Original subtitles

- Tonight on "The Proof is Out There,"

another strange UFO is caught on camera by the US military,

but what is it?

- It's not aerodynamic.

No type of aircraft is gonna have that kind of shape.

- [Tony] We've seen alleged video of Australia's Bigfoot.

Now have we heard its chilling cry?

[entity howling]

- [Jay] You can hear that, right?

- Yeah, what is it?

- The descriptions they gave

is that it was twice as big as a person is.

- [Tony] Why are these unusual structures popping up

all over the world?

- People believe clearly there's a higher power,

a higher civilization trying to talk to us.

- [Tony] Has an extinct species suddenly been found alive?

- [Ken] Couldn't we be looking at some type

of ancient permafrost species that has been frozen in time?

- [Tony] And did a ghost hitch a ride on a rollercoaster?

- You see an empty car,

and then something

that looks like a dark shadow just rises up.

[suspenseful music]

- [Tony] Around the globe are videos,

[witness screaming]

photos, and sounds that defy explanation.

[air screeching] [suspenseful music continues]

- [Observer] We don't know where they come from,

who made them or how they operate.

- [Tony] What are they?

- [MJ] Some sort of bizarre mutation.

What's exciting is nobody really knows.

- Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof.

[victim exploding] [victim thumping]

- I'm Tony Harris,

and as a journalist for more than 30 years,

I've followed the facts where they take me.

Now I'm bringing that spirit of investigation

to the world's strangest sounds and images.

- [Witness] It's coming towards us.

- [Tony] We'll analyze each one with top experts.

[car crashing]

- It's credible case, it's a credible video.

- [Tony] And pass a verdict on what it is.

- This video was clearly faked.

- The proof starts now.

[suspenseful music]

Good evening and welcome to "The Proof is Out There."

UFO videos from the US military

are some of the most credible out there.

And when these sightings happen during active operations,

it's not just a mystery,

it could be a serious security threat.

The United States military

is on a mission over the Persian Gulf

on an undisclosed date.

The operation is proceeding as planned

until their sensor system captures something else

sharing the skies, a UFO that would make headlines.

The thermographic image

shows what looks like a spiky object floating in midair,

with an S-shaped line,

maybe a smoke trail extending beneath it.

We don't know much else about this image,

but it's come to be known as The Chandelier.

Investigative journalist Jeremy Corbell

released the photo in January 2024.

- We don't know what it is yet,

but it was designated unidentified

by our Department of Defense and intelligence agencies.

- [Tony] As the national media starts buzzing

about the photo,

Jeremy Corbell says there's even more to this story

than a single still image.

- There is video,

and that video should be released to the public,

but as a journalist, that's not my decision.

That's the decision of the Department of Defense.

If you were to watch that video,

you would see the Chandelier UFO

do some very unique movements kinda like this,

like a corkscrew rotating.

- [Tony] Still, the photo alone

has drawn plenty of attention and speculation.

- This image was quite popular

just because of its unusual nature.

Many people believe

that this thing could be a weapon of some sort.

- [Tony] But not everyone is satisfied with that theory,

especially since this isn't the only UFO of its kind.

- This object or type of object

has been seen in other places around the world.

- [Tony] In 2022, another

spiky airborne object made news

when multiple witnesses captured video of it

hovering over Tlaxcala, Mexico.

Even centuries ago,

paintings like this one dubbed "Madonna dell'UFO"

show strange, multi-pointed objects in the sky.

- So a lot of people have seen these type of things

in many different places

and they're still trying to figure out what they are.

[dramatic music] [screen fizzing]

- These spiky UFOs look almost like fractals,

a kind of geometric figure of repeating patterns

and they're more common than you'd think.

Snowflakes, seashells, trees, all fractals.

Is this chandelier a feat of nature

or is there another explanation?

Let's let our experts decide.

[eerie music] [screen fizzing]

Given the spoked shape of the UFO,

we first asked if this could be something radial,

like helicopter rotors.

- We're looking at an infrared shot.

This is a shot where black means hot

and white means cold or cooler.

And so this is supposedly some hot object.

If we think about how a helicopter appears

on the infrared,

remember, helicopter's got the whirling blades,

Well, those whirling blades.

are actually going to be cooled by the air.

They're not gonna actually show up very well

on a infrared camera.

- [Tony] Instead, that black hot signature suggests

that this could indeed be a weapon.

- Everything that we see in this image is very consistent

of a missile being filmed from the rear.

And because of the high heat and intensity

of the missile's propulsion system,

it's producing a diffraction artifact on the camera system.

- [Tony] Diffraction artifacts occur

when bright light hits an obstacle inside camera.

This causes the light to bend or defract,

creating a pattern that looks like a fractal.

This artifact of nature colliding with technology

isn't an unusual sight in military operations.

For example, this airstrike in Syria

produced a diffraction artifact

that looks a lot like our Chandelier UFO.

- Those actually line up consistently

with the stabilizing support veins of that camera system.

So this is not the actual shape and size

of something that's moving through the air

that looks like a chandelier.

We're getting that artifact

based on that high energy heat source

that's being photographed.

- [Tony] And that S-shaped trail could be the plain giveaway

that this is no interstellar craft.

- The contrail or smoke

trail that we see there,

extremely consistent with a missile

as it tries to stabilize on its axis.

- [Tony] But hold on.

The shape of that line might match a missile's smoke trail,

but the color does not.

- Well, there seems to be a plumy thing right here,

but it looks white.

That doesn't match what would be like an exhaust or smoke

because the smoke would be warm.

This should have been a darker line, not a bright line.

And that tells me it's not an exhaust of any kind.

So this is one of those cases

where the photo really doesn't tell us a story.

I cannot come up with a definitive answer

'cause it doesn't have enough information.

[mysterious music] [screen fizzing]

- Our verdict, this case remains unexplained.

While we agree with McMillan

that a diffraction artifact is responsible for this image,

D'Antonio's analysis of the exhaust

makes it hard to confirm it's a missile.

The military would have to release more information.

We're waiting. [screen fizzing]

Now, we may be the best at analyzing UFO images,

but we are not the only ones doing it.

The Archives for the Unexplained in Sweden

has one of the world's largest collections of UFO

and paranormal research.

In its collection are two UFO photos

that European researchers

have been unable to explain for decades.

Now it's our turn. [mysterious music]

Beneath the streets of Norrkoping, Sweden

lies the Archives for the Unexplained,

a 7,535-square-foot library of strange phenomena.

Only around 300 visitors are allowed in each year,

but Chairman Clas Svahn is giving us special access.

- We are trying to save for posterity, files,

books, pictures, films, audio files,

everything connected to the unknown, with a focus on UFOs.

[intriguing music]

- [Tony] One of the most notable cases cataloged

in the archives is this photo

from the 1946 ghost rocket phenomenon.

Snapped from an air surveillance tower,

the photo depicts one of the hundreds

of so-called ghost rockets reported that year.

Despite an official investigation,

those sightings were never explained

and strange aerial sights in Sweden

would continue for years to come.

In fact, French researcher Baptiste Friscourt

says one of the archive's most extraordinary photos

was snapped by an artist in 1956

on the Swedish island of Marskar.

- [Tony] The photo shows a white curved object

tucked behind a hill and surrounded by brush.

- There was a special office

at the Swedish military during the 1950s

and they spent so much time trying to figure out

what this Marskar picture really showed,

and they didn't really do that.

It's still a mystery.

- [Tony] Another one of the archive's most mysterious photos

was taken nearly

50 years later in 2003

near the town of Moskojarvi.

- [Tony] Roger pulls out a phone and snaps this photo.

It appears to be a bright white orb

flanked by green and yellowish wings of light.

- I could see on Swedish military radar,

corresponding very, very well

with the story from the two witnesses.

I think it's very, very seldom you can see two witnesses,

a great picture and a radar return.

[screen fizzing]

- Two photos taken half a century apart,

one on film and one on a cell phone.

That's a remarkable testament to the longevity

of the UFO phenomenon.

But what did they really document?

Let's see what our experts have to say.

[mysterious music] [screen fizzing]

We first ask whether the Moskojarvi UFO

could be something

as simple as a helicopter search light.

- Based on the photograph, it could be anything bright,

but then we have to add in the eyewitness testimony.

They would hear the rotor of a helicopter.

So I would assume that the eyewitnesses

would've known if this was a helicopter.

- [Tony] But if it wasn't a helicopter searching

for someone, maybe it should have been.

- One of the more disheartening things here

is perhaps this was a signal flare

from somebody who was in trouble,

somebody who has gotten lost in the wilderness.

- [Tony] Thankfully, the archives

already considered this possibility.

- We checked, of course,

if there were anyone in need of help,

if there were any flares up in the air,

there were nothing like that.

There were no ambulance aircraft in the air,

there were no calls to the police.

- [Tony] So what about the Marskar photo?

The Swedish military concluded it was a bank of fog,

but that's not consistent with the eyewitness account.

- When I talked to him

a couple of years before he passed away,

he said it was traveling so fast

and it didn't really look like a fog.

So he couldn't really explain it in any mundane way.

- [Tony] Could it be another natural phenomenon,

one that remains unexplained

in its own right, earth lights?

- It's been theorized these balls of plasma

arise from the earth

and ascend in the air.

These have been captured on video.

There's been scientific studies behind them,

though no conclusive explanation

for how these plasma balls would be formed

or if, in fact, they are plasma balls.

- [Tony] However, we're not ready to make that call

on the basis of one blurry photo alone.

- Unfortunately, there's just not enough information

from the eyewitness accounts or the photographs

to conclusively say what either of these objects are.

So these are incidents

that are going to remain unexplained probably forever.

[mysterious music] [screen fizzing]

- Our verdict, unexplained phenomena.

While these are some fascinating photos,

we have to agree with our experts

that there isn't enough information here

to make a definitive conclusion.

All we can say is these photos

from the Archives for the Unexplained belong there.

- When you think about places that might be haunted,

what's the first thing that comes to mind?

An old house, maybe a cemetery.

How about an amusement park?

That's right, after watching this next video,

you will never ride a roller coaster the same way again.

September 2021, Mazatlan, Mexico.

Gustavo Alcaraz takes his little brother Giovanni

to an annual fair.

Recording the excitement

as the roller coaster ride they're on starts

to twist and turn, but when they later replay the video,

they spot something bizarre.

The ride is nearly empty and no one can be seen in the back.

But halfway through the ride,

a dark figure suddenly appears in the rear car.

Let's see that again, close up and slowed down.

One moment, there's no one in the last car.

Then a ghostly figure seemingly materializes out of nowhere.

The silhouette remains seated for a split second

before vanishing again.

Another macabre twist to this story?

When Gustavo's video goes viral in November,

some folks link it to a popular Mexican celebration

that takes place around the same time, the Day of the Dead.

- It's called Dia De Los Muertos,

and the idea is that your ancestors can come back to visit

usually at the place that they're laid to rest,

and the spirits would know

that this is where you go in between worlds.

- [Tony] As ghost sightings go, this one could fall

in the category of phantom travelers,

ghosts who haunt specific roads

and modes of transportation after a connected tragedy.

And that's relevant here.

- Near to this particular amusement park in Mexico,

there's another amusement park where several years ago,

there was an accident

where the final car on a roller coaster derailed

and two young men fell down 33 feet and died.

I wonder if there's a connection

between this specter and those young men.

- [Tony] There are also those who wonder

whether so-called ghosts like this are actually travelers

visiting from a parallel universe.

If that sounds too out there,

a 2020 study theorized a multiverse

in which parallel universes exist

like bubbles in a pot of boiling water,

colliding and imprinting on one another.

It's enough to question whether traveling

between these colliding parallel universes is possible.

- Could this be a clear example of a traveler

that is hitching a ride somewhere perhaps

within this world?

[screen fizzing]

- Mexico's Day of the Dead is ancient,

dating back to an Aztec celebration

of the Queen of the Underworld.

But is the figure in our roller coaster video

really a spirit summoned back to the world of the living

by this timeless festival?

Let's ask our experts.

[screen fizzing] [mysterious music]

Could this be a living being from a parallel universe?

- In physics, we exist in multiple universes

at the same time, get used to it.

- [Tony] But hopscotching from one to another, not so fast.

- At the present time, physics as we know it,

do not allow for large objects like us

to move freely between these parallel universes

[explosion booming]

because the energy to travel between universes

is far beyond anything

that we humans can muster on our planet Earth.

It would take the energy of basically the big bang

in order to travel between these parallel universes.

[explosion booming]

- [Tony] So is the rider a spirit from beyond the grave?

Skeptics think not.

- I think this is actually a real person in this car.

I think it's a carnival worker

who's really used to this ride

and they were able to just hop on at some point in the ride

when it was slowing down perhaps to go up one of the risers.

You know, we see carnival workers do quite amazing things

on their rides sometimes.

- [Tony] Like we see in this video from Korea

where a carnival worker performs a jaw-dropping stunt

on a moving ride.

- This isn't something that you could do at a roller coaster

like at Six Flags.

Normally you're kind of strapped into a rollercoaster

and you can't really move around.

Here it's a kid's roller coaster

where they're just kind of sitting on seats

with maybe a seat belt,

so it's a lot easier to pull off this type of prank.

[mysterious music] [screen fizzing]

- Our verdict, carnival worker.

We agree with Mick West that the figure here

is most likely a person who hopped on,

then hopped off the ride.

We just don't see that on camera.

There are plenty of reasons

to be terrified on a roller coaster,

but in this case we can cross ghosts off the list.

- So we've seen plenty of images

of strange creatures out of Australia on this show,

and we're not just talking about the duck-billed platypus.

Now we have a strange sound to investigate,

and this could be even more shocking.

Let's head Down Under.

It's April of 2023 in the small town of Bonnie Doon

in Victoria, Australia.

Truck driver Jay Brooks and his family have decided

to sell their old cabin in a caravan park.

They've just finished clearing it out when they hear this.

[entity howling]

- [Jay] What the [bleep] is that?

- [Tony] It's a loud, whistling howl

seemingly coming from everywhere.

The family records the bizarre sound

while wondering to themselves what it could be.

- [Jay] You can hear that, right?

- Yeah, what is it? - [Jay] I've got no idea.

- [Tony] It continues for about two minutes

and then fades away.

Eerie, right?

[entity screeching] [mysterious music]

Many on the internet were

stumped by the sound,

but some have pointed to the legendary Australian Yowie.

- The Yowie is an Australian Bigfoot.

That's the simplest way you can put it.

Reports of the Yowie go back several hundred years

with a variety of descriptions.

Some people describe 'em as marsupials,

some people describe them as primates,

but when you average it all out,

most of the time the reports kind of look

basically like a North American Sasquatch of some sort.

- [Tony] The Yowie legend was a fixture

amongst the indigenous peoples of Australia,

and when colonizers arrived, they claimed to see it too.

- One of the earliest recorded observations of a Yowie

came in the 1780s outside of Sydney.

A group of these European settlers

went off for a hunting trip, and on the way back,

they saw this thing standing up on the,

like an edge of a cliff or a precipice, just watching them.

The descriptions they gave

is that it was twice as big as a person is.

- [Tony] And sightings continue to this day.

- Just a few years ago,

a group got really amazing thermal footage of a Yowie,

and it is fantastic.

You can see the shape of the head as being very inhuman.

You can see that it's a lot larger than the people

who were there at the time.

It is actually astounding footage of a Yowie

in its natural environment.

[screen fizzing]

- We examined that thermal Yowie footage

on a previous episode,

but couldn't come to a definitive conclusion

on what it was.

So perhaps the Yowie really

is out there somewhere Down Under.

Did this video capture its calls on tape?

Let's call in our experts.

[screen fizzing] [suspenseful music]

Our first step was to tackle the Yowie theory

by running an audio comparison

between these howls out of Bonnie Doon.

[entity howling]

- [Wife] Jesus. - [Witness] I don't know.

- [Jay] You can hear that, right?

- Yeah, what is it?

- [Tony] And a recording of what the Bigfoot community

believes to be a genuine Sasquatch screech.

It's called the Ohio Howls.

[entity howling] [dogs barking]

- So the Ohio Howls have a sound

that has a definite pitch to

it that is going up and down,

more of a ooh effect where we get a higher frequency

and a lower frequency.

The Bonnie Doon recording

has more of a broadband noise quality to it,

so I'm not detecting anything

like the Ohio Howls in that recording.

- [Tony] So what are we hearing?

After further examination, a clue emerges.

- One of the things that I had noticed

was that there was a presence of little clicks

in the audio at several places

that have a very specific rhythm.

[entity howling]

- [Wife] Jesus. - [Witness] I don't know.

- [Jay] You can hear that, right?

- Yeah, what is it?

- [Jay] I've got no idea.

- [Tony] That clicking rhythm is reminiscent

of a recording made a few years back and far, far away.

- In 2005, the Cassini mission that NASA sent

to the planet Saturn

was studying some of the characteristics

of the electromagnetic environment around the planet.

They then converted those electromagnetic measurements

into sound to visualize what those measurements

would tell us.

[electromagnetic measurements howling]

This Cassini recording has the same whoosh sound

and, lo and behold, has these click sounds present

in that recording.

I can match up the Cassini recording

with the Bonnie Doon recording.

The Bonnie Doon video incorporated this sound

from the Cassini mission

and it was not recorded at that scene.

[mysterious music] [screen fizzing]

- Our verdict, we're calling this one

a good old-fashioned, family-operated hoax.

The Yowie might be real, but this recording is not.

Better luck next time, mate.

- A few years back, we did a story on the Utah monolith,

a structure that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

In the years since, several similar objects

have mysteriously turned up and just as soon vanished.

So when one recently appeared outside Las Vegas,

we decided it was time to head to Sin City.

[mysterious music] June 17th, 2024,

[chopper whirring]

the Las Vegas Police Department

is on a rescue mission in the middle of the desert

when they discover something completely unexpected.

[camera snapping] a six-foot, five-inch

gleaming monolith is standing out in the middle of nowhere.

It seems otherworldly with reflective surfaces

that mirror the vast desert landscape.

Most puzzling of all,

there's no trace of just how this structure got here.

This object instantly invites comparison

to an equally mysterious structure

discovered in Utah in 2020.

- It needs to be mentioned that the monolith in Utah

was never able to be successfully collected

and tested in a lab and

it just kind of vanished,

and then monoliths started showing up around the world.

Another monolith was discovered

just outside of a city in Romania,

and then another monolith was found

on top of Pine Mountain in Atascadero, California.

- [Tony] There's a theory that the Las Vegas monolith

at least might be a cutting-edge piece of tech.

[screen screeching] - In 2022 and 2023

around Salt Lake City in Utah,

random antennae began showing up all around

these deserted parts of the nearby countryside.

And as it turns out, these high-tech pieces of equipment

were actually mining cryptocurrency.

Is this what we're seeing here,

some kind of cryptocurrency mine operation starting up?

- [Tony] Crypto mining is a process used

to verify cryptocurrency transactions

by solving complex mathematical puzzles.

Solving those puzzles takes a lot of computing power

and can reward miners with new crypto coins.

To help, some folks use specialized antennas.

And rather than placing them in crowded areas

where their signals can be obstructed,

they place them in isolated places like a desert.

Another theory, maybe this

is a different kind of communication tech,

one that's meant to reach extraterrestrial life.

- Over half of the American population believes

that somewhere out there,

there is intelligent extraterrestrial life.

Could it be that these monoliths

are being built by humans for aliens

as a sort of signal to the extraterrestrials out there

or sort of beacon for contact?

[screen fizzing]

- Investigators have figured out who built

at least one of the monoliths that popped up

before this latest discovery.

The one in Atascadero, California was just a sculpture

produced by a team of metal artists.

There's no telling who or what built the Las Vegas monolith,

at least until we ask our experts.

[screen fizzing] [mysterious music]

What did the Las Vegas police learn

after discovering the object?

- The police came and hauled it off,

and then they dismantled it

to see what was inside of it.

We do know that it was made of rolled sheet metal

and that the base itself was rebar and cement.

But I find it very curious

why they felt the need to remove it.

What was the issue that it was causing

that it couldn't stay there until it fell apart?

- [Tony] Sheet metal, rebar and cement.

Well, there goes the alien tech theory,

not to mention the suggestion

that this might be a crypto mining antenna.

- That requires energy.

In other words, you cannot violate the laws of physics.

The laws of physics would require you

to have an energy supply of some sort.

But we see no power supply, we see no evidence of a battery.

We've taken these things apart

and there's nothing high tech to it.

They're just empty, empty boxes in the middle of the desert.

- [Tony] Well, they could still be more than that.

Turns out what we're seeing here is, in fact, a work of art,

as were the monoliths that preceded it.

- They're very unique.

I think that they are made specifically

to invoke a feeling of specialness

to the person who's seeing them.

When you look at them, you can see your own reflection.

And I think that's part

of why they're made of the materials that they are,

that they're meant for inner reflection

in this remote, beautiful location.

- [Tony] But the question of who's behind the Vegas monolith

remains a mystery.

- I found so many claims that it was impossible for me

to work through them.

The claims are all conflicting,

and so I personally don't have any idea

who would be responsible.

[mysterious music] [screen fizzing]

- Our verdict, art installation.

We agree with Kathy Strain

that this is most likely a work of art.

It remains to be seen

whether the monolithic trend continues.

So if you spot one anytime soon, take a moment to reflect,

then let us know about it.

- We've all heard the old adage,

where there's smoke, there's fire.

But in this next story, where there's smoke,

there may be an advanced civilization.

Confused?

Let's take a look.

March 19th, 2024, Biloxi, Mississippi,

a man is out on his front yard in the evening

when he spots something strange emanating from the ground.

Baffled, he pulls out his camera and records this.

- Please tell me what the hell this is.

I don't have a clue

and I don't wanna wake up dead in the morning.

- [Tony] A concentrated plume of smoke

is spurting out from a hole in his yard.

Let's take another look.

The thick white mist spews out

in quick puffs every few seconds

before dissipating into the night,

as the man provides key details.

- [Witness] It just keeps coming out the ground

and stopping and coming,

kinda like it pulsates a little bit, but it ain't hot,

it ain't cold, it ain't like steam or nothing.

It ain't got no smell to it.

It's just there

and it's just coming outta this one spot, I don't know.

- [Tony] Could this video be related

to another subterranean event from Biloxi's history?

- In 1998, in August, a gasoline tank

that was stored underground began to leak

and fires began to rage. [fire crackling]

Some people believe that, you know, perhaps this occurred

and we are still seeing remnants of little pockets

of gasoline that are still catching fire.

- [Tony] But could an underground fire continue raging

nearly 30 years after it initially sparked?

- There's actually precedent. In Centralia, Pennsylvania,

in 1962, a coal seam caught fire

and essentially created a very similar situation

where you had a large underground fire burning

and smoke billowing out of the ground.

It should be noted that that fire

is still burning to this day and has never been put out.

- [Tony] Another theory points

to something out of science fiction.

- In 1934, a mining engineer named G. Warren Shufelt

was taken to see a Hopi Indian chief

by the name of Greenleaf,

who essentially told him a story

that around 5,000 years ago,

these tunnels and these labyrinths were built

by an ancient species of lizard people

who dwelled under what is modern day Los Angeles

and lived along the California coast.

- [Tony] To be clear, these lizard people

aren't reptilian monsters, but advanced human beings

who allegedly revered lizards

and built subterranean strongholds.

Shufelt felt even got a permit

to dig under the heart of the city

and search for these tunnels.

There's no record that he found them, but speculation

about an underground civilization beneath Los Angeles

continued well after his efforts to dig up evidence.

- When there's mysterious smoke coming from the ground,

it's really hard not to investigate.

And some people believe that this could be proof

of a civilization living right below our feet.

[screen fizzing]

- G. Warren Shufelt claimed

to have used a radio x-ray machine

to locate the rumored tunnels

and even deposits of gold under Los Angeles.

There is no evidence

to verify what he supposedly unearthed,

but can we dig up what's happening

under this lawn in Biloxi?

Let's ask the experts.

[screen fizzing] [mysterious music]

Could even so-called advanced humans survive

beneath the Biloxi suburbs?

- If there was a large population

of people living underneath us,

they would need some sort of food

or prey to sustain that population.

And I think at this point, we would've picked up on it

or seen something of the sort

because they'd probably have to come to the surface to eat.

- [Tony] So that seems to cancel the tunnel theory.

And without tunnels, can there even be a fire?

- In order to have a fire, you have to have oxygen,

you have to have a supply of air coming in

and that would then energize the flames to keep on going.

Here it's all underground.

If it's a fire of some sort, where's the air coming from?

We don't know.

No one's dug into the ground,

no one's found the source of this.

- [Tony] The man in the video mentioned

that the smoke was odorless and neither hot nor cold.

That also rules out the gasoline theory,

but there might be another source.

- Let's say you have gophers

that really chew up your backyard and are real pests.

What can you do?

One possibility is you could put a smoke bomb down there

to flush them out.

- [Tony] So is this gopher gas sneaking out

through a burrow?

Not quite.

- If it was caused by a smoke bomb of some sort,

there could be a remnants of a smell,

and there was no smell detected.

So we simply don't have enough data

to make a conclusive judgment.

It's very hard to rule out any possibility.

[mysterious music] [screen fizzing]

- Our verdict, unexplained.

Our analysis is constrained by a lack of hard data.

For now, there's no trace of a fire

or a subterranean civilization here,

but we'll keep our ear and nose to the ground.

- The ground beneath our feet is home to a menagerie

of mysterious creatures.

But the weird life forms in our next story

had people unable to make heads or tails

of what it was they were actually looking at.

In 2024, a mysterious video appeared online

that shows a group of workers from an unknown location

digging several feet down into muddy terrain

and revealing something truly strange

buried under the Earth's surface.

We see what appear to be dozens

of strange hairless creatures

stacked neatly on top of each other in rows.

They sit motionless, small limbs dangling

in what many have described as a burial ground.

However, as the workers keep shoveling,

we suddenly start to see movement.

Many questioned if there may have been some human assistance

in constructing this living tomb.

- What's highly unusual about these animals

is that they appear to be stacked

in a very symmetrical pattern,

almost the exact same distance apart.

So it seems to imply more of an artificial placement

as opposed to any type of natural formation

that we would expect to see.

But animals will sometimes follow in line

and replicate other behaviors

that are being displayed around them.

And this may be what we're looking at here.

- [Tony] These curious critters are also equipped

with some recognizable features.

- Their small plump bodies actually remind me

of something called tardigrades.

Tardigrades are microscopic animals,

only about a millimeter and a half in length,

and typically they have four sets of legs

with little claws attached and they've adapted

to some of the most extreme environments on earth.

Is it possible that a gigantic subterranean species

of tardigrade may have evolved?

- [Tony] Tardigrades are also called water bears.

And before you dismiss the idea

of a new species, consider this.

While the location of this video is still unknown,

online rumors suggest it originates from China,

not far from a recently discovered cave

that was home to a bunch of undiscovered species.

- So just south of China, in the dense jungles of Vietnam,

a new cave system has been discovered

and it contains its own unique habitat and biome.

So far, scientists have discovered

at least seven new species, including new types of fish,

wood lice, millipedes, spiders, and scorpions.

- [Tony] Not only are these types

of discoveries emerging from underground,

they're also emerging from deep in the past.

- Recently, Canadian scientists

actually discovered nematodes, or round worms,

in the Siberian permafrost

that were still alive after 46,000 years.

Could we be looking at some type

of ancient permafrost species that has been frozen in time?

[screen fizzing]

- Regular viewers, and do we love you,

will remember prior mentions

of other strange creatures thawed from the permafrost.

The cave lion cub named Sparta about 28,000 years old

was just one of them.

Could these tiny critters be the next wave

of paleolithic babies melting to the surface?

Let's see what our experts think.

[screen fizzing] [suspenseful music]

Our biologists aren't convinced

that this could be some overgrown tardigrade.

- Tardigrades actually lack specialized respiratory systems,

which means they rely on diffusion to obtain oxygen.

A larger body size would require a more complex system

to distribute oxygen for them to actually grow.

- [Tony] If it's a no on giant tardigrades,

could these specimens be an undocumented species uncovered

by changing climates?

- It's not uncommon to hear of situations

where the ground starts to defrost or melts

and new species or extinct animals are then found,

but here it doesn't really make sense timeline wise

for that to work out.

These guys are very close to the surface

from at least what I can see,

and in the condition they're in right now,

they probably wouldn't remain frozen.

We probably would've seen

the decaying process start already.

- [Tony] According to our experts,

the identity of these creatures becomes clear

when isolating their subtle movements.

- When you focus on the areas that are moving,

you can see the legs, the tail,

you can see the shell overcoming the top of it.

It starts to become clear

that we're actually looking at the backside

of a softshell turtle.

Turtles do have a form of hibernation called brumation

where they will bury themselves deep in the mud

when it becomes too cold

and their body temperature will slow down so much

that they don't require much energy.

- [Tony] But if that's the case,

how can we explain this perfectly-formed cluster?

Could turtles really stack themselves like this?

- They're not going to be densely packed like this,

especially one on top of each other.

You would expect the pattern to be much more haphazard.

It's likely that these harvesters

have buried these turtles temporarily to keep them alive,

and now they're re- digging them to sell them,

and that's what we're seeing in this video.

[mysterious music] [screen fizzing]

- Our verdict, what we're seeing here is not a new

or ancient species, but a group of turtles in brumation.

Fun fact, brumation is different from hibernation

in that animals that hibernate, like bears,

are typically fully dormant,

while animals that bromates still wake up periodically

to sun themselves and even drink water.

And that's our show for tonight.

Thank you so much for watching

and remember to keep those cameras rolling.

[suspenseful music]