancient gods.
40:49Others suggest
40:51that they're simply
40:51too lifelike
40:53to not refer
40:54to living people.
40:55And so,
40:56maybe these were used
40:56to honor important leaders
40:58or to mark
40:59their territory.
41:02Today,
41:02some of these sculptures
41:03are housed
41:04in archaeological museums,
41:06but others remain
41:08in their original sites,
41:10just feet away
41:11from where they were
41:12really discovered.
41:14And honestly,
41:15maybe it's for the best
41:16that they stay
41:16where they were found,
41:17because 3,500 years ago,
41:19the Olmec moved
41:19these 40-ton stones,
41:22carved them,
41:22and then set them down
41:24in a very specific location
41:25for a very specific reason
41:27and purpose.
41:28What that purpose is,
41:29though,
41:29remains the big mystery.
41:34From graves to sewers,
41:36and even inside
41:37the human body,
41:39strange finds
41:39come crawling out
41:40of places
41:41you'd never expect.
41:43I'm Danny Trejo.
41:44Thanks for watching
41:45Mysteries on Earth.
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