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- [Narrator] New York, a city
of industry and ingenuity.
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And at its heart, a museum
of science and humanity
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with secrets dark and strange.
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Mesozoic mayhem.
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Cosmic mysteries.
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And an encrypted message from
a once proud civilization.
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Secrets hidden in plain sight
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inside the American
Museum of Natural History.
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(ominous music)
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Manhattan, America's capital
of culture and business
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and a magnet for immigrants
from all over the world.
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And across from Central
Park, a world under one roof,
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the American Museum of Natural History.
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The museum covers an entire city block,
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home to 32 million specimens
from all over the planet.
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But none are more impressive than these,
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a herd of African elephants.
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It's hard to gaze up at the elephants
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without feeling their power.
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For many visitors, the word
that will spring to mind
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is majestic, or perhaps even noble.
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Just a few blocks south on Broadway,
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the same words apply to our
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favorite fictional African animals,
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kings of a sunny savanna.
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But not so long ago, African wildlife
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occupied a different place
in the popular imagination.
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Early Hollywood portrayed a vision
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of the ferocious beasts of darkest Africa.
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(roaring)
(screaming)
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(gunfire)
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Jeanette Eileen Jones
is a cultural historian
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who studies portrayals of Africa.
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- All those images of just wild animals
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that will attack you at no provocation,
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that it's a dangerous place,
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that the climate is not
hospitable, particularly to whites.
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- [Narrator] Back then, this
scary image of African wildlife
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was reinforced in museums.
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(screaming)
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- With an African lion, often
they're depicted snarling
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and as mean and ferocious as possible.
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Looks more like a gargoyle
or a mythical beast.
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- [Narrator] This stuffed
lion would've been typical
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a hundred years ago.
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Like a B-movie villain, it's a
stereotype lacking character.
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How did museum specimens
go from this to this?
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And how did Africa's wildlife exchange
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their evil image for one
of nobility and light?
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The answer begins with
a man named Carl Akeley.
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- Akeley was a young man who loved
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natural history and wildlife.
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He grew up in New York state on a farm.
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At an early age, he developed
an interest in taxidermy.
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- [Narrator] On the farm, Akeley grew up
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around animals that were slaughtered.
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So stuffing animals wasn't a big step.
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The largest animal then in captivity
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was an African elephant named Jumbo.
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When Jumbo was killed by a train,
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Akeley took part in his preservation.
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Jumbo was transformed into the largest
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stuffed animal in history.
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- [Steve] It was from that experience
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that Akeley gained his fame.
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- [Narrator] He won a job
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at the American Museum of
Natural History by promising
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to create an exhibit of African elephants.
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Akeley had been to Africa before,
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but he saw something very different
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than what appeared in the movies.
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- He sees beauty in the
flora and the fauna.
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He sees beauty in Africa that is linked
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to its natural landscape.
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- [Narrator] In 1909,
Akeley looks for elephants
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in the forests of Mount Kenya.
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And its here that Africa
teaches him a lesson.
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He's charged by an elephant,
pinning him to the ground.
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Suffering a badly broken nose, for a time
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he looked a bit like the Elephant Man.
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The life-threatening experience could've
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made him hate Africa,
but the continent works
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on his spirit in a different way.
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- It was said during that convalescence
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he dreamt of this splendid hall,
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this hall of African
mammals that would celebrate
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the beauty and splendor
of African wildlife.
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- [Narrator] When Akeley
returned to New York,
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he began to realize his dream
by reinventing taxidermy.
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Steve Quinn takes us into an
area the public never sees
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to show us the difference Akeley made.
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- The big difference with
this method of taxidermy
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is, if you'll listen,
(knocking) it's hollow.
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And that's the clue, which indicates
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that it's Akeley's method.
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- [Narrator] Rather than
stuff specimens with straw,
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Akeley used their skeletons
to create hollow molds
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with muscles shaped in clay
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to match the measurements
made in the field.
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- And because the sculpture was sculpted
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to the exact specifications
of that animal,
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the skin, when tanned, fit like a glove.
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- [Narrator] The results
were the most lifelike
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African specimens ever seen.
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But Akeley was only getting started.
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Up until now, most museums
had presented animals
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as isolated specimens.
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But Akeley wanted to show animals
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within their natural habitat.
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He took artists to Africa to record
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the animal's home environment,
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which they then recreated
on curved painted backdrops
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behind the stuffed animals.
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These scenes are called dioramas.
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Akeley borrowed the
technique from the theater.
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He urged the patrons of the
American Natural History Museum
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to pay for a brand new gallery
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to be filled with 28 African dioramas.
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In an age before television,
this exhibit would be
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the only way New Yorkers would ever see
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these exotic African animals.
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One animal was known and
unknown, the mountain gorilla.
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For the movie-going public,
the gorilla was a savage beast
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that deserved to die at Tarzan's hand.
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(heroic yelling)
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- The mountain gorilla was
steeped in folklore and myth
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and thought to charge on sight of a human
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and snap rifles with its jaws
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and run off with women into the forest.
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- [Narrator] In Akeley's
eyes, the mountain gorilla
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was a gentle giant.
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But in 1921, the only way
to show the American public
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the noble gorilla was by killing one.
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Akeley was amazed by their
kinship with humanity.
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But that made them harder to kill.
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He later wrote, it took
all one's scientific ardor
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to keep from feeling like a murderer.
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I was the savage and the aggressor.
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In 1936, after years of
effort and preparation,
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the Hall of Africa is unveiled.
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- That day, if you read
the New York Times,
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everybody was out there,
everyone who was anyone,
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mostly a lot of white
upper-class, middle-class people.
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A lot of patrons.
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- [Narrator] A Times reporter wrote,
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"One can feel the wind
sweeping across the plains
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"and mountains to the startled creatures
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"which look out from the grass."
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- There were raves.
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People were amazed at the
realism of the exhibit
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and the exotic creatures,
and the places depicted.
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- [Jeanette] People claimed to
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have been transported to Africa.
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They felt like they were in Africa
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when they walked through there.
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- [Narrator] But one VIP
could not be there that day.
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Before the work was
completed, while on safari
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in the mountains of the gorillas he loved,
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Carl Akeley caught dysentery and died.
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This diorama displays the
gorilla he found so hard to kill,
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and something else as well.
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- [Steve] If one leans into the diorama,
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and looks to the far right,
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you'll see Mount Mikeno
standing against the sky.
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And when visitors view the diorama,
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they should realize that
it's the burial place
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of Carl Akeley.
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- [Narrator] His final
resting place has become
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part of his life's work,
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his heartfelt vision of brightest Africa.
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Next, on Museum Secrets, ancient
monsters and modern cures.
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The American Museum of Natural History
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is trying to tell us something.
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It's trying to tell us
that all life is connected,
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even if not all species last forever.
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These creatures died out
65 million years ago,
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but dinosaurs are upstarts
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compared to this strange lifeform.
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- The oldest horseshoe
crab fossil goes back
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to about the late Ordovician,
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we'll say about 440,
450 million years old.
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- [Narrator] The horseshoe crab is unique
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not because it's so old,
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but because it has survived so long.
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- [Ward] Most species
don't last that long,
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couple million years.
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Horseshoe crabs have been
around for a long time.
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- [Narrator] This
remarkable species has seen
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the dinosaurs come and go,
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multiple ice ages, and the
rise of the human race.
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Recently, their continued vitality
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became linked to our own.
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- [Ward] Some of the
aspects of the immune system
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of horseshoe crabs are
extremely general and useful.
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They can detect the toxins
produced by various bacteria.
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- [Narrator] A unique clotting agent
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in the crab's blue blood surrounds toxins
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and neutralizes them.
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This has made horseshoe crabs invaluable
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to the pharmaceutical industry.
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Every year, the blood of
thousands of crabs is extracted.
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It's used to purify the world's vaccines,
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saving us from dozens of deadly diseases.
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After some of their blood is taken,
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the crabs are returned to the wild.
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But there's a problem.
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Their breeding grounds,
like this stretch of sand
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40 kilometers southeast of the museum
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have become despoiled by pollution.
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Their stocks are dwindling.
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If we want to keep harvesting their blood,
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we're going to need to
breed them in captivity.
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But this has proved extremely difficult.
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For decades, biologists have tried
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to breed them in the lab, without success.
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Then, in the year 2000, Dr. Carmela Cuomo
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decided to look for the secret.
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- I think it would be really awful
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if an organism that has managed to survive
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countless climate change, glaciations,
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meteorite impacts,
continents coming together
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and going apart, dies
because humans were here.
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So, I don't know, it
speaks to my heart somehow.
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- [Narrator] Carmela began her research
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by observing the nitty-gritty.
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- What they do is the
female digs under and digs
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and she lays the egg, and then
she kind of moves forward,
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and then the male deposits his sperm.
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And the females have
tremendous numbers of eggs.
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I mean, they can have
tens of thousands of eggs
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that they can deposit.
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- [Narrator] As to why
they would breed here
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but not in captivity,
biologists had only a few clues.
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- There is some evidence that they like
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to be where they were born.
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Sort of makes sense
for a lot of creatures,
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because you know that it worked,
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so it makes sense to go back there.
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- [Narrator] In her lab, Carmela simulated
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the conditions of the breeding beach.
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She placed a male and a female together,
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and to her utter
amazement they reproduced.
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- They've laid eggs and
they continue to lay eggs
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all until October.
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- [Narrator] Success was so unexpected
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that Carmela decided not
to revealed what happened
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until she made it happen twice.
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But at the next breeding
cycle, no crab romance.
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- [Carmela] Over here, we
have some mating behavior
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which does not mean they're going to mate.
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It just means because
they can hook up like that
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for a significant portion of the year.
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- [Narrator] Somehow, Carmela had stumbled
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on the secret and then lost it.
255
00:13:07,860 --> 00:13:10,920
- It didn't seem to us at the time
256
00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:13,110
that we had done anything different
257
00:13:13,110 --> 00:13:14,760
than we did the year before.
258
00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:17,833
And so, basically, we
drove ourselves crazy.
259
00:13:18,810 --> 00:13:20,250
It was like, what did we do differently?
260
00:13:20,250 --> 00:13:22,840
So we started to take factors out.
261
00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:25,110
Okay, we'll change the beach.
262
00:13:25,110 --> 00:13:28,060
They would show us the behavior
but they wouldn't lay eggs.
263
00:13:29,143 --> 00:13:30,970
- [Narrator] What was
it about a real beach,
264
00:13:30,970 --> 00:13:34,380
was it the tides, the light of the sun,
265
00:13:34,380 --> 00:13:36,183
a specific phase of the moon?
266
00:13:37,125 --> 00:13:39,583
Carmela's team tried and failed
267
00:13:39,583 --> 00:13:42,593
to find the answer for eight long years.
268
00:13:44,340 --> 00:13:46,440
- And then, a couple of
years ago, some students
269
00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:47,950
were working with me and they went out
270
00:13:47,950 --> 00:13:50,210
and collected the crabs,
and they brought back
271
00:13:50,210 --> 00:13:53,260
some sediment that was
with them and the water.
272
00:13:53,260 --> 00:13:55,050
We put them back out, then
we put them in the tank,
273
00:13:55,050 --> 00:13:56,830
and they mated and they laid eggs.
274
00:13:56,830 --> 00:13:58,220
And they laid eggs, and they laid eggs,
275
00:13:58,220 --> 00:14:01,560
and then when I looked at
my notes, what did I see?
276
00:14:01,560 --> 00:14:04,763
I saw the exact same thing
that we had done the first year
277
00:14:04,763 --> 00:14:07,389
which was we brought sand with us
278
00:14:07,389 --> 00:14:10,756
from where the animals were.
279
00:14:10,756 --> 00:14:13,930
- [Narrator] Horseshoe
crabs will only breed
280
00:14:13,930 --> 00:14:16,330
in the sand where they were born.
281
00:14:16,330 --> 00:14:17,873
That is the secret.
282
00:14:18,828 --> 00:14:21,660
- If we can breed them, make sure nature
283
00:14:21,660 --> 00:14:23,010
has a steady supply of them,
284
00:14:23,010 --> 00:14:25,627
make sure industry has
a steady supply of them,
285
00:14:25,627 --> 00:14:28,243
everybody will hopefully be happy.
286
00:14:29,670 --> 00:14:32,283
- [Narrator] But as Carmela
and her colleagues know,
287
00:14:32,283 --> 00:14:34,790
her solution will only work as long as
288
00:14:34,790 --> 00:14:37,863
viable natural habitats continue to exist.
289
00:14:40,060 --> 00:14:42,070
- So if you destroy the
habitats where they live,
290
00:14:42,070 --> 00:14:44,050
where they breed, where they eat
291
00:14:44,050 --> 00:14:46,250
via pollution or development,
292
00:14:46,250 --> 00:14:49,329
then you're really going
to hurt these creatures.
293
00:14:49,329 --> 00:14:52,070
- The fact that an
organism has been around
294
00:14:52,070 --> 00:14:57,070
in some form for some long,
it inspires an awe in me.
295
00:14:57,350 --> 00:14:59,500
That's the best way I can say it.
296
00:14:59,500 --> 00:15:02,170
And so there's a desire
to kind of make sure
297
00:15:02,170 --> 00:15:04,583
that these animals continue.
298
00:15:06,267 --> 00:15:09,310
- [Narrator] For if we can't
co-exist with a species
299
00:15:09,310 --> 00:15:12,010
that has survived for
half a billion years,
300
00:15:12,010 --> 00:15:13,523
no species is safe.
301
00:15:14,390 --> 00:15:15,843
Not even our own.
302
00:15:17,710 --> 00:15:19,490
Next, on Museum Secrets,
303
00:15:19,490 --> 00:15:21,773
dinosaur detectives unearth a murder.
304
00:15:28,420 --> 00:15:31,360
Inside the American
Museum of Natural History,
305
00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:35,943
the ancient bones of dinosaurs
inspire awe and questions.
306
00:15:36,870 --> 00:15:38,403
How did this plant-eater live?
307
00:15:39,454 --> 00:15:42,293
How did this meat-eater die?
308
00:15:43,450 --> 00:15:46,010
To discover the answers,
all we have to go on
309
00:15:46,010 --> 00:15:48,200
is the physical evidence.
310
00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:50,040
And that's why behind the scenes,
311
00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:52,310
the museum's paleontology department
312
00:15:52,310 --> 00:15:54,273
looks a lot like a modern crime lab.
313
00:15:55,393 --> 00:15:58,177
- I see some right there.
- Yeah.
314
00:15:58,177 --> 00:16:01,697
Looks like there's some
fossilized bits on the bones.
315
00:16:01,697 --> 00:16:03,856
That's kinda neat.
316
00:16:03,856 --> 00:16:06,060
- [Narrator] The museum's
head paleontologist,
317
00:16:06,060 --> 00:16:07,840
Mark Norrell, is one of the world's
318
00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:10,250
leading dinosaur detectives.
319
00:16:10,250 --> 00:16:11,750
- We're able to use CAT scans to be able
320
00:16:11,750 --> 00:16:12,910
to peer into things.
321
00:16:12,910 --> 00:16:15,060
We're able to use mass spectrometers
322
00:16:15,060 --> 00:16:17,270
which are able to look at things
323
00:16:17,270 --> 00:16:20,050
in very, very low concentration.
324
00:16:20,050 --> 00:16:22,650
Advances in technology has changed the way
325
00:16:22,650 --> 00:16:24,550
that we do things really dramatically.
326
00:16:25,910 --> 00:16:27,580
- [Narrator] High-tech tools can amplify
327
00:16:27,580 --> 00:16:29,450
a detective's deductive powers.
328
00:16:29,450 --> 00:16:32,480
But sometimes, an
investigation remains unsolved
329
00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,573
until a new piece of evidence
blows the case wide open.
330
00:16:36,700 --> 00:16:40,060
That's what happened when
Mark Norrell found this.
331
00:16:40,060 --> 00:16:41,630
- I think it was a really exciting moment
332
00:16:41,630 --> 00:16:42,463
when we found it.
333
00:16:42,463 --> 00:16:45,020
We knew that because
basically we were overturning
334
00:16:45,020 --> 00:16:48,153
over 60 years of orthodoxy in the field.
335
00:16:49,161 --> 00:16:51,280
- [Narrator] What it
is, and what it revealed
336
00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:52,843
is our museum secret.
337
00:16:54,492 --> 00:16:57,800
The story begins in 1922,
338
00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:00,070
as the American Museum of Natural History
339
00:17:00,070 --> 00:17:01,760
mounts its first major expedition
340
00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:03,253
to the deserts of Mongolia.
341
00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:08,160
The museum's explorers
made their way through mud,
342
00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:10,233
sandstorms, and searing heat.
343
00:17:13,430 --> 00:17:15,490
- Mongolia really turned out to be
344
00:17:15,490 --> 00:17:17,910
a treasure trove for fossils.
345
00:17:17,910 --> 00:17:20,010
The American Museum
collected fossils there
346
00:17:20,010 --> 00:17:23,480
of everything from dinosaurs
to mammals and lots of them.
347
00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:24,870
Probably their most spectacular finds
348
00:17:24,870 --> 00:17:27,800
were found at a place
called the Flaming Cliffs.
349
00:17:27,800 --> 00:17:29,340
- [Narrator] Beneath
the cliffs, they found
350
00:17:29,340 --> 00:17:32,070
dozens of skeletons of
a plant-eating dinosaur,
351
00:17:32,070 --> 00:17:33,383
called Protoceratops.
352
00:17:34,510 --> 00:17:37,110
This evidence revealed for the first time
353
00:17:37,110 --> 00:17:40,216
that some dinosaurs lived in deserts.
354
00:17:40,216 --> 00:17:43,650
And then they unearthed a type of fossil
355
00:17:43,650 --> 00:17:47,483
that no one had seen
before, dinosaur eggs.
356
00:17:48,690 --> 00:17:50,550
- They found several dinosaur nests
357
00:17:50,550 --> 00:17:52,640
during the 1923 expedition.
358
00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:53,980
But one of the most spectacular things
359
00:17:53,980 --> 00:17:56,130
that they found was a dinosaur nest
360
00:17:56,130 --> 00:17:59,450
with the remains of another
dinosaur lying on top of it.
361
00:17:59,450 --> 00:18:01,390
The animal that was found
on top of the nest though
362
00:18:01,390 --> 00:18:04,030
wasn't a protoceratops, it
was a carnivorous dinosaur
363
00:18:04,030 --> 00:18:05,387
which they named oviraptor.
364
00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:08,210
- [Narrator] The fossil evidence pointed
365
00:18:08,210 --> 00:18:09,493
to a kind of crime scene.
366
00:18:10,390 --> 00:18:12,060
(crunching)
367
00:18:12,060 --> 00:18:15,210
They deduced the oviraptor
died while stealing an egg.
368
00:18:15,210 --> 00:18:18,592
Caught in the act by a
mother protoceratops.
369
00:18:18,592 --> 00:18:23,000
(crunching)
(squawking)
370
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,977
The 65 million year old
story became front page news.
371
00:18:26,977 --> 00:18:30,080
- When the news first
came back to New York,
372
00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:32,160
it was big news, it
made all the newspapers
373
00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:35,120
and everything else,
made newsreel footage.
374
00:18:35,120 --> 00:18:36,900
- [Narrator] The museum
displayed the prehistoric
375
00:18:36,900 --> 00:18:40,852
family scene of dinosaur
eggs and their proud parents.
376
00:18:40,852 --> 00:18:43,320
The dinosaur detectives were celebrated
377
00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:44,930
for the brilliant deduction that revealed
378
00:18:44,930 --> 00:18:47,951
the violent death of the
egg-stealing oviraptor.
379
00:18:47,951 --> 00:18:49,588
(roaring)
380
00:18:49,588 --> 00:18:51,238
But this isn't our museum secret.
381
00:18:52,420 --> 00:18:55,323
Because their conclusion
was completely wrong.
382
00:18:57,150 --> 00:18:59,060
In the next part of our detective story,
383
00:18:59,060 --> 00:19:01,320
Mark Norrell plays a leading role,
384
00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:03,633
because he, himself, is a gifted sleuth.
385
00:19:05,870 --> 00:19:08,736
In the 1990s, he was in the
forefront of the discovery
386
00:19:08,736 --> 00:19:13,080
that two-legged dinosaurs
looked less like this,
387
00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:14,543
and more like this.
388
00:19:16,260 --> 00:19:19,290
This revelation became another
front page story called
389
00:19:19,290 --> 00:19:22,170
The Truth About Dinosaurs:
Just about everything
390
00:19:22,170 --> 00:19:23,783
you believe is wrong.
391
00:19:25,236 --> 00:19:27,280
- 20 years ago, we didn't
know they had feathers,
392
00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:28,130
we know that now.
393
00:19:28,130 --> 00:19:29,680
20 years ago, we didn't know that they had
394
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:31,830
bird-like physiologies, we know that now.
395
00:19:31,830 --> 00:19:33,780
So there's been a lot of progress made.
396
00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:36,580
- [Narrator] To discover
more about the link
397
00:19:36,580 --> 00:19:39,810
between dinosaurs and birds,
Mark Norrell led a team
398
00:19:39,810 --> 00:19:41,793
back to Mongolia.
399
00:19:41,793 --> 00:19:45,470
Like their predecessors of the 1920s,
400
00:19:45,470 --> 00:19:48,206
they found skeletons of
plant-eating protoceratops
401
00:19:48,206 --> 00:19:50,500
along with a clearly birdlike specimen
402
00:19:50,500 --> 00:19:52,293
of the egg-stealing oviraptor.
403
00:19:54,490 --> 00:19:58,030
And then they discovered
something no one had found before.
404
00:19:58,030 --> 00:20:00,600
As they carefully
uncovered a dinosaur nest,
405
00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:05,060
they found one egg with a
fossilized embryo still inside.
406
00:20:05,060 --> 00:20:09,040
- Inside the egg, there was
an embryo of a dinosaur,
407
00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:11,800
but the embryo wasn't
a protoceratops embryo,
408
00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:13,790
and the foot was sticking out,
409
00:20:13,790 --> 00:20:15,600
and weathered out of
the inside of the egg.
410
00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:18,913
And I could tell was the foot
of an oviraptor dinosaur.
411
00:20:20,235 --> 00:20:22,360
- [Narrator] And that
means that the oviraptor
412
00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:26,303
found on the nest was not
there to steal but to nurture.
413
00:20:27,340 --> 00:20:29,520
- It was sitting on top of its nest,
414
00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:31,560
probably brooding it or taking care of it
415
00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:33,710
just in the same way
modern birds do today.
416
00:20:35,430 --> 00:20:38,050
- [Narrator] Mark's discovery
refuted the old conclusions
417
00:20:38,050 --> 00:20:40,240
about oviraptor behavior.
418
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:42,360
And proved that the museum had been wrong
419
00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:43,873
about who laid the eggs.
420
00:20:44,990 --> 00:20:49,070
One new piece of evidence
had unlocked a secret,
421
00:20:49,070 --> 00:20:51,173
and completely changed the story.
422
00:20:52,420 --> 00:20:55,000
And as to how the mother oviraptor died,
423
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:56,730
researchers now believe she was killed
424
00:20:56,730 --> 00:20:59,343
by one of the region's
frequent sandstorms.
425
00:21:00,950 --> 00:21:03,108
Today, the latest evidence
leads Mark to believe
426
00:21:03,108 --> 00:21:06,650
that two-legged dinosaurs evolved directly
427
00:21:06,650 --> 00:21:07,843
into modern birds.
428
00:21:09,530 --> 00:21:12,700
So it may be that if
you're out birdwatching,
429
00:21:12,700 --> 00:21:14,583
you're dinosaur watching too.
430
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:19,760
Next, on Museum Secrets,
an encrypted message
431
00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:21,713
from a once proud civilization.
432
00:21:27,589 --> 00:21:30,172
(upbeat music)
433
00:21:31,130 --> 00:21:33,650
In the American Museum of Natural History,
434
00:21:33,650 --> 00:21:35,640
the diversity of nature includes
435
00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:37,657
the diversity of human nature,
436
00:21:37,657 --> 00:21:40,550
especially the civilizations
that have vanished
437
00:21:40,550 --> 00:21:41,383
from the Earth.
438
00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:45,570
We know these ancient
cultures by their works,
439
00:21:45,570 --> 00:21:48,023
but we understand them
through their words.
440
00:21:49,270 --> 00:21:51,120
Egyptian hieroglyphics that tell how
441
00:21:51,120 --> 00:21:53,870
to keep a Pharaoh safe as he
journeys to the afterlife.
442
00:21:54,751 --> 00:21:57,930
Or Athenian inscriptions that reveal
443
00:21:57,930 --> 00:22:01,143
their love of freedom and
how they fought to keep it.
444
00:22:03,050 --> 00:22:05,030
But there is one vanished civilization
445
00:22:05,030 --> 00:22:06,823
that is silent as the grave.
446
00:22:08,770 --> 00:22:10,950
At the beginning of the 16th century,
447
00:22:10,950 --> 00:22:13,700
a vast region surrounding what is now Peru
448
00:22:13,700 --> 00:22:16,203
was dominated by a people called the Inca.
449
00:22:17,198 --> 00:22:20,740
Their ruins suggest a
mastery of architecture
450
00:22:20,740 --> 00:22:23,340
and how they hauled these
massive stones is unknown.
451
00:22:25,502 --> 00:22:28,480
Their golden temples reveal their wealth,
452
00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:30,303
but we don't know their prayers.
453
00:22:32,339 --> 00:22:35,790
We do know the Incas were
the undisputed rulers
454
00:22:35,790 --> 00:22:36,793
of the Andes.
455
00:22:39,530 --> 00:22:43,732
The Spaniards arrived in
1532 amazed by Incan gold
456
00:22:43,732 --> 00:22:46,513
and determined to take it all.
457
00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:52,200
But today, many historians
believe Incan society
458
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,060
was missing something.
459
00:22:54,060 --> 00:22:57,224
- Only with respect to
the Inca do we not have
460
00:22:57,224 --> 00:23:01,160
their view of their
world in their own words.
461
00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:03,840
And that's because they did not develop
462
00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:08,560
a system of writing in a
form that we've identified.
463
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,368
The Incas have never been able to speak
464
00:23:11,368 --> 00:23:13,373
purely for themselves.
465
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:16,360
- [Narrator] Gary Urton
is an anthropologist
466
00:23:16,360 --> 00:23:18,038
from Harvard University.
467
00:23:18,038 --> 00:23:20,030
He's looking for the secret that will
468
00:23:20,030 --> 00:23:22,143
give the Inca back their voice.
469
00:23:23,130 --> 00:23:26,323
It may be locked in these
Incan artifacts called khipu.
470
00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:31,100
They look like humble
skeans of knotted string.
471
00:23:31,100 --> 00:23:33,130
But the Spanish Conquistadors believed
472
00:23:33,130 --> 00:23:34,630
they were much more than that.
473
00:23:36,042 --> 00:23:40,130
- When the Spanish took
material out of a storehouse,
474
00:23:40,130 --> 00:23:42,000
there was a man there keeping records,
475
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,420
and he had knotted string devices,
476
00:23:44,420 --> 00:23:48,316
and he untied knots from
one section of the khipu
477
00:23:48,316 --> 00:23:50,750
and tied knots in another section.
478
00:23:50,750 --> 00:23:53,920
So he was working with a debit and credit
479
00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:56,103
type accounting system.
480
00:23:57,180 --> 00:23:58,792
- [Narrator] When the
Inca refused to reveal
481
00:23:58,792 --> 00:24:01,780
the knot secret code, the Spaniards burned
482
00:24:01,780 --> 00:24:04,190
every khipu they could find.
483
00:24:04,190 --> 00:24:05,840
Their meaning was soon forgotten.
484
00:24:07,348 --> 00:24:12,348
Today, only 850 khipus are known to exist.
485
00:24:12,416 --> 00:24:14,780
Gary Urton has spent the last 10 years
486
00:24:14,780 --> 00:24:17,410
personally examining
khipu all over the world.
487
00:24:17,410 --> 00:24:20,110
- This is a classic Inca khipu here.
488
00:24:20,110 --> 00:24:22,650
- [Narrator] A lover of
puzzles, he's determined
489
00:24:22,650 --> 00:24:24,310
to break the code.
490
00:24:24,310 --> 00:24:28,800
- Down here, they tied the
units, the ones to nines.
491
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:32,673
Up here, the tens, the
hundreds, the thousands.
492
00:24:34,010 --> 00:24:36,340
We're pretty sure they
were recording censuses
493
00:24:36,340 --> 00:24:38,030
and tribute data.
494
00:24:38,030 --> 00:24:41,210
All of the sort of nuts
and bolts of the business
495
00:24:41,210 --> 00:24:42,613
of the Inca state.
496
00:24:43,650 --> 00:24:45,937
- [Narrator] But why, when
other ancients wrote on stone
497
00:24:45,937 --> 00:24:47,763
did the Inca choose string?
498
00:24:49,490 --> 00:24:52,720
Their empire was held
together by a system of roads
499
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,950
traversed by messengers called chasquis.
500
00:24:55,950 --> 00:24:59,000
Stone tablets would've slowed them down.
501
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:00,943
Khipus were much more runner-friendly.
502
00:25:02,011 --> 00:25:05,680
So is this just a lightweight ledger?
503
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:06,993
Urton doesn't think so.
504
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,695
- On the khipu that we see here,
505
00:25:10,695 --> 00:25:15,695
its knots are not distributed
in tiers like decimal levels
506
00:25:17,060 --> 00:25:19,270
as with those other khipus.
507
00:25:19,270 --> 00:25:22,850
But the knots are spread
all over, almost at random,
508
00:25:22,850 --> 00:25:25,930
all over the face, over
the surface of the khipu.
509
00:25:25,930 --> 00:25:29,243
And we think that these
knots had semantic value.
510
00:25:30,290 --> 00:25:31,750
- [Narrator] Urton
believes that these strings
511
00:25:31,750 --> 00:25:34,590
may contain words and stories encoded
512
00:25:34,590 --> 00:25:36,603
through color and the choice of knots.
513
00:25:38,260 --> 00:25:40,980
Today, Gary and his
colleague Amanda Ganaway
514
00:25:40,980 --> 00:25:43,980
hope to prove that knots
really can tell stories
515
00:25:43,980 --> 00:25:47,490
starting with a simple story
called, What's for Lunch?
516
00:25:47,490 --> 00:25:52,490
- White's chicken, blue is
seafood, green is vegetables.
517
00:25:53,980 --> 00:25:58,522
- And to have perhaps one
single knot refer to baked,
518
00:25:58,522 --> 00:26:01,020
two to boiled.
519
00:26:01,020 --> 00:26:04,520
- Can we communicate this all
the way across New York City?
520
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:05,523
- I think we can.
521
00:26:06,670 --> 00:26:08,970
- [Narrator] A subway
ride later, Gary arrives
522
00:26:08,970 --> 00:26:11,340
at the next best thing
to an Incan restaurant,
523
00:26:11,340 --> 00:26:12,821
a Peruvian one.
524
00:26:12,821 --> 00:26:17,173
He orders a traditional meal
of chicken, fish, potatoes.
525
00:26:18,190 --> 00:26:21,070
- Two knots at the top for boiled.
526
00:26:21,070 --> 00:26:23,520
So when that's white,
we know it's chicken.
527
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:25,103
So it's caldo de pollo.
528
00:26:26,260 --> 00:26:27,577
Then I want (speaking
in foreign language),
529
00:26:28,510 --> 00:26:31,563
that was a long knot of five turns.
530
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:35,240
- [Narrator] To transmit his message,
531
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:37,750
Gary employs a chasqui runner.
532
00:26:37,750 --> 00:26:39,303
- Take that to Amanda, please.
533
00:26:41,220 --> 00:26:44,320
- [Narrator] He's not really
Incan, he lives in Brooklyn.
534
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:47,120
But as a runner, he might be
a match for a real chasqui.
535
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:50,370
Though, to be fair, the Inca had to run
536
00:26:50,370 --> 00:26:53,813
up and down mountains, and
Manhattan is nearly flat.
537
00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:57,410
Following Inca tradition, we've made
538
00:26:57,410 --> 00:26:59,870
our message service a relay.
539
00:26:59,870 --> 00:27:02,750
Chasquis would spell each
other off every few kilometers,
540
00:27:02,750 --> 00:27:05,403
allowing them to cover
240 kilometers a day.
541
00:27:06,432 --> 00:27:09,113
Today's distance is much shorter.
542
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:15,640
- So, he's eating boiled chicken in soup.
543
00:27:16,610 --> 00:27:19,530
He's eating a potato dish.
544
00:27:19,530 --> 00:27:22,263
Two knots, a boiled potato dish.
545
00:27:24,392 --> 00:27:28,309
(speaking in foreign language)
546
00:27:32,710 --> 00:27:34,220
- [Narrator] The experiment worked,
547
00:27:34,220 --> 00:27:36,650
but relied on made up code.
548
00:27:36,650 --> 00:27:41,650
With the Incan khipus, Gary
has only half of the secret.
549
00:27:42,380 --> 00:27:45,470
- We can say that this
given string records
550
00:27:45,470 --> 00:27:50,470
the number 146, but the
question is, 146 what?
551
00:27:53,410 --> 00:27:55,940
- [Narrator] Gary needs
something like this,
552
00:27:55,940 --> 00:27:58,170
the famous hieroglyphic
to Greek dictionary
553
00:27:58,170 --> 00:27:59,983
known as the Rosetta Stone.
554
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,920
Old Spanish documents
come tantalizingly close.
555
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:09,680
We have a string of numbers and then each
556
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:11,180
with its identity.
557
00:28:11,180 --> 00:28:15,020
So, 40 fanegas, which is a measure.
558
00:28:15,020 --> 00:28:20,020
40 fanegas of potatoes,
30 fanegas of corn.
559
00:28:21,310 --> 00:28:24,330
Now, we can't read the identities yet,
560
00:28:24,330 --> 00:28:28,000
but we're hoping that one
day, if we can find a match
561
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:30,370
to those strings of numbers,
562
00:28:30,370 --> 00:28:33,283
then that's our Rosetta Khipu.
563
00:28:35,370 --> 00:28:37,990
- [Narrator] Gary believes
he needs just one match
564
00:28:37,990 --> 00:28:40,310
to begin to read the Inca story.
565
00:28:40,310 --> 00:28:43,013
And for their long silence to be broken.
566
00:28:43,860 --> 00:28:46,410
- Hopefully, we'll just have that amazing,
567
00:28:46,410 --> 00:28:49,900
serendipitous convergence of
a transcription and a khipu.
568
00:28:51,010 --> 00:28:53,060
- [Narrator] Gary Urton may be a dreamer,
569
00:28:53,060 --> 00:28:56,120
but sometimes you just
have to untangle one knot
570
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,503
to make the whole string unravel.
571
00:29:00,150 --> 00:29:02,140
Next, on Museum Secrets,
572
00:29:02,140 --> 00:29:03,923
how to catch a shooting star.
573
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:15,570
Some of the world's oldest
fossils can be found
574
00:29:15,570 --> 00:29:18,220
at the American Museum of Natural History.
575
00:29:18,220 --> 00:29:20,823
But the oldest specimens
aren't fossils at all.
576
00:29:22,300 --> 00:29:25,790
These rocks are over
4.5 billion years old,
577
00:29:25,790 --> 00:29:28,110
older than the Earth itself.
578
00:29:28,110 --> 00:29:31,480
Some are made of metal, some of stone,
579
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:33,840
and they all have one thing in common,
580
00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:35,610
they are all chunks of asteroids
581
00:29:35,610 --> 00:29:37,743
that fell to Earth as meteorites.
582
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:40,640
For the curator in charge
of this collection,
583
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:44,280
Denton Abel, they are
clues to a cosmic mystery.
584
00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:45,680
- Learning about the Solar System
585
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:48,220
is intrinsically valuable to humans.
586
00:29:48,220 --> 00:29:50,070
In this case, we're learning about
587
00:29:50,070 --> 00:29:53,207
how the Solar System actually formed.
588
00:29:53,207 --> 00:29:55,070
- [Narrator] Scientists believe that
589
00:29:55,070 --> 00:29:58,400
in the beginning, there
was light from our new sun,
590
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:01,050
and there were rocks,
asteroids that collided
591
00:30:01,050 --> 00:30:04,190
and melted, forming new worlds like Earth.
592
00:30:04,190 --> 00:30:06,730
And there was ice, from comets.
593
00:30:06,730 --> 00:30:09,260
Rocky ice balls, they
formed at the cold edge
594
00:30:09,260 --> 00:30:10,283
of the Solar System.
595
00:30:12,500 --> 00:30:14,740
Comets may have brought
their ice to the young Earth,
596
00:30:14,740 --> 00:30:16,093
creating our oceans.
597
00:30:17,374 --> 00:30:21,391
Comets are too large to
fit in a hall like this,
598
00:30:21,391 --> 00:30:24,763
but Denton Abel would still
like to get his hands on one.
599
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,470
- What we'd really like
is a piece of a comet
600
00:30:28,470 --> 00:30:31,520
so we can understand better
the earliest Solar System
601
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:33,870
and how the planets formed
and got their water.
602
00:30:35,171 --> 00:30:39,200
- [Narrator] So scientists
need to unlock a cosmic secret.
603
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:41,423
How do you catch a shooting star?
604
00:30:42,906 --> 00:30:45,906
(suspenseful music)
605
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:51,080
In 1996, NASA scientists decided to try.
606
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,150
They named their mission Stardust.
607
00:30:53,150 --> 00:30:56,710
They planned to send a probe
to a comet called Wild-2,
608
00:30:56,710 --> 00:30:59,703
collect some comet dust,
and bring it back to Earth.
609
00:31:01,110 --> 00:31:02,670
For mission leader Joe Valenga,
610
00:31:02,670 --> 00:31:04,823
there was one fundamental challenge.
611
00:31:06,100 --> 00:31:09,020
- The trick for Stardust
was to find some way
612
00:31:09,020 --> 00:31:12,010
to capture hypervelocity particles.
613
00:31:12,010 --> 00:31:15,450
We're traveling through the
coma at 13,000 miles an hour.
614
00:31:15,450 --> 00:31:16,500
So how do you do that?
615
00:31:16,500 --> 00:31:19,623
How do you capture particles
and bring them back?
616
00:31:20,740 --> 00:31:22,100
- [Narrator] To capture particles,
617
00:31:22,100 --> 00:31:24,440
Stardust would need to
rendezvous with a comet
618
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:26,293
and enter its volatile tail.
619
00:31:27,404 --> 00:31:31,030
A comet's tail forms when
it approaches the sun
620
00:31:31,030 --> 00:31:34,610
as ice vaporizes and
erupts from the surface.
621
00:31:34,610 --> 00:31:36,560
- Some particles that come off of comets
622
00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:38,880
can be larger and some smaller.
623
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:42,170
We don't really know even a piece this big
624
00:31:42,170 --> 00:31:44,193
could come off of a comet.
625
00:31:46,290 --> 00:31:49,100
- [Narrator] Comet grains are
six times faster than bullets,
626
00:31:49,100 --> 00:31:51,700
and they will heat up when
brought to a sudden stop.
627
00:31:53,180 --> 00:31:55,600
Conventional materials
used for catching bullets
628
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:57,430
aren't strong enough.
629
00:31:57,430 --> 00:31:58,743
Steel would be too heavy.
630
00:32:00,110 --> 00:32:02,700
And then someone thought of this.
631
00:32:02,700 --> 00:32:04,443
It's a material called aerogel.
632
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:09,910
- Aerogel is the least
dense solid known to humans.
633
00:32:09,910 --> 00:32:12,543
And it was invented and perfected
634
00:32:12,543 --> 00:32:15,483
over the second half of the 20th century.
635
00:32:17,050 --> 00:32:19,270
- [Narrator] On the atomic
level, its nearly random
636
00:32:19,270 --> 00:32:22,503
structure gives aerogel
foam exotic properties.
637
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,240
- One thing that's very
important to know about aerogel
638
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:27,790
is what a good insulator it is.
639
00:32:30,912 --> 00:32:33,500
You can see we're melting the aluminum,
640
00:32:33,500 --> 00:32:34,853
but the wax is just fine.
641
00:32:36,270 --> 00:32:37,770
- [Narrator] Since it can stop heat,
642
00:32:37,770 --> 00:32:40,933
engineers wondered if it
might also stop comet dust.
643
00:32:43,130 --> 00:32:45,890
- Turned out, through tests, that aerogel
644
00:32:45,890 --> 00:32:49,729
could stop particles
traveling at velocities
645
00:32:49,729 --> 00:32:54,729
even somewhat higher than
13,000 miles per hour.
646
00:32:56,140 --> 00:32:58,750
You can capture very fine particles
647
00:32:58,750 --> 00:33:02,180
similar to what would be in a comet coma.
648
00:33:02,180 --> 00:33:04,040
We had confidence that the aerogel
649
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:05,877
was really going to work.
650
00:33:05,877 --> 00:33:08,627
- [Narrator] Joe also knew
that no material is perfect.
651
00:33:09,490 --> 00:33:12,040
- This is about a half a pound meteorite.
652
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:14,570
- [Narrator] Aerogel can
stand up to significant force,
653
00:33:14,570 --> 00:33:15,963
but it's not invulnerable.
654
00:33:16,850 --> 00:33:18,473
- [Joe] This is about two pounds.
655
00:33:21,540 --> 00:33:23,410
- [Narrator] And this
supermaterial has its own
656
00:33:23,410 --> 00:33:24,563
form of kryptonite.
657
00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:28,053
- [Joe] This is ordinary distilled water.
658
00:33:28,950 --> 00:33:32,910
What happens is the water
collapses the structure
659
00:33:32,910 --> 00:33:34,833
of the aerogel form itself.
660
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:37,630
- [Narrator] Even with these downsides,
661
00:33:37,630 --> 00:33:40,183
Joe's team made the
collector tiles from aerogel.
662
00:33:41,390 --> 00:33:44,853
In all space missions, risk
comes with the territory.
663
00:33:46,430 --> 00:33:50,886
On February 7th, 1999,
Stardust blasted off.
664
00:33:50,886 --> 00:33:54,190
- [Engineer] Four, three, two,
we have main engine start.
665
00:33:54,190 --> 00:33:57,803
Zero, and liftoff of
the Stardust spacecraft.
666
00:33:57,803 --> 00:34:00,053
(cheering)
667
00:34:04,620 --> 00:34:06,150
- [Narrator] On a curving trajectory,
668
00:34:06,150 --> 00:34:09,490
it would take five years
to reach its target.
669
00:34:09,490 --> 00:34:11,940
- The body of the
spacecraft is about the size
670
00:34:11,940 --> 00:34:13,960
of a telephone booth.
671
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:18,050
The aerogel was hidden in
here, and it folds out.
672
00:34:18,050 --> 00:34:20,780
First, an arm folds out, and then expose
673
00:34:20,780 --> 00:34:25,780
the aerogel grid so it can
collect the cometary particles.
674
00:34:26,010 --> 00:34:28,200
Prior to actual encounter, what we had
675
00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:30,560
was test data that indicated that yes,
676
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:32,390
we'd probably be able
to stop the particles,
677
00:34:32,390 --> 00:34:34,890
but you never know for
sure what you're gonna get.
678
00:34:37,430 --> 00:34:38,720
I remember the day we were getting ready
679
00:34:38,720 --> 00:34:42,020
for the encounter with comet Wild-2.
680
00:34:42,020 --> 00:34:45,150
I was in this room when we
deployed the aerogel grid,
681
00:34:45,150 --> 00:34:48,273
and we watched the
telemetry data coming back.
682
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:51,590
We could not tell though what happened
683
00:34:51,590 --> 00:34:53,810
with the collection of the particles,
684
00:34:53,810 --> 00:34:57,603
so it was a two year long wait.
685
00:35:01,150 --> 00:35:04,040
- [Narrator] On January
15th, 2006, the Stardust
686
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:06,350
sample capsule reentered
Earth's atmosphere
687
00:35:06,350 --> 00:35:08,310
at seven miles per second,
688
00:35:08,310 --> 00:35:11,403
becoming the fastest human-made
object to return to Earth.
689
00:35:12,990 --> 00:35:15,050
No one was sure if the
aerogel could withstand
690
00:35:15,050 --> 00:35:16,913
the force of rapid deceleration.
691
00:35:18,270 --> 00:35:21,720
- Would it, in fact,
shatter when we landed?
692
00:35:21,720 --> 00:35:24,880
- [Narrator] Recent rains had
flooded the Utah landing site.
693
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:27,670
- There was also the danger
that the capsule itself
694
00:35:27,670 --> 00:35:30,493
would be penetrated by water upon landing.
695
00:35:33,472 --> 00:35:35,990
- [Narrator] The recovery
team retrieved the capsule
696
00:35:35,990 --> 00:35:37,363
with its sample canister.
697
00:35:38,530 --> 00:35:40,883
But did the aerogel catch part of a comet?
698
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,040
To find out, samples of the
aerogel were distributed
699
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:49,650
to scientists around the
world, including Denton Abel
700
00:35:49,650 --> 00:35:52,033
of the American Museum of Natural History.
701
00:35:53,380 --> 00:35:56,920
- This is an actual sample of the Stardust
702
00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:58,503
return sample suite.
703
00:36:00,584 --> 00:36:04,120
- [Narrator] Under high
magnification, the sample reveals
704
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,653
the microscopic trail of a comet particle.
705
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,220
- You see here where its been fractured.
706
00:36:11,220 --> 00:36:13,673
The actual fracture in the aerogel
707
00:36:13,673 --> 00:36:17,463
due to the effect of the impact.
708
00:36:19,140 --> 00:36:22,730
- The fascinating thing
about some of the results
709
00:36:22,730 --> 00:36:26,220
from Stardust, high temperature materials
710
00:36:26,220 --> 00:36:29,170
have been found in the particles.
711
00:36:29,170 --> 00:36:31,110
- High temperature
solids would be the kinds
712
00:36:31,110 --> 00:36:33,740
of minerals and magmas you'd see
713
00:36:33,740 --> 00:36:35,863
in terrestrial volcanoes, for instance.
714
00:36:37,490 --> 00:36:39,640
- [Narrator] So at least
some comets didn't start out
715
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:42,220
as rock and ice at the
edge of the Solar System,
716
00:36:42,220 --> 00:36:44,130
but much nearer the sun,
717
00:36:44,130 --> 00:36:46,593
colliding and melting like asteroids.
718
00:36:48,310 --> 00:36:51,590
And the aerogel samples
contain another surprise,
719
00:36:51,590 --> 00:36:54,853
organic molecules needed
for the creation of life.
720
00:36:56,590 --> 00:36:58,160
So when comets came to Earth,
721
00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:00,310
they may have brought
more than just water.
722
00:37:01,730 --> 00:37:04,300
- One of the possibilities is that comets
723
00:37:04,300 --> 00:37:07,760
seeded organic material
that started the evolution
724
00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,670
of life on Earth, because
the Earth was too hot
725
00:37:10,670 --> 00:37:12,590
to support organic compounds
726
00:37:12,590 --> 00:37:15,070
in the beginning as it cooled.
727
00:37:15,070 --> 00:37:17,703
So where did they come
from, possibly from comets.
728
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:21,420
- [Narrator] The American
Museum of Natural History
729
00:37:21,420 --> 00:37:24,530
now has one more tiny
rock from outer space.
730
00:37:24,530 --> 00:37:27,330
And as far as curator
Denton Abel is concerned,
731
00:37:27,330 --> 00:37:29,573
there will always be room for more.
732
00:37:32,740 --> 00:37:34,630
- [Narrator] Next, on Museum Secrets.
733
00:37:34,630 --> 00:37:39,123
From the museum's past to its
future hidden underground.
734
00:37:45,990 --> 00:37:50,170
Since the American Museum of
Natural History opened in 1877,
735
00:37:50,170 --> 00:37:53,333
its primary mission has been
collection and preservation.
736
00:37:55,170 --> 00:37:57,240
Seven generations of
curators have collected
737
00:37:57,240 --> 00:38:00,513
over 20 million specimens on
expeditions around the world.
738
00:38:01,570 --> 00:38:04,440
The museum's taxidermists
pioneered methods
739
00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:06,123
to preserve them for the ages.
740
00:38:07,062 --> 00:38:09,870
Thanks to their efforts,
visitors experience
741
00:38:09,870 --> 00:38:11,653
the scope of biodiversity.
742
00:38:12,890 --> 00:38:14,373
It's a kind of ark.
743
00:38:15,310 --> 00:38:19,023
Though, of course, the
animals here only look alive.
744
00:38:20,550 --> 00:38:24,430
Far below the public galleries
in a room visitors never see,
745
00:38:24,430 --> 00:38:26,313
is something completely different,
746
00:38:28,209 --> 00:38:30,563
seven vats of stainless steel.
747
00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:34,423
When they're opened, this happens.
748
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:38,523
You might be thinking
witches and cauldrons.
749
00:38:40,049 --> 00:38:44,620
They are not magic, but as
we'll see, they're pretty close.
750
00:38:44,620 --> 00:38:47,933
What they're doing here is
our final museum secret.
751
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:53,450
Today, Ph.D student, Linda Gormazano,
752
00:38:53,450 --> 00:38:55,400
hunts for a new specimen.
753
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:57,360
She could be on one of
the museum's current
754
00:38:57,360 --> 00:38:59,750
expeditions to the forests of Peru
755
00:38:59,750 --> 00:39:01,940
or the mountains of Mexico.
756
00:39:01,940 --> 00:39:04,723
But in fact, she's in upstate New York.
757
00:39:06,020 --> 00:39:07,590
Linda and her faithful dog are
758
00:39:07,590 --> 00:39:11,613
on the trail of canis latrans,
better known as the coyote.
759
00:39:17,045 --> 00:39:17,962
- Good boy.
760
00:39:20,020 --> 00:39:22,780
So, this is a sample of coyote scat.
761
00:39:22,780 --> 00:39:24,690
- [Narrator] She doesn't
carry a hunting rifle
762
00:39:24,690 --> 00:39:26,493
just a plastic sample bag.
763
00:39:27,615 --> 00:39:30,830
Not far away, fellow
graduate student, Chris Nagy,
764
00:39:30,830 --> 00:39:32,763
ascends to the nest of a screech owl.
765
00:39:33,690 --> 00:39:35,780
He knows the daylight
hours are the best time
766
00:39:35,780 --> 00:39:36,833
to find her at home.
767
00:39:38,105 --> 00:39:40,563
He doesn't collect the whole owl.
768
00:39:41,590 --> 00:39:43,503
- [Chris] Okay, there's
some feathers in here.
769
00:39:47,413 --> 00:39:50,300
- [Narrator] And by a nearby
lake, curator, Mark Sidall,
770
00:39:50,300 --> 00:39:54,043
is after something even
smaller, a freshwater leech.
771
00:39:56,150 --> 00:39:58,930
Today's specimens won't
be featured in a diorama
772
00:39:58,930 --> 00:40:01,243
or preserved by the taxidermists' art.
773
00:40:02,590 --> 00:40:04,510
- Take it back to the lab.
774
00:40:04,510 --> 00:40:06,520
Great, let's put it in the jar.
775
00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:07,680
- [Narrator] Sidall and his colleagues
776
00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:11,533
are only interested in one
thing, their specimens' DNA.
777
00:40:12,780 --> 00:40:15,660
- The technological advances
in the last 15 to 20 years
778
00:40:15,660 --> 00:40:17,630
have allowed museums to become
779
00:40:17,630 --> 00:40:21,653
more than straightforward
libraries of biodiversity.
780
00:40:23,685 --> 00:40:26,830
- [Narrator] Recently, the
museum embarked on a new mission
781
00:40:26,830 --> 00:40:29,923
to collect the DNA of
every lifeform on Earth.
782
00:40:31,938 --> 00:40:34,080
But why did today's curators need
783
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:36,210
to collect DNA in the field?
784
00:40:36,210 --> 00:40:37,720
Why don't they extract DNA
785
00:40:37,720 --> 00:40:40,093
from the museum's 20 million specimens?
786
00:40:41,170 --> 00:40:44,433
The reason is that stuffed
animals do not retain their DNA.
787
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:47,383
The DNA dries out and falls apart.
788
00:40:48,994 --> 00:40:51,633
And other traditional preservation methods
789
00:40:51,633 --> 00:40:53,153
aren't much better.
790
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:57,810
- Standard procedures of
preserving animals or plants
791
00:40:57,810 --> 00:41:00,370
in formalin, or even in alcohol
792
00:41:00,370 --> 00:41:02,730
are not suitable for
holding on to that kind
793
00:41:02,730 --> 00:41:06,060
of genetic information
for a long period of time.
794
00:41:07,970 --> 00:41:09,220
- [Narrator] To preserve DNA,
795
00:41:09,220 --> 00:41:12,023
requires something completely different.
796
00:41:13,340 --> 00:41:16,420
- Well, welcome to our
frozen tissue collection.
797
00:41:16,420 --> 00:41:20,600
As you can see here, we have
seven large cryo vats here
798
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:23,570
which actually contain the liquid nitrogen
799
00:41:23,570 --> 00:41:26,703
that keeps our samples secure and safe.
800
00:41:27,630 --> 00:41:29,840
- [Narrator] DNA stored
in these supercooled vats
801
00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:33,060
should remain viable for a thousand years.
802
00:41:33,060 --> 00:41:35,260
Project leader, George
Amato, likes to discourage
803
00:41:35,260 --> 00:41:37,340
curious curators from discovering
804
00:41:37,340 --> 00:41:39,253
what absolute cold feels like.
805
00:41:40,110 --> 00:41:42,680
- If someone were to put
their unprotected hands
806
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:45,740
or arms inside the
container, we'd like to say,
807
00:41:45,740 --> 00:41:47,740
they then become part of the collection.
808
00:41:50,430 --> 00:41:52,530
- [Narrator] Everyday,
the museum's expeditions
809
00:41:52,530 --> 00:41:55,713
send back more DNA samples
to add to the new collection.
810
00:41:57,950 --> 00:42:00,370
And unlike traditional expeditions,
811
00:42:00,370 --> 00:42:02,440
these DNA hunters don't need to bring back
812
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:04,090
the entire animal.
813
00:42:04,090 --> 00:42:07,363
Feces will do, and even feathers.
814
00:42:08,390 --> 00:42:11,300
- The part I'm interested
in is the very, very tip
815
00:42:11,300 --> 00:42:14,822
of the feather where hopefully
there's a few skin cells
816
00:42:14,822 --> 00:42:17,410
of the owl that left on there.
817
00:42:17,410 --> 00:42:20,163
I'll scrape those off and extract the DNA.
818
00:42:21,860 --> 00:42:23,770
- In some ways, the
frozen tissue collection
819
00:42:23,770 --> 00:42:27,210
is continuing the tradition
of the other collections
820
00:42:27,210 --> 00:42:28,043
here at the museum.
821
00:42:28,043 --> 00:42:30,910
That is, we want to have archived here
822
00:42:30,910 --> 00:42:33,763
a record of the diversity
of life on the planet.
823
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:39,600
Having those tissues available
under liquid nitrogen
824
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:41,977
will greatly facilitate the scope of work
825
00:42:41,977 --> 00:42:46,483
that can happen here even 20,
30, 40, 50 years from now.
826
00:42:48,210 --> 00:42:50,220
- [Narrator] Currently,
the vats preserve the DNA
827
00:42:50,220 --> 00:42:52,703
of several species that
are nearing extinction.
828
00:42:53,630 --> 00:42:56,010
Their number will continue to grow.
829
00:42:56,010 --> 00:42:59,340
And as it does, the American
Museum of Natural History
830
00:42:59,340 --> 00:43:02,842
moves a step closer to
becoming a real ark,
831
00:43:02,842 --> 00:43:06,723
preserving the blueprint of
every lifeform for the future.
832
00:43:07,755 --> 00:43:10,755
(suspenseful music)
833
00:43:16,700 --> 00:43:21,120
For every mystery we reveal,
far more must remain unspoken.
834
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:25,460
Secrets of the human spirit
and of the human heart
835
00:43:25,460 --> 00:43:27,230
hidden in plain sight inside
836
00:43:27,230 --> 00:43:29,713
the American Museum of Natural History.
837
00:43:34,070 --> 00:43:37,737
(dramatic orchestral music)
66946
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