All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S02E02.Americas.Loch.Ness.Monster.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

Narrator: worldwide, six billion
Cameras are watching us.

On our streets, at work,
And in our homes,

They capture things
That seem impossible.

It defies the laws of physics.

Man:
Oh, this is unbelievable, man.

Narrator: experts carry out
Forensic analysis

Of these unusual events.

There's got to be some
Explanation for what's going on.

Woman: [ screams ]

Narrator: coming up,

A jurassic world
In an american lake...

Imagine 60 pliosaurs swimming
Around in lake champlain.

That would be
Completely terrifying.

Whatever that thing is, they're
Gonna need a bigger boat.

Narrator:
...An army of vampires...

There'd have to be billions
Of these things in there.

It really is a horror movie.

Narrator: ...And what beast came
Out of the shell from hell?

This would be way off the scale
For even a dinosaur egg.

Narrator: bizarre phenomena,
Mysteries caught on camera,

What's the truth
Behind this strange evidence?

-- captions by vitac --
Www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
Discovery communications

The night sky in russia
Blazes with a fiery light,

Terrorizing people below.

It's really big
And it's really powerful.

It could be something terrible.

Narrator:
The light is huge and intense,

But scientists are still
Struggling to find the cause.

If I was gonna imagine
The beginning of the apocalypse,

This wouldn't be far off.

♪♪

Narrator: november 14, 2014,
Night falls in sverdlovsk,

A rural corner
Of eastern russia.

Then, without warning,
A giant blinding flash.

not knowing what that is
And seeing that much energy

and power put out like that,
That can be very terrifying.

Narrator: the burst of light
Causes confusion and panic.

You almost want to shout out
To the drivers,

"Stop driving towards it
And turn around!"

♪♪

Narrator: footage of the event
Comes to the attention

Of astrophysicist
Hakeem oluseyi.

He has spent 30 years
Studying the night sky.

He considers if the light
Could've been given off

By a meteor.

Meteors are moving
Incredibly fast,

Tens of thousands
Of miles per hour,

So this means that they have
A lot of kinetic energy,

And this thing can slam
Into our atmosphere,

And some of that kinetic energy
Gets converted into heat.

♪♪

Narrator:
Meteors can enter the atmosphere

At up to 160,000 miles per hour
And burn at 3,000 degrees.

♪♪

These enormous forces
Can literally blow them apart.

♪♪

The front side is under
A massive amount of pressure,

And the back side
Is under low pressure,

And that can break it apart,

And these things can
Actually explode in the sky.

♪♪

Narrator: russians have already
Suffered one close encounter

With a supersized space rock.

It was over 100 years ago,

And it's what we call
The tunguska event.

Narrator: when a meteor explodes
Above this remote part

Of siberia in 1908,

It releases energy equivalent
To 15 megatons of tnt.

That's over 150 times
More powerful

Than the atomic bomb
That destroyed hiroshima.

The tunguska event flattens
Around 80 million trees

Across an area
Twice the size of los angeles.

The devastation of tunguska
Was on a scale

That the only thing
It could've been

Was something from outer space.

Narrator: but science journalist
John farrow believes

That the weird flash
Caught on the dashcam clip

Is not a meteor.

with a meteor, you always see
A streak before the explosion,

But that's missing in this case.

There is no streak
Before this big flash of light.

No matter which angle you see,
There's never any trail,

So that tells you
It's probably not a meteorite.

♪♪

Narrator: it is known that
The russian state

Has a secret
Advanced-weapons program.

Is this a test of
Some new secret weapon?

Former cia agent lindsay moran

Spent three years
Undercover in eastern europe.

my first reaction is,
"That's some kind of bomb.

that's some kind of explosion."

I mean, it's really big.

It's fiery orange.

It's got to be some kind
Of weapon detonating.

Narrator:
If this is a new russian weapon,

The intensity of the blast
Is a worrying sign.

For something that size

And to expel
That amount of energy,

It has to be nuclear.

Narrator:
Over the past 70 years,

Russia has detonated
Hundreds of nuclear weapons.

To john farrow, the pyrotechnics
In the dashcam footage

Resemble a high-altitude
Atomic test.

These high-altitude
Nuclear explosions

Don't create the characteristic
Mushroom cloud

That you associate
With nuclear bombs.

Instead, they're more like
Orangey clouds,

Which is quite similar to what
We're seeing in this footage.

[ alarm blaring ]

Declassified files
Show that in 1962,

The u.S. Carried out the world's
Largest high-altitude

Nuclear test,
Code-named starfish prime.

One and a half megatons
Of atomic energy

Was released 250 miles
Above johnson island

In the pacific ocean.

Records reveal an invisible side
Effect 900 miles away in hawaii.

♪♪

With starfish prime in 1962,
The electromagnetic pulse

That it created actually knocked
Out electronics in hawaii,

So with this explosion,
If that's what it is,

We would definitely expect
To see

Some kind of disturbances
In the electricity

Or some kind of massive
Breakdown in the area.

♪♪

Narrator:
Image analyst william dranginis

Checks the footage
For telltale glitches

That might indicate
An electromagnetic pulse,

Or emp.

from what I'm seeing here

is that there's
No static electricity

being introduced
Into the camera,

And the camera
Is filming constantly.

There's no break.

It's not the nuclear explosion.

♪♪

[ whirring ]

Narrator: mike sansom
Is an expert in explosives.

He checks for clues
In the landscape.

He believes there's
A possibility

That the light in the sky
Began on the ground.

Sansom:
There's a massive bright light,

And it comes from behind a hill.

What can it be?

Because it makes that
Ferocious bright light,

My thinking is
An explosive fire.

Narrator:
Sansom devises an experiment

To test his theory.

He plans to recreate
The explosion

Using only household items.

So I've got my fuel,
And I've got an oxidizer,

which is gonna provide
The oxygen

for the explosive fire.

They're all combined
In this bag.

We've got a remote
Firing system,

And we're gonna see
If we can replicate

What we saw in that video.

Narrator: because the explosion
In the clip

Occurs behind a hill,

Samson sets up a similar
Obstacle for his test.

I've got my explosive fire
Set up just behind this hill,

The hay bales.

I've got my firing system,
And it's armed.

Let's see what it produces.

[ explosion ]

Look at that!
It's lighting up the sky.

It's lighting up
All the surroundings.

Narrator: sampson believes that
If this ground-based explosion

Was scaled up
By a factor of 50,000,

He might recreate the weird
Scene captured on the dashcam.

But even if this were true,

What could've caused such
A gigantic explosion

On the ground beneath the flash?

That's a ferociously
Bright light,

And I'm thinking, "What else
Has fuels and oxidizers?"

Munitions.

And if you were
To burn a load of these

All at the same time
Just beyond a hill,

You'll get an explosive fire
Just like that.

Narrator: across russia, there
Are many stores of ammunition,

And there is one in this region.

So it's possible that one
Of these stores of ammunition

Was set alight,

And that would create
A very large explosion,

Releasing a lot of light.

Narrator: but according to
Russian government officials,

There was no accident
Or explosion in this area

On that night.

The strange blast in the sky

That terrified the people
Of sverdlovsk remains a mystery.

♪♪

Coming up, something massive is
On the move in lake champlain.

I was just totally amazed.
I didn't know what to do.

Narrator:
Scientists fear the return

Of a jurassic monster.

Some believe that a plesiosaur
Still lives in this lake.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: camera footage
Captures something large

And leathery
In a new england lake...

And all of a sudden,
That hump came up

And just started
Crawling along.

It was just totally amazing.

narrator: ...Film of what looks
Like a creature long associated

With this 500-square-mile lake.

Everyone is talking
About champy,

This mysterious monster that
Supposedly lives in the depths.

♪♪

Narrator:
Lake champlain, vermont,

One of the largest
Freshwater lakes in the u.S.,

120 miles long
And up to 400 feet deep,

There's enough water here
To supply new york city

For 20 years.

Local resident
Katy elizabeth goes back

To where she was
By the lake in august 2014

When she captured an image
On camera

She'll never forget.

I saw a disturbance and then,
All of a sudden,

this hump rose to the surface
Of the water, dark in color.

I just couldn't believe
What I was seeing.

Man: oh, my god.

-it's champ.
-I know. I see it.

Man: we got it on tape.

Narrator: katy believes
She caught a glimpse

Of a living creature that
Belongs to the prehistoric past.

If she's right, this could be
Rare video footage

Of the monster
Of lake champlain,

The legendary champy.

It has been
My childhood dream to,

I mean, just even have
A sighting of champ.

I never thought it would
Even happen.

Mardis:
Going back almost 150 years,

There have been steady reports
Of some kind of a monster-ish

Or dinosaur-ish
Creature in the lake.

there is somewhere between 250
And 300 sightings of this thing,

And there are also
Bits and pieces

Of impressive photographic
And video evidence.

Narrator: katy elizabeth's
Footage comes to the attention

Of security expert
William dranginis,

An analyst who specializes
In decoding blurry images.

His first task is to calculate
The size

Of the object
That katy elizabeth filmed.

♪♪

a passing bird provides a clue.

What I'm observing
In this footage

Seems to be some type
Of moving object

that's moving along
The surface of the water

from our left to right.

it seems to be about
15 to 20 feet long.

Narrator: zoologist
Roland kays studies the film.

If dranginis' size calculations
Are correct,

The image might show
The anatomical and behavioral

Characteristics of a monster
But not a monster of legend.

Kays: what we see in this
Footage is something

Underneath the surface,
Just kind of breaking

The surface of the water
A little bit,

Which is kind of what
A alligator looks like

When it's swimming
Along in a lake.

When alligators swim, they often
Have their back and nose

And tail sort of out
On the surface of the water,

so we might think,
"Could this be an alligator?"

Narrator: the american alligator
Can grow up to 15 feet in length

And has one of the most
Powerful bites in nature.

They have been known to kill
And eat humans,

But alligators
Are normally found

In warmer southern states
Like florida.

Marine biologist
Danni washington suggests

That even this
Thick-skinned superpredator

Isn't tough enough
For lake champlain.

vermont has extremely harsh
Temperatures during the winter,

and the lake could be frozen
For months at a time,

So it's very unlikely
That an alligator

Could survive
That type of condition.

Narrator:
Biologist bradley young

Works for u.S. Wildlife
And fisheries.

He considers what kind
Of beast

could survive
In champlain's freezing waters.

the series of ridges on
The creature's back suggests

another kind of ancient beast.

out of all the fish
In lake champlain,

the most likely fish
That could be mistaken for champ

would be a sturgeon,
In my opinion.

Sturgeon are a primitive fish.

They've been around for
Several hundred million years.

Its back has what are
Called scutes on it.

They're a bony structure.

Narrator: sturgeon are commonly
Known as bottom-feeders

And generally stick

To the deepest parts
Of rivers and lakes.

♪♪

So if somebody sees one of those
In shallow water,

They certainly
Would be surprised.

Narrator: roland kays believes
There's a scientific way

Of testing if the creature
Katy elizabeth saw

Was a sturgeon
Because, astonishingly,

Sturgeons can talk.

Sturgeons do make a noise,

Something some people
Call sturgeon thunder.

It's a really, really
Low-frequency noise.

It's such a low-frequency,
Infrasonic noise

That humans can't even hear it.

Narrator: katy elizabeth returns
To the lake to try

And find out
What's lurking under the water.

If there are sturgeon here,
Then this sensitive hydrophone

Should pick up
Their ultralow-frequency calls,

But instead of so-called
Sturgeon thunder,

She hears something else.

♪♪

I just heard this sound, said,
"What in the world is that?"

It just, like, made the hair
On the back of my neck stand up.

Narrator:
Katy elizabeth's lake champlain

Recording leaves fishery expert
Bradley young baffled.

Hearing the sound,
I can't tell you what it is

Or what's causing it.

Narrator: he confirms it isn't
Sturgeon thunder

Or any other underwater noise
He knows.

Fish I'm familiar with
Wouldn't emit a sound

Like what I heard
On the hydrophone.

If it doesn't match any known
Species, it makes you wonder,

"What other species
Could it be?"

♪♪

Narrator: william dranginis
Returns to the footage.

When he reanalyzes
The image frame by frame,

He believes
He may have underestimated

The true size
Of the object in the water.

It makes me wonder if what
We're seeing on the surface

Is just the tip of the iceberg,
So to speak.

There could be more of
The creature's body

Below the water.

Whatever that thing is, they're
Going to need a bigger boat.

♪♪

Narrator: coming up,
A rancher wants to crack

The mystery of a monster egg.

This is weird and terrifying.

Narrator: holy smoke, a dance of
Death in the desert.

Kind of has a spooky,
Almost supernatural feel to it.

♪♪

Narrator: and scientists ask
If a jurassic monster

Could be living
In north america.

It's one of the biggest lakes
In the united states.

Anything could be hiding
In that water.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator:
Experts analyze footage

Of what some believe
Is the legendary

Lake champlain monster.

-it's champ.
-I know. I see it.

♪♪

Narrator:
Cryptozoologist scott mardis

Collects reports from the lake

That go back over 150 years.

♪♪

And he sees
An astonishing pattern emerge.

♪♪

What people are describing
Seems to resemble

This prehistoric marine reptile
From the age of the dinosaurs.

They have long necks
With a small head at the top

With four paddle-like flippers.

Mardis: when you put together
The whole image,

The composite you come up
With looks very much

Like a prehistoric plesius.

Narrator:
Plesiosaurs are predators

From the jurassic armed
With razor-sharp curved teeth

Used to devour fish.

♪♪

66 million years ago,
They lived in brackish habitats,

A mix of salt and freshwater,

But they are assumed
To be long extinct.

they could've come in,
A small group of them,

Adapted to freshwater
And a cold temperature

And managed to hang on,

And there might be a very small
Fragile population of them

In the lake now
That we don't know about.

A plesiosaur would be perfectly
At home in a place

Like lake champlain.

There is plenty of room in there
For a plesiosaur to survive.

Narrator:
Zoologist roland kays believes

That if there are
Ancient monsters in the lake,

There can't be just
One or two of them.

Scientists estimate that,

for a population to survive
Long-term,

they need to have,
At a minimum, 30 breeding pairs,

So imagine 60 pliosaurs swimming
Around in lake champlain.

That would be
Completely terrifying.

Narrator:
But experts can't explain

What a pack of plesiosaurs
Would do for food.

Pliosaurs in lake champlain

Would eat us
Out of house and home,

And there wouldn't be
Any salmon or trout

Or anything else left
In the lake.

the balance, the ecology
Of lake champlain

doesn't promote the idea
Of supporting animals

Of that size living here.

-it's champ.
-I know. I see it.

Narrator: whatever is creating
These monstrous sights

And sounds in the lake,

Katy elizabeth isn't going to
Give up her quest to find out.

I believe that champ
Is out there.

the holy grail would be to get
A biological specimen

To prove to science
That champ exists,

And I think it is
Just the beginning.

♪♪

Narrator:
Now surveillance cameras capture

The spontaneous appearance

Of smoke dancing
In the desert sky.

You're seeing these things
Kind of come into existence

And then vanish.

It's kind of freaking me out.

Narrator: the desert is home to
The top secret

Edwards air force base.

[ explosion ]

It's one of the places where
The united states

Goes to develop things
They don't want people to see.

♪♪

Narrator: the mojave desert,

Stretching
Over 50,000 square miles,

It's the driest wilderness
In north america.

The desert is a great place
For unexplained phenomena,

all kinds of strange things
Gone awry,

and it has had that
Sort of ghostlike feel to it.

♪♪

Narrator: 150 miles
Southeast of death valley,

Near the border with nevada,
A fixed security camera captures

Ghostly wisps of smoke dancing
Against a blue desert sky.

They're not there.
Then they're there.

Then they disappear again.

♪♪

Narrator: the footage comes
To the attention

Of solar physicist simon foster.

It seems to show some vapor,
Gas or smoke

That appears out of nowhere.

The more you start watching it,
It looks, actually,

that these are small objects
That seem to be emitting smoke.

now is this fireworks?

are people, you know,
Letting something off,

And it's flying by?

Narrator:
This location is just 50 miles

From a party city famous
For its thunderous sky shows --

Las vegas.

Three-feet-long firework shells

Reach speeds of
320 miles per hour

And rise well over 1,000 feet.

When a firework explodes,
Its chemical cocktail burns

In the air
To create the light spectacle,

And then it leaves behind
A trail of gray gases and smoke.

♪♪

These are like puffs of smoke,

So it's almost like
Little explosions.

Things are suddenly catching
Fire and leaving a smoke trail

And then disappearing.

Narrator: but when science
Writer jeff wise

Studies the footage,

He struggles to link it to
Sin city's sky shows.

It's not like a normal, like,
A fireworks display,

And it's persistent.

It goes on and on and on.

This is not a minor, you know,
Kid's birthday party

Or something.

Narrator: environmental
Journalist chris clarke

Live in the mojave desert
And knows the terrain well.

When he examines the footage,

He notices that the puffs
Of smoke are not static.

Each appears to be moving
On its own trajectory.

It looks like smoke emitted
From living creatures.

you can actually see some
Of them apparently flapping,

flapping their wings, trying to
Get out of this dangerous area.

Narrator:
It makes clarke believe

Something sinister is going on.

In these videos, we're seeing
Birds flying into an area

That is dangerous.

They eventually combust,
Burst into flame.

Narrator:
Experts try to figure out

What's causing these birds
To combust.

♪♪

simon foster works through
The images frame by frame.

♪♪

It could be that some natural
Or unnatural phenomena

Is somehow increasing the heat
That these birds are feeling,

Causing them
To basically ignite.

Their bodies boil and they
Explode in clouds of steam.

It's not a pleasant way to die.

Narrator: scientist wonder what
Force could cause a bird to be

So gruesomely killed.

I have so many questions
About it.

It's so hard to figure out
What's happening here.

Narrator: coming up,
A giant organic structure

Leads scientists to one of
The strangest creatures

Ever to walk the earth.

It does actually remind me

A little bit of the dragon eggs
Out of "Game of thrones."

Narrator:
And investigators discover

The super powerful force

Annihilating life
In the mojave desert.

That's not compatible
With living things.

♪♪

♪♪

narrator:
An unexplained phenomenon is

causing birds to burn up midair

above the mojave desert.

Solar physicist simon foster
Returns to the footage.

He focuses in on
The towerlike structure

And notices something strange.

You've got these birds
Flying across the path

Of this strange central tower.

it's actually glowing
At the top.

you can just make that out,

And that's possibly a clue
To what's going on here.

You can see it's very bright.
It's very hot.

Narrator:
Military-tech journalist

Joe pappalardo thinks the heat

Emanating from the tower
Could be explained

As a weapon-development project.

This is a military area.
Move away from the perimeter.

The interesting thing
That you think of when you find

That this happened in mojave

is that, that area
In the desert over california

is a fantastic place
To test new military equipment.

There are not a lot of people
To witness it.

It's great airspace.

It's the best place to develop
A new weapon in secret.

Narrator: pappalardo believes
That the tower could be creating

Some kind of invisible heat ray.

It's something
U.S. Military developed

That's a nonlethal technology,

But what it does is fire
Microwaves into the skin enough

So it heats it up.

If you amp that up enough
And shot it at a bird,

Then it would catch on fire
And fall to the ground.

Narrator:
But science journalist jeff wise

Believes that if the military
Are developing death rays,

They would not test them
In the open desert

Close to surveillance cameras.

this has not been research
That's been ongoing.

there's been no chatter or talk
In the back channels about,

The defense department
Is secretly developing

This kind of technology.

Narrator: experts move in
To figure out how

And why this tower
Is barbecueing live birds.

♪♪

Physicist ashkan salamat
From the university of nevada

Believes the clear blue skies
And desert location

Offers a clue
To the real culprit.

He suspects the birds as victims
Of the most powerful death rays

In the solar system --

The sun.

here in the mojave desert,
We've got plenty of sunlight,

and what we're gonna try
And do today

is replicate those conditions.

What we have representing
The sun is a tungsten bulb.

[ switch clicks ]

It's very bright, and in fact,

If I hold my hand
Very close to it,

I can feel
The heat being given off.

Narrator:
But the heat he's feeling

Isn't hot enough
To incinerate birds.

Salamat introduces a lens
To focus the heat

Into a 450-degree death ray.

When he directs it towards some
Paper, the effect is instant.

♪♪

It's already pretty hot.

If I put my hand in the beam,

It would cause me
Serious injury.

You could imagine this intense
Light source

Causing severe damage to birds.

♪♪

Narrator:
Experts now look to see

What's turning the desert sun

Into a bird-frying death ray.

When investigator chris clarke
Travels further into the desert,

He finds
The ivanpah solar facility,

A $2.2 billion project
To harvest the power of the sun

With over 150,000 mirrors.

when the mirrors
Are all aimed at the boiler

on top of these towers,

They create a ring of air
That is highly charged

With what the engineers
Call solar flux.

Temperatures well in excess
Of 1,200 degrees fahrenheit

Are generated
In the area of solar flux.

Obviously, that's not
Compatible with living things.

♪♪

Narrator:
Federal biologists now estimate

That the five-square-mile
Area of solar flux

Is incinerating thousands
Of birds each year.

The facility is installing
High-tech devices

Aimed at deterring
Flying creatures,

But any who stray
Too close face certain death.

[ birds call ]

♪♪

Now cameras capture
This huge egg-shaped object

Buried in the bank of a river.

I don't know what that is,

But it definitely
Shouldn't be there.

This is weird and terrifying.

Narrator: it doesn't belong to
Any living creature

Known to science.

If it is an egg, I definitely
Don't want to meet its mom.

♪♪

Narrator:
Buenos aires, argentina,

Christmas day 2015,

40 miles south of the capital,

Farmer jose nieves
Walks his land,

Checking on livestock.

♪♪

He spots the edge of something
Buried in the muddy riverbank.

Intrigued,
He investigates further.

[ speaking spanish ]

whatever this is,
It seems really out of context

to have such a big
Strange-shaped,

Strange-textured thing

Just laying in the side
Of the river like this.

Narrator: desperate to identify
The object,

Nieves posts the footage online.

♪♪

It comes to the attention
Of cryptozoologist scott mardis.

The mystery orb's setting along
With its enormous size suggests

Evidence of a creature
Long thought

To have been
The stuff of legend.

dragon stories are often
Associated with bodies of water,

and it appears to be
A dried-up riverbed.

Narrator:
Descriptions of terrifying

Dragonlike creatures

Can be found in the texts of
Many different ancient cultures.

This is like something out
Of medieval story

About a dragon that lived
In a river and laid an egg.

Somebody might extrapolate
From that egg

That there are real dragons.

♪♪

Narrator: zoologist roland kays
Analyzes the location.

This is an area which was
Once densely populated

By the biggest creatures
Ever thought

To have roamed the earth.

We know that dinosaurs
Laid eggs

Because paleontologists
Have found their eggs

All around the world,
And argentina, in particular,

Is a hotbed
For dinosaur fossils.

In 2012,
Scientists found patagotitan,

Which is the largest
Dinosaur ever, 122 feet long.

It made t-rex look
Like a munchkin.

Narrator: patagotitan
Is longer than three buses

And as heavy as
A large passenger jet.

a patagotitan could've stepped
On a t-rex and crushed it.

That's how big these enormous
Long-necked dinosaurs were.

They would've caused many
Earthquakes when they walked.

you have the largest-ever
Dinosaur

discovered in argentina.

You have the largest-ever
Egg-looking thing

Also discovered in argentina.

Maybe it could be
The very largest dinosaur

Ever discovered.

Narrator: coming up,

A terror tornado
Of flesh-chomping bloodsuckers,

And it's coming this way.

This seems more like something
Out of a horror movie

Than a viral video.

Narrator:
And does this mystery orb

Point to one of
The weirdest creatures

Ever to walk the planet?

It's a very biological type
Of texture.

That's a sign that this is
Probably something

That was once alive.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: biologists consider
If an argentinian farmer

Has unearthed the egg

Of the largest creature
That ever lived,

But when paleontologist
Steve brusatte

Examines the footage,

He has a problem
With the size of the egg.

believe it or not, even these
Big long-necked dinosaurs

didn't lay very big eggs.

they laid small eggs,

Only about the size
Of an orange or a grapefruit,

And the largest dinosaur eggs
We know of

Are only about the size
Of a soccer ball or a football,

So this would be
Way off the scale

For even a dinosaur egg.

Narrator: when science
Journalist john farrow

Analyzes the footage,

He confirms that this object,

Though natural,
Is unlikely to be an egg.

the shape isn't a total sphere.

♪♪

It's not all the way around.

It kind of stops about halfway.

♪♪

Narrator: this development
Convinces zoologist

Roland kays
He's looking at a shell,

But it is no ordinary shell.

upon closer inspection,
This object starts to look

a little like a carapace,
Like the shell of an armadillo.

The only problem is,
Armadillos today

Are a lot smaller
Than this object,

So this must have been

Some really
Big armadillo-like creature.

Narrator: steve brusatte
Reexamines the footage.

He's trying to figure out what
Bizarre type of armored creature

This giant shell might belong to
And spots a clue in the texture.

That shell is made up of
Little plates called osteoderms,

And there are over a thousand
Of these that fuse together

In multiple layers
To make that shell,

And that's something
That's pretty unusual,

And it's something that
I've only seen in museums.

Narrator: he believes that this
Shell belongs to a creature

That time forgot,

More like a small battle tank
Than an animal.

It's the shell, essentially,
Of a bizarre type

Of extinct prehistoric mammal
Called a glyptodon.

Narrator:
Farmer jose nieves has stumbled

On the most complete
Glyptodon shell ever seen.

Glyptodons grew to the size
And weight of a small car.

They roamed north
And south america

Until their extinction
At the end of the last ice age.

So our ancestors, humans,
Would have actually

Seen and dealt with glyptodons
In south america,

In north america,
Where these weird,

Shelled mammals
Lived before they died out.

Glyptodons were plant-eaters,

But you wouldn't want
To mess with them.

A lot of them had tails
With clubs on the end,

Sometimes even with spikes
That they could swing at you

When they needed
To protect themselves.

Narrator: scientists still need
To figure out

How a perfectly preserved
Prehistoric shell

Shows up 10,000 years

After the beast is supposed
To have become extinct.

Glyptodons probably liked
To live in burrows

Like armadillos do today,

So we think that this animal
Probably crawled into a burrow

To sleep during the daytime,

And then some disaster
Happened overhead,

Killed the animal
But left it in a perfect place

To be fossilized
And be found today.

Narrator:
For jose and his wife, reina,

The giant shell they found
On christmas day

Is a miraculous gift
From god and history.

[ speaking spanish ]

Narrator: coming up, a tornado
Of what looks like black smoke.

This is a really bizarre event
Happening here,

Smoke rising
From the middle of a lake.

Narrator: but experts think this
Thing is alive and hungry.

It's a horror movie.
It really is a horror movie.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator:
When is a tornado not a tornado?

When it's a twisting hurricane
Of a billion bloodsuckers

Threatening any human
Caught in its path.

If I was there, I'd be like,

"Is that thing coming
Towards me?

Because if it is,
I'm out of here"

♪♪

Narrator:
The rift valley, east africa,

The cradle of mankind,

Lake malawi, 350 miles long,

The third-biggest lake
In africa.

♪♪

December 23, 2015,

Another perfect day in paradise,

But travelers suddenly see
What appears to be

A spiral of smoke
Rising from the lake.

They film the phenomenon.

Scientists can hardly believe
Their eyes.

with smoke, you always need
A fuel source

to generate that smoke,

And water is never
That source of fuel,

So to see that rising
From the middle of the lake

Is really surprising.

♪♪

Narrator:
Geologist sian proctor considers

Whether the turbulent geology
Of the region may be to blame.

lake malawi is located
In the east african rift zone.

The continent is being rifted,
Or pulled, apart.

That means it's in
A volcanic area.

Narrator: volcanic activity
Produces molten rock,

Or magma,
Heated to over 1,500 degrees.

When magma meets water,

It creates an effect
That could explain this smoke.

When groundwater comes
In contact with a heat source,

Usually magma, well, that water
Becomes superheated,

And then it comes up to
The surface and creates steam,

So maybe there's
Some kind of activity

Happening under the lake
Causing what we're seeing.

♪♪

Narrator:
But explorer george kourounis

Speeds up the footage.

If this sinister plume were
Coming from a volcano vent,

It shouldn't be moving.

Kourounis:
The air is moving very rapidly

But in a cylinder
That is sort of contained.

at first glance, this looks like

it's some kind of
Weather phenomenon.

It's happening
Overtop of a lake,

So the first thing that comes
To mind is a waterspout.

Narrator: kourounis has seen
Such spinning waterspouts

Develop in warm,
Humid areas like lake malawi.

♪♪

They are vortices
Just like tornadoes.

You have some towering
Cumulus clouds

Or a thunderstorm
That's already in place.

You got instability
At the ground.

You got spin from
Some wind shear,

And the next thing you know,
You've got a tornado

But, in this case, not going
Over farmland but a lake.

♪♪

Narrator: waterspouts can reach
150 miles an hour.

Over the centuries,
They've sunk hundreds of ships

And killed thousands of people.

Waterspouts are notorious
For ripping apart the landscape

And lofting all kinds
Of debris up in the air.

Narrator: material scientist
Kishore hari

Reviews weather data
For lake malawi

On the date the footage is shot.

It doesn't yield the kind
Of atmospheric conditions

That typically
Spawn waterspouts.

This is certainly not
A waterspout

Or a weather pattern

Because it seems like
A clear and calm day.

It must be some sort of
Other natural phenomenon.

♪♪

Narrator: when more footage of
The same event comes to light,

Entomologist dr. Scott bundy
Analyzes it.

He recognizes
The swirling movement

As something
From the natural world.

when I looked closer,
It looked like maybe

there was something
Living associated with it.

The dark appearance of
The components of that smoke

Indicate that it's likely
Just a lot of insects.

♪♪

Narrator: when bundy zooms in
On the footage,

He recognizes the bloodsucking
Culprits by their flying motion.

Bundy: it is definitely
A swarm of midges.

It's on a much larger scale
Than I've ever seen.

There would have to be billions
Of these things in there.

It's not just a million flies.

It's billions of flies
Emerging from this lake.

♪♪

Narrator: although only the size
Of a pinhead,

Midges use
Their scissorlike jaws

To suck the blood of humans.

They spend much of their lives
As larvae

At the bottom of the lake.

They rise to the surface
At the same time to partner up.

It seems somewhat random,

But they are kind of
Circling around one another

To find each other and mate.

Narrator:
Bundy researches what's behind

This billion-midge horror swarm

that threatens to turn
Any human in its path

into an all-you-can-eat buffet.

what these numbers and the size
Of the swarm tells me

is that conditions were
Just perfect so lots of food,

reduced predation, temperatures
Just how they want it.

everything is just right
For this event to happen.

disgusting, I am not
An insect person,

and the thought of that swarm
Coming towards me, hell no.

I'm out of there.