All language subtitles for The.Proof.Is.Out.There.S05E15.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

- Tonight on "The
Proof Is Out There."

Could these clothing stains
prove two fishermen were

abducted by aliens for hours
that they can't remember?

- There are many instances
when there is some type of

an alien abduction experience
where missing time occurs.

- [Tony] Five UFOs hover
near a US military base.

- If ETs wanted to
study our military,

this would be the
place to do it.

- [Tony] What kind of
creature was photographed

walking by this river?

- Is this being phasing
between dimensions?

- [Tony] And how can this
zombie insect keep crawling?

- That's crazy.
It's walking along.

This thing should not be alive.

[dramatic music]

- [Tony] Around
the globe are videos.

- [Observer] What are
those things?

- [Bystander] It's moving.

- [Tony] Photos and
sounds that defy explanation.

[dramatic music]

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

who made them or
how they operate.

- [Tony] What are they?

- [Man] Some sort
of bizarre mutation.

- [Expert] What's exciting
is nobody really knows.

- Extraordinary claims
need extraordinary proof.

- 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.

We'll analyze each
one with top experts.

[car crashes]

- It's a 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.

[dramatic music]

Good evening everyone
and welcome to

"The Proof is Out There."

Stories of UFO abductions
are pretty common,

but forensic evidence

that corroborates such accounts
is much harder to come by.

So when two
self-proclaimed victims

of alien abduction
claim to have proof,

you know we have to take
a look for ourselves.

It's August 2014 in Salt
Fork State Park, Ohio.

Two men are out fishing at
night when suddenly their lives

are changed forever.

Tom Wertman, the state director
of Ohio's Mutual UFO Network

or MUFON say these photos of

what they were
wearing may hold the

clues to what they went through.

- Roughly about 10:30
they saw a light coming

across the sky to the north.

An hour later, another
set of lights comes by

and about 1:30 in the morning
they heard this extremely

shrill woman's cry coming
from across the lake.

At that point, the 43 year old
sitting in the lawn chair

watching his fishing
pole, the 19 year old,

he's baiting his hook.

The next thing you know,
the 43 year old gets

his cell phone out and
it's 5:19 in the morning.

He has no idea what happened
between 1:30 and 5:19

and the 19 year old is
still up baiting his hook

over three and a
half hours later.

- [Tony] Author Jason
Martell says the bewildered men

then make a break for it,

but that's when things
get really weird.

- Stunned in disbelief,
they started to just

grab all their belongings,
change their clothes,

and as the older man
changed his clothes,

he was also noticing his
shirt was inside out.

- It's as if his clothes
have been taken off

and put back on incorrectly

and they say they have no idea
where these stains came from.

The men believe
these dirty shorts

and tops might carry evidence
that they are victims

of an alien abduction.

If that's the case, their lost
time would not be surprising.

- There are many instances
when there is some type

of an alien abduction experience
where missing time occurs.

A very similar feature
happened with the Betty

and Barney Hill case.

- [Tony] The Hill couple
famously forgot two hours

while driving on a New Hampshire
road one night in 1961.

With the help of hypnosis,

they later recounted being
examined and probed by aliens.

- In many of these
experiences of lost time,

there are physical attributes
that also take place.

Sometimes the clothes
are put on wrong.

A shirt is inside out.

- Betty and Barney
Hill were left

with stopped watches, scuffed
shoes and a ripped dress.

Is the clothing of the
Ohio fishermen proof

of a similar encounter?

[dramatic music]

Okay, I know what
you're thinking.

Dirty clothes

and a shirt turned inside out
doesn't sound all that weird

coming back from a camping trip.

Still the men claim
they were so disturbed

that they stayed home
for weeks afterward.

Perhaps our experts
can shine a light

on this mysterious blackout.

[eerie music]
[graphic whooshing]

First we ask emergency medicine
physician, Dr. Ed Hope,

if there's any explanation
for the experience

of lost time reported here.

- When people blackout

or lose consciousness
medically we think

of something happening
either with the heart

or something with the head.

What's unusual in
this case is that both

of them blacked out
at the same time,

which kind of rules out
a lot of these causes.

- [Tony] And what
about the clothing?

Astronomer, Marc D'antonio says,

an industrial chemist put it
under spectroscopic analysis.

- One of the findings
in the clothing

of both these two gentlemen

and in Betty Hill's clothes
was carboxylic acid.

- [Tony] Carboxylic
acid salt is found

in food additives,

some pharmaceuticals and soap.

It's not rare, but Tom Wertman
argues that the placement

of this otherwise
ordinary chemical is

what makes it noteworthy.

- [Tom] Betty Hill's
dress was brand new

and it was in the
lower part of the skirt

where you would normally
never associate that type

of a chemical with.

- [Tony] And the
chemist found the Salt Fork.

abductees clothes were
similarly affected.

- She found it on the pockets

of their like cargo
shorts in areas

that you would
normally never find

that type of a chemical at.

- [Tony] Yet there might
be a simple explanation.

What if they were
carrying hygiene products

or medication in their pockets?

Well, Wertman points to areas

of pinkish discoloration
on both sets of garments,

which might hold an
even bigger clue.

- The areas that discolored
on Betty Hill's dark blue dress

were around like the lower
part of the skirt area,

and this is where
she was claiming that

aliens were grabbing at her.

[creepy music flourish]

On the gentleman from Salt Fork,

the blue jacket had
a pink cast to it,

so maybe something was
touching that jacket.

- [Tony] Tom was so compelled
by the Salt Fork incident,

he went there looking for
additional physical evidence.

- And as I'm walking the area,

I hit a spot about a hundred
yards from where they were

and I looked down and I
was standing in a perfect

circle of dead grass.

So I took samples
from that region

and also control samples
around the whole region.

- [Tony] Tom got
the samples analyzed

and the findings once
again appeared anomalous.

- One position was much
higher iron content

than all the rest of the areas.

That area was the circle
I was standing in.

- Does it mean that possibly
there's some type of connection

to iron and alien spacecraft?

We can't say no,

but one case doesn't
prove anything.

[eerie music]
[graphic whooshing]

- Our verdict, if you
take them at their word,

this remains an unexplained
case of lost time.

We can't be sure whether it was
caused by an alien abduction

or something else altogether.

Unfortunately for these
two anonymous men,

they may never know for
sure where those hours went.

[graphic whooshing]

Now, another UFO case,
this one not from the woods

but from the desert.

With the establishment
of the Pentagon's

All-Domain Anomaly
Resolution Office or AARO,

it's clear the government
is becoming more aware

and worried about
UFOs, especially

around military
targets like this one.

Take a look.

April 20th, 2021.

It's a quiet crystal
clear evening in the skies

over a marine base near
29 Palms, California,

in the Mojave Desert,

until multiple reports
suddenly come in

of a strange set of lights
appearing in the sky.

The base's night vision
cameras capture this.

[dramatic music]

Five orbs are hovering in a
curved formation in the sky.

They each contain a small
bright spot in the center

surrounded by a glowing aura.

- It appears to be
showing some type of a arc

of connected lights,
but is this one object

or is it a collection of
orbs staying in formation?

- [Tony] What's
unusual about this sighting

is that the people
who reported it

aren't your average bystanders.

- Reportedly over 50
people actually witnessed

this strange phenomenon,

a group of marines who
are all very familiar

with different types of
aerospace technology,

military aircraft.

Yet to them they were
fascinated enough

to say it caught their eye
and it was truly bizarre.

- [Tony] So if this
isn't anything recognized

by local military personnel,
could it be extraterrestrial?

Turns out it's not the
first time alleged ETs

have been reported
near a military base.

In 1967 guards outside Malmstrom
Air Force Base in Montana

reported seeing a strange
red light over the facility.

The light appeared to be a
hovering, oval-shaped craft

about 30 to 40 feet in diameter.

Then without
explanation, one by one,

the nuclear missiles
became disarmed.

So was something similar
happening over 29 Palms?

- I think we have enough
of a framework there to say

that trained military
personnel found this

to be a fascinating object

and to me that would merit
further investigation.

[graphic whooshing]

- Because this
video was recorded

by a military infrared camera,

we can presume it
hasn't been doctored,

but what is it that
we're seeing here?

What could be behind
those big balls of light?

Time to ask our experts
to illuminate us.

[suspenseful music]
[graphic whooshing]

We begin with military
aviation expert Tim McMillan.

- From first impression,
you get the idea

that these five lights are

connected to a single object.

This could be some type
of triangular craft

that has these five lights
in different points,

but I don't see the control
surface as the wings.

It's traveling much too slow

so we can really easily
rule out airplane.

- [Tony] We took the
video to Rich Hoffman

of the Scientific
Coalition for UAP Studies.

After incidents like those over
other bases like Malmstrom,

is it possible extraterrestrials
really are monitoring

our military capabilities?

Hoffman doesn't see a match,
at least not in this case.

- Throughout history, we've
had a lot of military bases

that have had UFO
reports near them

and what we've seen from
just all those sheer cases is

it's almost on the
scale of surveillance.

What's curious is these lines
that are going up there,

these would indicate some sort
of trail that's being left

behind them and you don't
see that on UFO reports.

- [Tony] Instead of
UFOs, McMillan sees a clue

that brings these objects
back down to earth.

- Looking at the smoke

and vapor trail that's
being left behind them,

you see that these are actually
independent points of light

and they appear to be in a
free fall dependent on gravity.

And the fact that these are
moving slow like this leads me

to believe that what we're
looking at here is actually the

deployment of illumination
flares that are providing light

for some type of ground
forces, coordinated activity.

- Illumination flares,
they're very, very bright

and they're often, quite
often, reported as UFOs.

[eerie music]
[graphic whooshing]

- Our verdict. This isn't a
UFO attracted to our military.

These are just
illumination flares,

but keep an eye out for
other unexplained objects

around military bases just
in case the extraterrestrials

are keeping an eye on us.

- Bolivia is known for its
multitude of mountains,

its abundance of alpacas and
its cornucopia of coca fields.

Well now we can add
aliens to that list.

August 2023, a group

of hikers are traversing
Bolivia's scenic Rio Pilcomayo

near the city of Tarija.

One member of the party
stops to take some pictures

and ends up capturing way more

than the breathtaking scenery.

It appears these unsuspecting
hikers were not alone.

Pushing in on the
image we see a thin,

nearly translucent figure
walking along the riverbank.

It seems to be around
four feet in size

walking in a strange,
inhuman gait.

Eerily the creature's
dead hollow stare seems

to be directed straight
at the photographer.

Many internet sleuths believe
this photo helps prove

the existence of the infamous
grays, the most common type

of alleged alien
reported by abductees.

- What first caught my attention
is it definitely looks very

humanoid in respect to other
aliens that we've seen,

like a short gray
with a bulbous head

or some type of
bipedal humanoid entity

and it falls in line
with other beings

that have been reported
under either alien abduction

or some type of a scenario

where an alien has
been seen usually near

some type of a flying craft.

[creepy music]

- [Tony] Martell singles
out a sighting from 1978

that occurred in
this very same region

where many eyewitnesses claim

to have seen a cylindrical
spacecraft crash

into the side of a mountain.

- Now for South America,
this was equivalent

to a Roswell-type event.

Hundreds of witnesses saw this

and even more heard a
sonic-like explosion.

[plane explodes]

- [Tony] Witness reports
of this incident claim

the impact was so violent it
threw people to the ground

and shattered nearby
glass windows.

- And you have to wonder
if events like this speak

to why we might be seeing
entities like this walking

around in this location.

[graphics whooshing]

- Bolivia is also home to
the mysterious ancient ruins

of Puma Punku thought
by some to be as many

as 17,000 years old.

Others believe the intricacy

of the stone cutting
could be the work

of an advanced technology
possibly from another world.

Could our photo be connected?

Let's see what
our experts think.

[mysterious music]
[graphics whooshing]

First, could someone
in a costume be trying

to pull a fast one?

Biologist Stephanie
Manka doesn't think so.

- It doesn't seem like it's
a actual person in a costume

doing a hoax because
the body is too thin,

the limbs are too
thin to be a person.

- [Tony] However,
she isn't convinced

that this photo
is concrete proof

of an extraterrestrial
species like the grays.

- Grays are described
as grays for a reason

because they are the color gray

and this one appears to be
translucent, so it doesn't fit

with the definition
of what people see.

According to the accounts that
people have said about grays,

there's been no mention
of light bending

or other sort of advanced
camouflage used by the grays.

- [Tony] Manka
also questions

the authenticity of the image.

- What I personally
think happened is

that somebody realized
these kind of look like legs

and then doctored the photos
and added the top part of it.

- [Tony] To follow
up on Manka's doubts,

we brought the image to
our forensic video analyst,

Michael Primeau.

- So the absence of the shadow
of this object in the area

that it was captured
on on the shoreline

as well as the absence
in that reflection

of the body of water
beneath it is peculiar.

- [Tony] And while
believers of this image claim

the lack of shadows and
reflections could be aspects

of some alien
cloaking technology,

Primeau believes this
picture has definitely been

altered in some way.

- So we take a look at the
information within the picture,

take a deeper dive to try

to see if we can detect
any evidence of alteration

or manipulation,
and there's a test

that we run called jpeg ghosts

that will show us
evidence of recompression.

You can see a dip in
the compression data.

This valley shows that the
image has been processed

and the quality has been
reduced at least one time.

- [Tony] So does
that mean it's a fake?

Unfortunately, Primeau can
neither confirm nor deny.

- The challenge becomes
with this picture

because it's been recompressed,

we simply don't know
if the area in question

on the creature was
added or removed

because this amount of
recompression was introduced,

it changed all of
those pixel regions.

It stripped the VIN
number from the vehicle

before it was
painted, so to speak.

We can't verify one
way or the other,

but I have my concerns
with this picture.

[mysterious music]
[graphics whooshing]

- Our verdict. We're
going with suspected hoax.

Although there isn't enough
technical data to confirm,

we agree with our
experts that there's

definitely something dubious
about this photo,

but rest assured if there are
aliens wandering the mountains

of Bolivia, we'll
find them soon enough.

- Ever since George A.
Romero's 1968 classic,

"The Night of The Living Dead,"

the world has been
obsessed with zombies.

They're frightening, kind of fun

and totally fictitious, right?

Well, that's what we thought,

but could this next video prove

that real zombies do in fact
walk and crawl among us?

June 2020, Ignalina, Lithuania,

one homeowner is
out in their garden

enjoying the summer warmth
when they notice a few dead

insects in the grass,
a fairly standard sight,

but upon further inspection,
things get downright creepy.

One of the cockchafer bugs is
moving despite being hollowed

out on the inside.

Crawling through the
grass all on its own

with a gaping hole
in its abdomen,

this bug seems like "The
Walking Dead" in real life.

Field researcher Ken Gerhard
wonders if this beetle is

among many in the animal
kingdom able to cheat death.

- So, in nature there
are occasionally

remarkable instances of animals
suffering horrific injuries

and then defying
all biological laws

and living on for a
brief period of time.

I think the best example
of this is something known

as self-amputation.

An example would be a
lizard's tail breaking off

and they're actually able

to regenerate these
appendages at a later time.

We wonder if this relates
to this particular film.

How is it that this insect
has endured such a horrific

injury and yet it
continues to survive?

- [Tony] Some commenters
had another theory in mind.

- There's also been speculation
that this may be the work

of a fungus known as
Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis

or cordyceps,

the fungal neuro infection

that turns the world's
population into zombies

in the popular show
"The Last Of Us."

It's actually a mushroom

that releases its spores into
different types of insects

and the spores actually grow

and replicate
inside of the insect

and ultimately they
release chemicals

into the animal's
brain that essentially

turn them into zombies.

It manipulates their
thought process

and causes them to
climb up into trees

to drop more of these spores.

It sounds like science fiction,

but as we can see in this video,

this actually may be a fungus
that is capable of taking over

and reanimating dead tissue.

[dramatic music]

- This isn't the first
time we've taken a look

at undead wildlife on this
show, like this fish seemingly

with no head at all
that was filmed swimming

through a lake in Bangladesh.

While we were able to reach
scientific conclusions

with those cases,

will our experts
have the same luck

with this zombified critter?

[mysterious music]
[graphics whooshing]

Is this beetle exhibiting
its ability to cheat death

by regenerating its insides?

Wildlife biologist Floyd Hayes
says to regenerate anything,

an animal must first be able

to eat the nutrients
necessary to grow.

- This animal is missing almost
all of its internal organs,

which means it's not
going to be able to digest

and process food.

- [Tony] So how on earth
is this bug still kicking?

- This particular beetle
belongs to the genus melolontha

which is native to Europe,

and it is attacked by two
different species of fungi

of the genus cordyceps.

- [Tony] Bingo.

Hayes says the missing
insides are a telltale sign

of this fungal invasion.

- [Hayes] You get spores that
break through the exoskeleton,

get into the interior
of the insect,

and then they digest
the internal organs

until there's only the
exoskeleton and the brain.

- [Tony] But if you
think that makes it a zombie,

wildlife biologist
Stephanie Manka says

there's one important
distinction.

- This fungus is
not resurrecting

animals from the dead.

There is activity still
going on in the brain.

There are electrical connections
going between its limbs.

At this point it
doesn't have much longer

until it's going to climb a tree

and a fungus will
protrude out of it

and release its spores
to infect other insects.

- [Tony] In other
words, it's not dead,

just almost dead.

But cordyceps can still
bend insects to its will.

Do humans have anything
to worry about?

- People naturally wonder
could this happen to humans?

It would take a lot of
mutations to be able

to jump to humans.

It's reasonable to believe
that it would take millions

of years or more to adapt
to do this to human beings.

- [Tony] Part of that
reason is the high temperature

of the human body,

which prevents the
fungus from multiplying

as it does in insects with
their lower body temperatures.

For now, fungi for the
most part are friends.

- There's actually benefits

to humans taking
cordyceps in capsule form,

including reducing inflammation,
improving heart health

and improving your immunity.

So we shouldn't be afraid of
fungus just because of this.

[mysterious music]
[graphics whooshing]

- Our verdict?

This is the work of
ophiocordyceps unilateralis

or the zombie ant fungus and
it's called that for a reason.

It has evolved over millions
of years to infect the bodies

of insects and it
might be just as long

before we need to be worried
about our own zombies.

- They say dogs experience the
world differently from humans.

Their senses of
smell and hearing

are far better than ours.

But a recent video has people
wondering if these superpowers

go far beyond their
noses and ears.

On a sweltering July day
in 2020, UK residents,

Meg Oxtoby and Jeff
Parlett are on a hike

with their trio of
Hungarian Vizslas

unaware of what they're
about to witness.

- We were walking along
just having a chat

like we normally do,

and then we noticed that
the dogs were not moving.

[mysterious music]

- [Tony] At first, this
looks like a photograph,

but keep watching.

The camera starts moving

and yet the dogs all appear
to be frozen in their tracks.

- We couldn't believe it.

You could see the leaves
moving and all the bushes,

but the dogs were
completely still.

- I'm telling you,
we are not freezing

or slowing down this video.

You can tell by the
shrubbery right here

that it's moving in the wind.

Now check out how this
dog has his leg raised

and tail curled

and this other dog is
frozen in mid step.

Look, it seems impossible to
maintain balance like that.

The three vizslas
stay in that position

for four whole minutes

before resuming their
normal dog activity.

- We were completely gobsmacked

- [Tony] And it
doesn't end there.

Since Meg and Jeff had
their canine conundrum,

we've come across another story

of animals
inexplicably freezing.

In late November 2023,
Brianna Lindsay went out

to feed her chickens at
her Tampa, Florida home

when this happened.

- It's grub time.

What the fool!

What is happening right now?

I was so confused.

I was like, there were so many
thoughts running in my head.

I'm like, "Why are
they freezing?"

The trees are still moving,
so time is still relevant.

My mind was just
blown I couldn't move.

- [Tony] The hens
remained frozen in place

for more than two minutes

before finally skittering off

when Brianna's husband
opens the door.

- Nick, what the?!

Oh my God!

After posting that video,
I just wanted people to see

what I saw because I'm
like, "What is this?"

Is this a glitch in the Matrix?

And a lot of seasoned chicken
owners are like, "It's a hawk."

And then my husband actually
did his own research.

He's like, "Wait a minute,
there's a hawk outside?"

- [Tony] In this
case, experts believe

the chickens froze

because of a survival
mechanism that kicked in

after they spotted the hawk.

But vizslas laws are hunting
dogs, a predator, not the prey.

So what's up with them?

Ancient cultures from
the Greeks to the Romans

to Koreans all have
myths about dogs having

supernatural abilities.

The Mayans believed
that dogs known

for being great
swimmers swam the souls

of the dead across a shadowy
lake to the afterlife.

Forensic investigator
Chase Kloetzke wonders

if something like
that is at work here.

- Are there like
forces somehow making

them stop like that?

It seems like a theory is

that dogs have a
spiritual side almost.

They sense things like
earthquakes, illness,

even death sometimes.

- [Tony] Recent
studies have explored

whether dogs have some sort

of sixth sense to
communicate telepathically.

Meg and Jeff concur,
their dogs seem

to have some kind of canine ESP.

- They knew what
they were all doing

and they knew how long
to stay still for.

So it's just amazing

how they can communicate
without actually speaking.

That side of it is
kind of magical really.

[dramatic music]
[graphics whooshing]

- Ugh, that was me trying to
freeze for just five seconds.

It's impossible.
I'm too twitchy.

So forget about
four whole minutes.

It's clear these dogs can do
some amazing things, right?

But can they really freeze
themselves in mid step?

Let's take the video
to our experts.

[dramatic music]
[graphics whooshing]

Zoologist Roxy Furman considers
whether a supernatural force

may have terrified the dogs
into a form of paralysis.

- Dogs definitely do
freeze when they're afraid,

so there could be something
that's made them scared,

but there's nothing else
in their body language

that indicates fear.

Their ears are up.
Their tail's up.

Vizslas are hunting dogs,

but I don't think that
they can be that still

for the entire duration
of a four minute video

without kind of any movement.

It looks like it's been
edited in some way to me.

- [Tony] Compare this
other video of hunting vizslas

with Meg and Jeff's.

You can see these other dogs
don't maintain their posture

as well or as long,
so maybe Roxy's right.

Meg and Jeff's dog
video can't be real.

- So there are apps

that can be downloaded
on these mobile devices

that can animate certain areas

of a picture while preserving
other areas frozen in time.

Although these apps
can deceive a viewer,

we found no evidence to support

that this file was
manipulated or slowed down

or frozen in any way.

- [Tony] So this
is, in fact, real.

Biology professor
Floyd Hayes believes

this is just the product
of centuries of breeding.

- This is a behavior
that is selectively bred

for in several breeds of dogs,

although it is reinforced
in dogs by training.

In fact, they actually can
be trained to lift a paw

up off the ground
when they're pointing.

- [Tony] Hayes may
be onto something here.

At the end of the video we
do see the dogs unfreeze

as soon as a bird flies away.

But here's the catch,
Meg and Jeff say

they have never trained their
dogs to behave like this.

- And we teach 'em,
you know, sit and stay.

But this, this was something
on a completely different scale

and something that
I can't see being

taught to 'em whatsoever.

[mysterious music]
[graphics whooshing]

- Our verdict, this is
still an animal anomaly.

These three vizslas
really did freeze in place

for four minutes, and if Meg

and Jeff truly didn't
train them to do this,

how they stopped time is
still a doggone mystery.

- You know, we
often analyze videos

that at first look like
one thing then turn

out to be something different.

In this next story,
the closer you look,

the creepier and
crawlier it gets

March 2021, Tha
Taphao, Thailand.

A person is walking along
when they stumble upon

a cryptic sight and
pull out their phone.

No, someone didn't just drop
a designer chain necklace.

This formation
appears to be made up

of hundreds if not
thousands of tiny worms.

They've formed a large braided
circle out of their own bodies

and they're in constant
movement crawling steadily

in a clockwise direction.

Science fiction
writer Benjamin Percy,

witnessed a similar formation
while walking his dog

near his home in Minnesota.

- I'd never seen
anything like it.

It at first appeared to be a
snake about the size of my arm

and then I begin to think
it's something otherworldly.

They appeared to be these
sort of translucent worms

that had a kind of
wave-like motion.

It had this kind of
hypnotic surging effect.

- [Tony] Journalist
Erin McCarthy believes

this slithering, slimy
circle calls to mind

an important mythical creature.

- For me, this brings
to mind the Ouroboros,

a snake eating its own tail,

which symbolizes the endless
cycle of death and rebirth.

- [Tony] So give
us some rope here.

Could this living ring be
signaling something similar

to that tail-eating snake?

- Throughout the animal kingdom

there are examples of
creatures sensing things

that are about to occur well

before humans are even aware
that anything is happening.

The widespread occurrence

of animals traveling in
circles like this has led some

to theorize that maybe the
end of the world is coming.

[animals squealing]
[graphics whooshing]

- What can worms
teach us about the

circle of life and death?

Well, perhaps quite a bit.

Take a planarian flatworm,

which has unlocked the
secret of regeneration.

If you cut off its head,
it grows a new one.

Simultaneously, its severed
head grows a new tail.

But are these worms
regenerating anything

within their circle?

Let's ask the experts.

[dramatic music]
[graphics whooshing]

Wildlife biologist, Dr.
Stephanie Manka says,

it's not uncommon
for smaller creatures

to form something
called superorganisms.

Take ants for example.

- Some ants will form, in
times of flooding, a raft

by entangling their
bodies together so

that they can all
survive together.

- [Tony] And ants
aren't the only ones

to exhibit this
type of behavior.

Aquatic salps are
another example.

- Salps are a group of tunicates
which are closely related

to vertebrates and they
often form colonies.

Smaller individuals
link into a chain

and that way they're able to
stay afloat in the water more

easily rather than
sinking to the bottom.

- [Tony] Hayes thinks that's

what these worms
are actually up to.

- So there are two
potential advantages

for them traveling
together in a group.

One of them is they look
like a larger organism,

like a snake, which can
help deter predators.

Another one is they're
laying down a path

of slime on the ground
and on each other

and they could travel on that
slime more easily than if each

one is traveling alone
in a dry environment.

- [Tony] But then why
this ring-shaped formation?

Manka says there may
be a connection between

what we're seeing here

and what's known as
an ant death spiral.

- Ants have trails
that leave pheromones,

so they end up creating
a trail that has a circle

and they keep following
the pheromones,

which reinforces
the circle even more

and it leads to a death spiral

because they don't
ever leave the trails

and they just end up starving.

- [Tony] But as
Hayes looks closer,

another clue emerges.

These worms might
not even be worms.

- Although these look like worms

they're actually the
larvae of fungus gnats

and when they're ready to
pupate, they travel in a group

to a suitable location.

- [Tony] That's
likely what we saw

with Benjamin's worm serpent.

But with the circle,

our experts say these creatures
have basically created

a real-life Ouroboros,
the tail-swallowing snake.

- What happened here is probably
the lead larvae in making

a turn saw the
larvae from the back

and thought that they
needed to catch up

and then that created the circle

because they're programmed
to follow each other.

- The individuals think
they're going somewhere

when in fact they're
going nowhere.

Eventually they become
exhausted and they die.

They don't know better to kick
off in a different direction.

[mysterious music]
[graphics whooshing]

- Our verdict, these
are fungus gnat larvae

and like Ouroboros they also
represent the circle of life

and death, in this
case their own.

- Finally tonight,
throughout history, all kinds

of strange things have
fallen from the sky.

Dead birds, fish, even frogs.

But what about alien slime?

You never know what
you'll find when you

start poking around.

It's October 2014 near
Romney, West Virginia.

Diane Wingett is
checking the blueberry

and raspberry patches at her
weekend property when she sees

something strange and
alerts her husband Randy.

- [Randy] There's some kind of
jelly fungus here at the base

of our raspberry bushes.

It's just really weird.

It looks like crystals,
but it's soft jelly.

- [Tony] Diane points out
a large pile of what appeared

to be gelatinous and
translucent small blobs.

- [Randy] I suppose
that's a rare delicacy.

Someone's gonna come here.

- [Diane] It's not
caviar. [laughs]

Not fish eggs, but it's cold.

- [Tony] Randy and
Diane say they have no idea

what the strange substance
is or how it got there.

When they come back to the
property the following week,

the substance has vanished.

- It seemed obvious it must
have come from the sky.

The way that it landed and
the position it was in.

- We experience a lot
of flyovers by military

and commercial flights,
so we thought, well maybe.

Maybe that was it.

Maybe it was something
from a airplane.

- [Tony] The couple
posts the video online

seeking answers and a few
years later they receive a note

that changes everything.

- We got a letter in the
mail from a lady in Yakima

and she explained
to us what it was.

She said, it's been
around for centuries.

It's called star jelly.

- [Tony] Star jelly, a
mystical substance long rumored

to come straight from the stars

- According to folklore.

star jelly are actually
pieces of celestial bodies,

whether they be meteors or
nebula that have come apart

and fallen to earth.

It typically disappears not
long after it's been deposited.

- [Tony] McCarthy says

star jelly stories date
back hundreds of years.

- In the 14th century, medieval
physician John of Gaddesden

actually mentioned star jelly
in his medical writings.

- [Tony] And this is not
the only odd thing that's said

to have fallen from the sky.

In a previous story we told
you about birds dropping down

from above in Chihuahua, Mexico

and tales of plagues of
frogs sent from heaven

by God go all the way
back to biblical times.

And even though people have
claimed since the Middle Ages

that star jelly appears
after meteor showers,

McCarthy says some other
ideas about its origin

are more down to earth.

- Some have said that
maybe this is a fungi

that we're looking at or
maybe it's the anal secretion

of an animal or maybe it's
unfertilized frog spawn

that had been eaten and then
regurgitated by a predator.

[graphics whooshing]

- We've told you before
about one famous case

of star jelly from 1994

where gelatinous rain fell
in Oakville, Washington.

People nearby complained
of flu-like symptoms

and several pets that
encountered the goo even died.

Lab work couldn't
identify the substance,

but maybe our experts will
have better luck this time.

[mysterious music]
[graphics whooshing]

This clearly doesn't
look like the remains

of a fallen bird, fish or frog,
but could it be their spawn?

This is quite a big pile,

but some species
of frogs can lay up

to 30,000 eggs at a time.

Could that be the answer?

- It has a lot of qualities
similar to frog eggs,

like it looks gelatinous
or jello like.

And when you look in it,

you can see like
little specks too,

and frog eggs have a
center area that's darker.

What throws me off is
that it's kind of jagged.

Frog eggs are more
circular in shape

and it's not in a pond
or a wetland area.

It's in somebody's yard
and this area seems dry.

- [Tony] Then perhaps
this is a more primordial

form of life known
as slime mold.

These unusual organisms defy
all attempts at categorization.

- They're not fungus,
not plants, not animals.

It depends on the species,

but they can look like
lots of different things.

They can look similar to fungus,

they can look similar
to like algae.

They can aggregate
into larger groups,

but they still look
quite different than

what we're seeing
in this picture.

- [Tony] So
maybe this substance

does actually come
from the star.

- Meteors are a chunk of rock

that are coming
towards the earth.

Something like this would
not stand a chance making it

through the atmosphere.

And think of stars,
think of the sun,

extreme sources of energy.

This is jelly on the ground.

It's not releasing energy, it's
just a gelatinous substance.

- [Tony] Then what could
this gross goo possibly be?

Hernandez says there's another
hypothesis based on a similar

substance discovered in
2012, in Dorset England.

- The explanation to that was
it was a sodium polyacrylate

that was used for
agricultural purposes.

Given that it is an extreme
absorbent of water, it's able

to retain that water for
crops to be able to grow.

- [Tony] Diane tells
us that a few months

before finding this substance,

she puts some polymer
crystals in the yard to help

with water retention, but she
doubts that's what this is.

- When that got wet,
it was round not cubed,

so I knew it wasn't what
I put in the ground.

[mysterious music]
[graphics whooshing]

- Our verdict, we're calling
this an unidentified goo.

It could be related to
the water storing crystals

that Diane had used
earlier in the year,

but the details don't
seem to match up.

Meanwhile, scientists
haven't identified any DNA

in similar substances
found around the US.

And that is our
show for tonight.

Thank you so much for watching.

As always keep those
cameras rolling.

[dramatic music]