All language subtitles for Mysteries.Unearthed.with.Danny.Trejo.S02E06.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music]

- [Danny] Mysteries can
be buried anywhere,

under the earth,

[explosion rumbles]

[airplane engine humms]

beneath the sea,

or even right
under our own feet.

And when we stumble upon them

sometimes what we find
can change history.

[dramatic music]

Tonight, discoveries
that prove monsters

aren't just make-believe.

From a mythical creature-

- [Sami] It's incredibly
well-preserved

and it has an unmistakable
base of a giant horn.

- [Andrew] This is not the
unicorns of make-believe,

this unicorn was
built like a tank.

- [Danny] To a
prehistoric predator-

- [Kavitha] They could hit
running speeds up to 60 miles

per hour. This bird was truly
a monstrous killer.

- [Danny] To a terrifying
beast lurking in the deep.

- [Sami] Nobody has ever
seen anything like it.

- [Austin] It has massive
eyes, a gaping mouth,

and its body looks like some
kind of deep-sea mutant.

- [Danny] Join us now because
nothing stays hidden forever.

[dramatic music]

- [Danny] For one family, a
simple summer hike

is nothing out of the ordinary,

until they spot something
strange in the dirt

that ends up being the
find of a lifetime.

[dramatic music]
[letters clacking]

- [Don] In July 2022,

Sam Fisher is hiking with his
preteen sons, Jessin and Liam,

and their cousin Kaiden,

in a rocky and rugged area
of the North Dakota Badlands.

- [Hugo] The kids are
running and playing,

and then suddenly

they see something
sticking out of a rock.

It looks like long, pale bones.

[dramatic music]

- [Ashley] The father snaps a
picture of Liam lying

next to the bone, which
is pretty much

the size of his entire body.

- [Don] He sends it to an old
high school friend,

Tyler Lyson,

who is a paleontologist

at the Denver Museum
of Nature and Science.

Lyson takes a look
at the picture

and a chill goes down his spine.

It sure looks like a
leg bone of a dinosaur.

- [Hugo] He thinks that it might
belong to a duck-billed species.

- [Danny] Duck-billed dinosaurs,
also known as hadrosaurs,

were giant plant eaters
that roamed the earth

almost 100 million years ago.

- [Hugo] Hadrosaurs evolved
these grooved, shovel-shaped

beaks that were perfect for
chewing, kind of like a duck.

- [Dan] Their fossils turn
up fairly regularly

in North America,
China, and Europe.

But any discovery that's
over 65 million years old

is a big deal.

So Lyson can't wait to
get boots on the ground

and take a look at this thing.

- [Kenneth] Tyler gets a permit

and he brings his team to
North Dakota to start digging.

They're joined by
a few extra hands,

Sam, his sons, and
their sister, Emalynn.

- [Hugo] On the first day of the
dig,

the team finds three
giant serrated teeth.

[dramatic music]

They carefully excavate the area

and they find the entire
lower jaw of a dinosaur.

Lyson gets goosebumps.

Now it's clear, this is no
duck-billed plant eater.

- [Danny] To Lyson's surprise,

the Fisher family has
actually uncovered

a tyrannosaurus rex.

- [Dan] Everyone knows T. rex is
the king of the dinosaurs.

These apex predators
grew up to 40 feet long

and weighed up to 10 tons.

This one though
seems much smaller.

- [Kenneth] Lyson takes a closer
look at the size of the jaw

and the length of the tibia

and realizes this is even
more rare than he suspected.

- [Dan] It's a juvenile between
12 and 14 years old.

- [Hugo] Adult T. rex specimens
are incredibly rare.

There's only a few dozen

that have ever been
found in good condition.

But finding a T. rex
that was still growing,

that's almost unheard of.

Only a handful of
juvenile specimens

have ever been discovered.

- [Dan] The specimen
offers a missing link

in the understanding
of the growth cycle

of the king of the dinosaurs.

Scientists gain insight
into T. rex puberty,

a rapid adolescent growth spurt
similar to human teenagers.

- [Ashley] The specimen also has
tiny maxillary teeth,

highlighting the process of
losing and regrowing teeth

the T. rex goes through
throughout its entire life.

- [Dan] This is an absolutely
mind-boggling discovery,

and it's made by a few
kids under the age of 10.

- [Danny] Dinosaurs aren't
the only predators

that haunt our imagination.

Nearly 2,000 miles away,

friends on a beach stumble
upon something far weirder

but just as terrifying.

[dramatic music]
[letters clacking]

- [Andrew] On July 12th, 2008,

Jenna Hewitt and two
friends are taking a stroll

along Ditch Plains Beach,

a well-known surfing spot
on the Montauk Peninsula.

They're looking for a good
place to stop and relax

when they notice
something in the sand.

- [Adam] They get a little bit
closer

and they realize it's
some kind of a carcass,

but not anything that
they can identify.

- [Kavitha] This creature is
bizarre.

It's completely hairless, its
skin is shiny and leathery,

its limbs are oddly misshapen

and it's got a beak-like snout.

- [Andrew] Jenna snaps a photo
of this creepy, bruised animal,

and then she and her
friends go on their way.

- [Danny] Later, Jenna
posts her picture online,

and almost instantly,
it goes viral.

- [Micah] On July 23rd,

the East Hampton Independent
publishes a story

about Jenna's very
bizarre discovery titled,

The Hound of Bonacville.

- [Adam] Once online news site,
Gawker, picks up the story

and publishes the
picture, it goes crazy

and mainstream news
outlets like NBC News,

Fox News, Huffington Post
begin covering the story.

And of course they give it
an even catchier nickname,

the Montauk Monster.

- [Andrew] Some think it's a sea
creature that washed up dead.

Others think it's a land animal

that walked out on
the beach and died.

- [Kavitha] Some say it's a pit
bull, it's a turtle without its

shell, it's a chupacabra.

The New York City Parks
Department even claims

that it's a pig
leftover from a cookout.

- [Kenneth] Most people agree
it's an animal of some kind.

Problem is nobody
can really agree

on what specifically
the animal is.

- [Adam] Naturalists and animal
experts begin to weigh in

on what this animal
could possibly be.

The sharp teeth
on the bottom jaw

indicate that it's a carnivore,

but that strange curved
beak-like top jaw

confuses people.

The color, it's hairless
nature, the beak, everything,

the thing is just
freaking weird.

- [Danny] As the mystery grows,

the story takes a strange turn

when the creature
suddenly disappears.

- [Kenneth] Locals tell the
media that the carcass

was allegedly

moved to somebody's house, but
nobody knows exactly where.

- [Andrew] Others aren't buying
it and proposed theories

that are straight out
of science fiction.

Now, there is a notorious
animal research facility nearby

on Plum Island.

So some speculate that
this Montauk Monster

is in fact some kind of
genetically engineered animal

that escaped from the lab

and then whose carcass
was secretly reclaimed

by these mad scientists.

- [Danny] Then in 2009,

a headline-grabbing
revelation surfaces

that's a little
harder to swallow.

- [Adam] Fox News reports that
one man claims responsibility

for the creature.

- [Andrew] He says it's a dead
raccoon.

He and some friends
discovered it

the weekend before the 4th
of July holiday in 2008.

- [Adam] Because they were
young and stupid

and more than a little drunk,

they decide that they're
going to give this raccoon

a Viking burial.

[dramatic music]

- [Andrew] They put the raccoon
on an inflatable swim float,

set it on fire, and
push it out to sea.

Two weeks later, the Montauk
Monster is discovered.

So they think that the monster

is really their
dead Viking raccoon

that has drifted
to the other side

of Long Island South Fork.

Many remain skeptical.

But with the creature gone,
there's no way to know for sure.

- [Danny] To this day,
there's no real consensus

on the strange monster found
by Jenna and her friends.

- [Kavitha] Was it a normal
animal that just decayed in a

creepy way? Was it a cryptid?

Or was it a monstrous
lab experiment gone awry?

[dramatic music]

- [Danny] In Colombia, ranchers
are used to facing predators

like wolves and coyotes.

But for one man,

a routine day's work
turns into a brush

with something straight
out of a nightmare.

[dramatic music]
[letters clacking]

- [Kavitha] In 2008, longtime
rancher, Cesar Perdomo,

is repairing a
fence on his ranch

in Colombia's Tatacoa desert

when he spots something
on the ground.

As he clears away some dirt
surrounding the object,

he sees what appears to be
a five-inch-long fossil.

- [Adam] He carefully cleans it
off and he takes it home

and he adds it to the collection

of interesting finds and fossils

that he's collected
through the years.

- [Kavitha] Eventually, Perdomo
decides to share his discoveries

with the public and
opens a small museum

where he can display
his most curious finds.

- [Danny] In 2023,

paleontologist
Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi

comes to the museum
to see the collection.

- [Adam] Gismondi is going
through the little museum,

checking out Perdomo's
various bones and fossils.

One in particular really
grabs his attention.

It's that five-inch fossil

that Perdomo pulled
up near the fence.

Salas Gismondi can tell
that it's from a bird.

- [Danny] But not just any bird.

This is a giant
flesh-ripping predator

that ruled the Americas
millions of years ago,

the terror bird.

[dramatic music]

- [Kavitha] Terror birds
were apex predators

that could weigh
up to 330 pounds.

They had massive beaks

which they could use
to crack open skulls,

but surprisingly,
they were flightless.

They inflicted their terror
entirely on the ground,

where they could hit running
speeds up to 60 miles per hour.

- [Kenneth] This fast-running
monstrous bird

was absolutely terrifying,
an ostrich from hell.

- [Adam] About 20 terror bird
species are known to

researchers. And while there
have been terror birds found

in Florida and Texas,

almost all terror bird
fossils have been recovered

from Argentina.

And until Perdomo found
this bone in Colombia,

nothing was found in between.

- [Kavitha] This particular
fossil comes from

the terror bird's
left lower leg bone.

It's similar to a human's
tibia or shin bone.

When the bone is analyzed,

they realize that this
might be a new species

even more terrifying
than the rest.

Perdomo's fossil is estimated
to be up to 20% bigger

than any previously
found terror bird.

At over eight feet
tall and 350 pounds,

Perdomo's terror bird was
truly a monstrous killer.

- [Danny] Even more astonishing
than its size is its age.

- [Adam] It turns out this
fossil is almost 13 million

years old, from the Middle
Miocene Epoch.

- [Kavitha] This is a wild
time in history.

All of the non-flying
dinosaurs are long extinct

from the asteroid event
that wiped out 75% of life

on the planet.

In this time period,

South America is crawling
with crazy huge animals

like giant sloths,
30-foot crocodiles,

and armored creatures
called Glyptodonts

that can reach the size of cars.

And right there with them were
the aptly named terror birds.

- [Danny] Unfortunately,

this particular bird's
final hunt didn't end well.

- [Adam] On the leg bone are
these massive puncture marks,

teeth marks from a Purussaurus,

essentially an ancient
30-foot crocodile.

[dramatic music]

- [Kavitha] In a way, the terror
birds survives to this day.

Their closest living
descendants,

the red-legged seriema,

are still used by Brazilian
ranchers to guard livestock.

- [Adam] Much like their
fearsome ancestors,

these birds still eat meat.

But don't worry, they don't
present nearly as much danger,

they're only three feet tall.

[dramatic music]

- [Danny] Discovering a monster
that died out millions of years

ago is one thing,

but finding one
that's still alive,

that's a whole
different kind of shock.

- [Sami] On November 15th, 1976,

the crew of a US Navy vessel
is conducting research

in the deep waters off
the coast of Oahu, Hawaii.

While they're doing their work,

the team has deployed anchors

to help keep the ship in place.

But when it's time to
retrieve the anchors,

one of them just doesn't
want to come back up.

- [Dr. Hakeem] The crew tugs
the cable strain.

It feels like something
is pulling back

in the other direction.

But whatever's down
there is not letting go.

- [Austin] Eventually, slowly
they are able to haul it up.

And when they do, they
discover a terrifying creature.

[dramatic music]

Staring back at them is
a set of massive eyes

and a gigantic mouth,

and its body looks like some
kind of deep-sea mutant.

- [Sami] It is big.

It has an enormous bulbous
head around its snout,

and a 14-and-a-half-foot body.

It weighs about the
same amount as a car.

And that enormous mouth
is about three feet wide

and contains hundreds of teeth.

Nobody onboard has ever
seen anything like it.

- [Danny] The team transports
the creature to a Navy lab

where marine biologists examine
the mysterious specimen.

- [Dr. Hakeem] Scientists try to
make sense of the animal,

but even they come up empty.

They think it's
some kind of shark,

but they can't find any
records or references

that are anything close
to this sort of thing.

- [Sami] The mystery makes
headlines all around the world.

And the find is so bizarre

that scientists have to
create an entirely new genus,

family, and species
just to classify it.

- [Dr. Hakeem] They name it
Megachasma Pelagios,

which means the giant
yawner of the open sea.

But the press comes up
with a catchier name,

the megamouth shark.

- [Danny] And just
like its name suggests,

this mysterious
shark's feeding style

is all about that
enormous mouth.

- [Austin] Interestingly though,

they discover the megamouth
shark has a different approach

from some of its shark brethren.

It swallows its prey whole.

- [Sami] It glides through the
water, opens its huge mouth,

and just engulfs about
150 gallons of water

at a single time.

That's basically the equivalent
to two bathtubs of water

and anything else
that flows in with it.

So essentially it's a filter
feeder vacuuming up plankton.

- [Dr. Hakeem] What's crazy is
that

even though it's one of the
biggest sharks on the planet,

before this, no one
even knew it existed.

And even after its discovery,

the megamouth shark
still remains elusive.

- [Austin] Despite being
discovered almost 50 years ago,

there's still been fewer
than 300 specimens observed.

- [Sami] Researchers believe
that it lives so deep

among the darkest
shadows in the ocean,

it actively avoids light
so that it can hide.

The only time it would come up
near the surface of the water

would probably be at night.

- [Dr. Hakeem] Scientists
continue to study the behavior

and the ecology of
this elusive creature.

Where it goes, how it hunts,

and what other secrets
it may be keeping.

- [Sami] But here's the thing,

if something this big can
stay hidden for this long,

who knows what other
massive monsters

could be lurking down there?

- [Danny] Siberia's frozen
tundra hides many treasures,

some worth a lot of money.

But in 2020,

hunters unearthed something
surprising and priceless.

[dramatic music]
[letters clacking]

- [Dan] A group of hunters are
searching the melting permafrost

of Yakutia, Russia
for mammoth tusks,

or as they call it, ice ivory.

- [Ashley] This material is
highly valued in China

where it's used for carvings
seen as a status symbol,

with each one potentially
fetching up to $10,000.

The discovery of even one tusk

can make or break an expedition.

- [Andrew] As the hunters search
near the Badyarikha River,

they spot something,
but it's not ivory.

It looks like a small
fur-covered bundle

protruding from the ice.

So they carefully begin
to pry it out of the ice.

What they see is astonishing.

It's a perfectly-preserved cat.

- [Don] It's small enough
to fit in one hand,

with dark golden
fur, baby teeth,

and eyelids that seem
frozen mid-blink.

- [Andrew] It looks like it
could have died yesterday,

but it doesn't look
like any cat species

that these hunters have seen.

- [Danny] The hunters
bring it to experts

from the Russian Academy of
Sciences for more insight.

- [Dan] Using CT scans
and DNA analysis,

the scientists realize that
this is a saber-toothed kitten.

This is a species

that went extinct
around 12,000 years ago.

- [Andrew] Carbon dating reveals
that the kitten

is approximately
37,000 years old,

dating it to the
Late Pleistocene Era.

- [Danny] This isn't just
rare, it's unprecedented,

and it opens a window
into a long-lost world.

- [Andrew] Finding fossils from
saber-toothed cats

is a significant discovery
under any circumstances.

But before this,

only skeletal remains of
the species have been found.

This is the first time
that a complete specimen

with fur and soft tissue
on it has been found.

- [Dan] Since the specimen
is so well-preserved,

scientists get their
first clear picture

of what the living animal
actually looked like.

They can tell the young
saber-toothed tiger's fur

was thick and brown.

- [Andrew] Researchers are also
able to study the other features

of the kitten like its
whiskers, even its paws.

- [Ashley] By comparing the
growth of its incisors to the

lions of today,

scientists were
able to determine

that this baby cub died at
only about three weeks of age.

- [Andrew] When fully grown,

this saber-toothed cat
would've been about the size

of a modern-day lion with large
serrated saber-like teeth.

The research team is
still hard at work

studying this extinct species.

But the cub opens up new
realms of exploration,

a variety of fields
including Ice Age ecosystems,

the development of large
prehistoric felines,

and even the climate conditions

that preserved this
kitten so hauntingly well.

- [Danny] Digging up a
saber-toothed kitten

is more than a
little surprising,

so is a find made by
a young boy in China.

[dramatic music]
[letters clacking]

- [Sami] It's July 23rd, 2019,

and nine-year-old Zhang Yangzhe

is out exploring with his mother

near the Dongjiang
River in China.

- [Kavitha] Eventually he
works up an appetite

and stops to have a snack.

His mom gives him some walnuts

and he looks for a rock
to crack them open over.

And that's when something
catches his eye.

It's a weird-looking
rock sitting on the bluff

with strange swirling
patterns on it.

- [Danny] Overcome
with excitement,

the boy calls his mother over
to look at what he found.

- [Sami] Zhang tells his mom
that what he's found

isn't just a rock,
it's a dinosaur egg.

[dramatic music]

Now of course, he's nine.

You have a very vivid
imagination when you're a child

so everything probably
looks like a dinosaur egg

to this kid.

- [Kavitha] Here's the thing,
Zhang is obsessed with dinosaurs

and he recently saw
an exhibit at a museum

with fossils that looked
exactly like this.

His mom believes him and
she calls the police.

And she and Zhang stay

with this potentially priceless
discovery, guarding the egg.

- [Ashley] The police arrive,

bringing with them scientists

from the Heyuan Dinosaur Museum,

and they're excited too

because when they get a chance
to see the strange rock,

they realize Zhang nailed it.

It actually is a dinosaur egg.

[rock clatters]

- [Kenneth] The pros start to
excavate,

and soon find 10 eggs
in a dinosaur nest.

- [Kavitha] All the eggs are
embedded in rough red sandstone,

so the museum workers have to
very carefully drill them out

in large chunks,

and then they haul
them back to their lab.

- [Danny] At the museum,

researchers begin the slow
process of freeing the eggs

from the sandstone
and restoring them.

- [Sami] It takes over three
years,

but the team eventually
carves, polishes,

and restores all of the eggs
and puts them on display.

- [Kenneth] When their
analysis is complete,

the experts can see that these
three-and-a-half-inch eggs

are remarkably preserved,

and they date back to the
last moments of the dinosaurs.

They're 66 million years old.

- [Kavitha] Dinosaur eggs
aren't just cool,

they're like scientific gold

because unlike
footprints or bones,

they give scientists
reproductive information.

- [Kenneth] What we see is that
certain species of dinosaurs

seem to have preferred
nesting grounds,

and we see this today
with birds and reptiles.

They find areas that
they know from experience

are more safe from predators,

are more safe from the elements.

- [Kavitha] Beyond the eggs,

this region of China
turns out to be a goldmine

for paleontologists.

It's one of the
few places on earth

where the trifecta of dinosaur
eggs, bones, and footprints

have all been discovered.

As for young Zhang's discovery,

somehow despite being
buried for so long,

they're in incredible shape.

[gentle music]

- [Kenneth] The ancient embryos
inside those eggs never got to

hatch, but 66
million years later,

they would hatch a spark of
curiosity in this young boy.

- [Danny] Say you are a student
at a typical public high school

in Los Angeles.

Everything seems normal until
one day construction workers

uncover something
remarkable and terrifying.

[dramatic music]
[letters clacking]

- [Hugo] It's June 2022,

and construction workers

are renovating San
Pedro High School

some 20 miles south
of Los Angeles.

While digging a trench, they
find something unexpected,

a dense layer of shells.

- [Austin] This isn't just
like a bunch of shells

you'd find on the beach,

the school is about
two miles inland

and 800 feet above sea level

so shells really
shouldn't be here.

- [Kenneth] Thinking that
something might be unusual,

construction stops

and they call in a team of
consultants to investigate.

- [Austin] When the scientists
arrive,

they're excited
at what they see.

The deposit is unlike
anything ever before found

in California.

This shell bank is
incredibly dense,

and they estimate that it's
probably 120,000 years old.

- [Hugo] As the researchers
excavate around the shells,

they begin to find
fossilized animal bones,

lots of them.

Massive piles of
fish and mammal bones.

It appears to be an
enormous marine graveyard

packed with millions of fossils.

And this collection is
much older than the shells.

Scientists estimate that
it's 9 million years old.

- [Austin] One of the most
amazing discoveries

is a saber-toothed salmon.

This isn't like the salmon
you'll find in your sushi roll,

this is a massive fish.

It's eight feet long
and nearly 400 pounds,

making it the largest
salmon to ever exist.

They had razor-sharp spikes

which they used to
defend their territory

in prehistoric waters.

- [Hugo] Nearby researchers
also find vertebrae

of a colossal baleen whale,
a behemoth 100 feet long.

Alongside it, they come
across remains of sea turtles,

ancient clams and birds.

And then probably the most
fearsome discovery of them all,

the megalodon.

[dramatic music]

- [Austin] This is an ancient
shark over 80 feet in length

that's three times larger
than a modern-day great white.

It's believed to be
one of the largest

and most fearsome marine
predators of all time.

- [Hugo] It consumed 2,500
pounds of prey every day,

including whales
and other sharks.

[dramatic music]

- [Austin] This shark had a
massive mouth packed with 276

teeth, each of which is the
size of your hand.

And they discovered
many of them at the dig.

- [Danny] Long before it
was a high school campus,

this ground was part
of the ocean floor,

an ancient marine graveyard
teeming with giants.

- [Hugo] Based on fossil
evidence,

San Pedro might have been near

a now lost prehistoric island.

Scientists think that
millions of years ago,

heavy storms might have swept
marine life from this island

into a canyon burying them
under layers of sediment

where San Pedro High
School is standing today.

- Then around 9
million years ago,

local volcanic eruptions

helped to seal these
fossils in place,

preserving them for all time.

- [Danny] In total, the
team uncovers remains

from more than 200
different species,

with some like the
saber-toothed salmon

having never been found
before in Southern California.

- [Hugo] Scientists have now
moved from cataloging bones

to reconstructing

how this lost prehistoric
ecosystem functioned,

how it changed,

and how it shapes the
world we live in today.

- [Ashley] For students, the
discovery of this marine

graveyard turns their campus
into a prehistoric wonderland.

Many take active roles

in excavating and
cataloging the specimens,

giving them opportunities

that most students
can only dream of.

- [Kenneth] The scientific
team and students

excavate fossils side by
side for more than two years.

- [Hugo] For them, history isn't
in a textbook or in a museum,

it's here right
beneath their feet.

[dramatic music]

- [Danny] We usually think of
monsters as creatures

that are huge and
clearly visible.

But one Australian
woman and her doctor

had a very different
monstrous experience.

[dramatic music]
[letters clacking]

- [Dan] In 2021, a 64-year-old
woman

in New South Wales, Australia,
arrives at the hospital.

For three weeks, she
suffered from abdominal pain,

a dry cough, and night sweats.

Tests reveal lesions

in the woman's lungs,
liver, and spleen,

and a very high white
blood cell count,

suggesting that her body's
fighting off an infection.

- [Andrew] But the search for a
cause comes up empty.

Doctors can't find any
sign of an infection,

bacterial, viral, or fungal.

Eventually the woman's
conditions begin to improve,

but then they take a nose dive.

- [Micah] She's experiencing
symptoms that include

forgetfulness, difficulty
processing thoughts,

and she's even experiencing
pretty severe depression.

When an MRI is performed, it
shows something concerning.

There appears to be a lesion

in the woman's
right frontal lobe.

- [Danny] To figure
out what it is,

surgeons perform a biopsy and
what they find is astonishing.

- [Dr. Hakeem] When Dr. Hari
Priya Bandi

removes part of the patient's
skull to access the brain,

she sees something strange.

- [Dan] She describes it as
a string-like structure

embedded in the patient's brain.

It's red, but too pale
to be a blood vessel.

She grabs it with her surgical
tools and she starts to pull.

And then it starts to move.

[dramatic music]
[monitors beeping]

- [Dr. Hakeem] Dr. Bandi can't
believe her eyes.

There's a worm in her patient's
brain and it's still alive.

[dramatic music]

- [Andrew] The medical team
removes a three-inch-long worm,

and sends it to a
parasite specialist.

It turns out to be an
ophidascarus robertsi,

a species of roundworm
commonly found in pythons.

- [Danny] So just how
did a python parasite

end up inside this
woman's brain?

- [Dr. Hakeem] An investigation
reveals

that the patient
lives next to a lake

that is inhabited
by carpet pythons.

- [Micah] Now, the patient had
never had any direct contact

with pythons,

but she did collect spinach
that grew around the lake

which she used in her cooking.

- [Andrew] Doctors and
scientists believe

that a python may have shed
the parasite into the grass

through its feces,

and then eggs of the parasite

could have been
transferred from the grass

into the woman's home

where it could have infected
food or been on kitchen tools.

- [Dan] Once ingested, the
roundworm eggs hatched larvae

that burrowed into the
host's stomach wall.

The larvae would usually
stay near the stomach,

but this roundworm
may have burrowed

to other organs in confusion,

causing the lesions
in her liver.

From there, it migrated
up to the head.

- [Dr. Hakeem] It turns out
roundworms are incredibly

resilient and they're able to
survive in a wide range of

environments. And apparently,
including a human brain.

- [Micah] The patient is
immediately treated

and her symptoms finally
begin to subside,

and she makes a full recovery.

- [Dan] Thankfully, this
kind of infection

can't be transmitted
between people,

so there won't be a roundworm
pandemic anytime soon.

But it's a cautionary
tale for all of us

to carefully watch
and wash what you eat.

[dramatic music]

- [Danny] Something taking over
your brain is a nightmare,

but what if it took
over your whole body?

[dramatic music]
[letters clacking]

- [Andrew] In 2021, a film crew
is making a nature documentary

about the harsh conditions
British wildlife face

in the winter.

They're shooting around
the grounds of Castle Espie

in Northern Ireland in an
old abandoned gunpowder shed.

And as they're looking around,

they see a dead spider
hanging from the ceiling.

- [Micah] Now, it's not
particularly unusual to find a

dead spiders, but this
documentary crew are keen

observers of wildlife.

- [Austin] Volunteers from a
local wetlands conservation

group are assisting
the filmmakers,

and they notice something
strange about this dead spider.

First, it's an
orb-weaver spider.

These are usually found
in deep dark caves,

not in man made spaces.

- [Dr. Hakeem] Even weirder,

the spider has a lacy white
fungus erupting out of its body.

[dramatic music]

- [Danny] Intrigued,

the team sends a photo to
fungus expert, Dr. Harry Evans.

- [Andrew] When he looks closely
at the spider, Evans is

surprised. It looks like the
fungus has infested the spider,

eating it from the inside out.

- [Micah] This isn't just an
infection, it's a hostile

takeover. And he believes it's
never been seen before.

- [Andrew] After the film
project is over,

Evans requests a sample
of the dead spider.

And he then puts together a
team to look for more of them.

[dramatic music]

- [Dr. Hakeem] They hunt for
evidence near caves,

and sure enough, they find more
of these orb-weaver spiders

that have crawled
out of the darkness.

- [Austin] Though orb-weavers

naturally prefer dark,
dank, tight spaces,

something in the fungus
is compelling them

to go towards the
light before they die.

- [Danny] What the
crew has stumbled upon

is no ordinary fungus.

It's something much
more diabolical.

- [Micah] The fungus doesn't
just destroy its host,

it manipulates it.

It works by flooding
the spider's system

with mind-altering
chemicals like dopamine,

which can control its movement

and also helps create a
false sense of feeling good.

- [Dr. Hakeem] The hijacked
spiders leave their layer

and fulfill the
parasites' wishes

by moving closer to the mouth
of the cave before dying.

This is so the air currents
can better disperse the spores

to find new victims.

- [Andrew] It's like the

fungus is turning the
spiders into zombies.

[dramatic music]

- [Austin] Similar parasitic
fungi

have been found to
attack wasps and ants,

but this is the first
time it's ever been found

in a stronger, more
resilient animal.

- [Andrew] The research team has
continued to examine the fungus,

trying to understand its origin

and whether it might have
beneficial applications

in agriculture or medicine.

- [Dr. Hakeem] After all,
whatever the fungus is doing

to control the spider's
brain, it's extraordinary.

There's even speculation

that it could potentially
provide new treatments

for diseases like Alzheimer's.

- [Austin] While it's nice to
look on the bright side

of finding a zombie
spider fungus,

one unsettling fact remains.

95% of the fungus
species on the planet

have yet to be discovered.

- [Andrew] So if nature has
already created a zombie spider

fungus, who's to say there isn't
out there somewhere

a zombie human fungus
just waiting to be found.

[dramatic music]

- [Danny] People think
unicorns are magical,

but what villagers
find in Siberia

is far from a fairy tale.

[dramatic music]
[letters clacking]

- [Andrew] In the 1980s, locals
in the Pavlodar region of

Kazakhstan begin stumbling upon
fragments of bone and fossils

along the Irtysh River.

[dramatic music]

Most residents don't pay
much attention to these,

but a few curious collectors
hold onto their finds.

- [Austin] 30 years go by before
one collector brings his stash

to the Museum of Nature.

They investigate the samples

and find it's a hodgepodge
of different animals

from different times.

- [Andrew] It's interesting,
certainly,

but not necessarily
anything important.

So they accept the
donation and store it away.

- [Sami] In 2016, researchers
from Tomsk State University

in Russia take another look.

They're examining
fossils from the area

in the hopes of putting
together a complete specimen.

In the mess of all
the jumbled up bones,

one of the researchers
finds a piece

that definitely shouldn't
have been overlooked.

It's a skull, it's massive,
it's incredibly well-preserved,

and it has a giant base
for where a horn once was.

- [Andrew] Officially, this
specimen is a Elasmotherium

sibericum, otherwise known as
the Siberian unicorn.

Before you start picturing
a magical white creature

prancing through a
fairytale forest,

this is not the unicorns
of make-believe,

this unicorn was
built like a tank.

- [Austin] It was 15 feet lon,
six to seven feet in height,

and weighed a whopping
eight to 10,000 pounds.

And of course, on top of its
skull, a three-foot horn.

[dramatic music]

- [Sami] Despite its massive
size and girth,

the Siberian unicorn had
relatively slender limbs,

which suggested that it
was a pretty fast runner.

It was also covered in
a lot of shaggy hair.

Basically, it was a cross
between a rhinoceros

and a wooly mammoth, but
with the gait of a horse.

- [Danny] When the
skull is sent to experts

in Northern Ireland
for carbon dating,

the results are shocking.

- Up until this discovery,

scientists believed that
the Siberian unicorn

went extinct 350,000 years ago.

But this specimen is actually
only 29,000 years old,

which means unicorns
coexisted with humans.

- [Andrew] This discovery
rewrites the timeline

of the Siberian unicorn's
extinction to the last Ice Age,

which reshaped the
Earth's ecosystem,

wiping out other
ancient megafauna

like the wooly mammoth,

the Irish elk, and
the saber-toothed cat.

- [Danny] But why did this
giant beast disappear?

- [Sami] By studying isotopes
in the specimen's teeth,

researchers came
to the conclusion

that it primarily
fed on tough grasses.

- [Austin] When the last Ice Age
took hold 40,000 years ago,

the temperature changed,
the ground froze over,

vegetation disappeared,

and the Siberian unicorn
just couldn't adapt.

- [Danny] It may be extinct,

but researchers find
a surprising trace

of the unicorn's
legacy still intact.

- [Ashley] Scientists were able
to isolate DNA from this

specimen for the first time,

demonstrating that
this Siberian unicorn

is a distant relative
of today's rhinoceros.

It isn't totally surprising

'cause there is
some resemblance,

but it's a very distant cousin.

Those lineages
may have split off

more than 40 million years ago.

- [Danny] The Siberian
unicorn's skull now resides

at the Natural History
Museum in London

where it amazes visitors
from all over the world.

- [Andrew] Legends of unicorns
have been told for millennia,

but now we know the truth.

Unicorns were real,

and once upon a time, we
walked the earth with them.

- [Danny] From the bottom of the
sea to the back of your brain,

monsters are out there.

And sometimes they're
closer than you think.

I'm Danny Trejo,

thanks for watching
Mysteries Unearthed.