Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Astonishing sea creatures defy explanation.

DAVID CHILDRESS: It's like these creatures were

brought here in their entirety and put into our oceans.

NARRATOR: Ancient cultures worship fishlike gods.

WILLIAM HENRY: This is a common theme that we find around the world.

Humans that had aquatic features.

NARRATOR: Underwater life-forms display

mysterious behavior.

TOM ILIFFE: So they're totally alien forms of life

that have never been found anywhere else on the planet.

NARRATOR: Scientists say we know more about the surface of Mars

than we do about the bottom of our own oceans.

But is it an even more alien environment

than anyone could imagine?

This is a extraterrestrial amino acid, I would say.

Really? This is a revolutionary discovery.

This could just be the opening of the door

into the realization that our oceans

are in fact a great extraterrestrial laboratory.

NARRATOR: There is a doorway

in the universe.

Beyond it is the promise of truth.

It demands we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

NARRATOR: November 4, 2006.

A video is anonymously posted on the Internet

that appears to be underwater footage

of a large, shadowy sea creature.

While the footage is low quality,

long arms and legs, or possibly a mermaid-like fin,

can be made out as the creature draws nearer to the camera,

and then the video abruptly ends.

Information posted with the clip claims it shows the Ningen,

a legendary sea creature said to lurk

off the coast of Antarctica.

While some suggest the footage was faked,

other photos and videos of the Ningen

have surfaced in recent years,

and there are those who believe

this disturbingly humanlike sea monster is real.

JASON MARTELL: Now most people, when they saw the images of this Ningen,

quickly dismissed it as a hoax,

but things in the past, too, like the idea of a Kraken...

Some large squid... was never even thought possible

until it was discovered.

NARRATOR: History books are filled with sensational encounters

with terrifying sea monsters.

Many of these stories were derided as myth

until evidence was found centuries after

to indicate there was some truth to them.

JONATHAN YOUNG: The sea is a primal force.

It is deep, it is powerful,

it is tempestuous, so it frightens us.

So mariners' tales of sea serpents, sea monsters go back

to the earliest times of mythology and folklore.

They represent some of our deepest terrors.

NICK POPE: The ocean is a good example

of this fact meets fiction scenario.

You have stories like the Kraken

and these giant sea monsters.

And then the science catches up, so to speak,

and we find that, yes, there are these giant squid down there.

So that begs the question, what else might be down there?

And, frankly, we haven't got a clue.

HENRY: As we venture deeper and deeper into the ocean,

there's no telling what we're gonna find,

but one thing will be certain:

It will be absolutely mind-blowing.

NARRATOR: Could the Ningen and other even more incredible creatures

that we have yet to encounter

be hiding out in the depths of Earth's oceans?

Incredibly, the world that we know and inhabit, above water,

represents only one percent of the planet's livable space.

99% belongs to the oceans,

and less than ten percent of that space has been explored.

KIRSTEN FISHER: The ocean does represent probably the last real, like,

unexplored area of the Earth.

Uh, the surface of the ocean floor

is largely uncharacterized.

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS: It's kind of strange when you think about it

because we know more

about the surface of the Moon and the surface of Mars

than we know about the ocean floors.

NARRATOR: Up until 1875,

the mainstream scientific viewpoint

was that living organisms could not exist

more than 1800 feet beneath the surface of the ocean.

But then a scientific expedition

discovered over 4,700 new types of sea life

beneath that depth.

And an even more remarkable discovery

would be made more than 100 years later.

February 1977.

250 miles northeast of the Galápagos Islands.

Scientists make a remarkable discovery

more than 8,000 feet below the surface...

near a hydrothermal vent in the ocean floor

where no life is thought to exist.

To their astonishment,

the area is teeming with creatures unlike anything

ever witnessed on Earth.

ILIFFE: When they first came upon these deep sea vents,

they found giant tube worms, Riftia,

that are amazing size

and beautifully colored,

all sorts of shrimp

and crabs and fish living around these vents.

So they're totally alien forms of life

that have never been found anywhere else on the planet.

NARRATOR: Central to the underwater ecosystem

is an unusual food source.

FISHER: Bacteria exists at these vent sites.

In the absence of light, they do something that's analogous

to photosynthesis that we call chemosynthesis.

They actually take these sulfur-containing compounds

to generate their energy for their cells, essentially.

NARRATOR: The discovery transforms the field of marine biology.

Considering the fact that these extraordinary creatures

have been found, is it also possible

that so-called sea monsters presumed to be mythological,

such as the Ningen of Antarctica,

could exist as well?

While no physical evidence of the Ningen

has come to light yet,

there is proof of an equally mystifying creature

that lurks in the depths:

Turritopsis dohrnii, or the immortal jellyfish.

The immortal jellyfish, when conditions become adverse,

maybe temperatures become too high,

salinity changes,

these animals revert to a juvenile stage

from the adult stage

and basically start life all over again.

So it basically just keeps r... rewinding its development

over and over again.

In the lab, there are some lines of immortal jellyfish

that haven't experienced death yet,

um, they've just been cycling

through their developmental stages repeatedly.

NARRATOR: A jellyfish that has the potential to live forever?

But how is it possible that a creature could exist on Earth

that is so unlike any other life-form yet discovered,

and that scientists still struggle to explain?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest there could be

a very simple answer: That the immortal jellyfish,

and perhaps other bizarre creatures of the deep,

are not native to this planet, but arrived here from space.

On August 19, 2014,

Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station

made an incredible discovery.

Clinging to the exterior of the windows

was an organism commonly found underwater:

Sea plankton.

CHANDRA WICKRAMASINGHE: Recent findings of sea plankton

on the outside of the space station

is really very interesting.

I, personally, have collaborated with the group

of very distinguished scientists who are involved in this,

and we concluded that there's no way

in which microbes can be lofted to 400 kilometers

from the surface, so they have to come from outside.

NARRATOR: Has Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe,

along with his colleagues, found irrefutable evidence

of alien life that is able to survive

the extreme conditions of outer space

and potentially travel to Earth?

And could the fact that it was found to be plankton

indicate that life-forms coming from space

are capable of surviving in Earth's oceans?

TSOUKALOS: Here's what's so crazy, we've discovered

new creatures and new species in places where, 20 years ago,

it was scientific fact

that no life could exist in those places.

We now have even found fish

at the bottom of the deepest spots of the ocean

where even a submarine could get crushed,

and there's living fish down there, how is that possible?

It shouldn't work on Earth, but it does,

so my question is: Are some of those creatures

directly imported from somewhere else?

NARRATOR: Immortal jellyfish.

Giant worms.

Possible humanoid sea monsters.

Might the many bizarre creatures found

in Earth's oceans not be from Earth at all?

And if alien life-forms really do inhabit our seas,

did they arrive here by accident?

Or were they sent here deliberately

as part of an extraterrestrial agenda?

Perhaps further clues can be found by examining an object

that recently crash-landed on Earth

carrying cargo that has the potential to create life.

NARRATOR: December 1974.

Cambridge University Professor of Astronomy,

Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe, publishes an article

in Nature magazine that sets the scientific community abuzz.

For decades,

the mainstream viewpoint has been that life on Earth

spontaneously arose from a so-called "primordial soup,"

or organic compounds in the planet's primitive oceans.

But scientists are still uncertain

as to just how life would've been able to develop

from inanimate matter.

Instead, Dr. Wickramasinghe suggests

that life didn't start on Earth at all,

but was delivered to our planet

on meteorites and comets.

The concept is known as "panspermia."

Every single textbook on biology

that, uh, we would've studied maybe ten, 20 years ago

starts with the story of the primordial soup.

There is no evidence for this at all,

and so the alternative to the primordial soup theory

is that life did not start here on the Earth,

but came from outside.

TSOUKALOS: There are two types of panspermia:

One which is just panspermia, which suggests

that life was carried on the backs of comets

throughout the universe.

So it's a natural seeding of the planets.

Now, the second term is what's called

directed panspermia and the definition behind that is

that an intelligent technological species

on a distant planet

deliberately sent out building blocks of life

to particular planets, so the idea is

that Earth, perhaps, a long time ago,

was seeded by extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR: For decades, mainstream scientists

have dismissed the theory of panspermia on the basis

that life could not survive the extreme conditions of space.

But a recent discovery could prove that notion wrong,

and possibly provide physical evidence

that panspermia not only occurred,

but continues to affect life on Earth.

Milton Keynes, England.

March 2019.

Ancient astronaut theorist Giorgio Tsoukalos

travels to The Open University

to meet with planetary scientist Dr. Queenie Chan.

Dr. Chan?

- Giorgio! - Hello.

- Great pleasure to meet you. - Welcome here.

Nice to meet you, too. Welcome.

Thank you so much for bringing me here.

NARRATOR: Dr. Chan recently analyzed

two meteorites recovered in 1998

and discovered something incredibly unexpected,

a salt crystal containing liquid water.

Giorgio is eager to find out

what the implications of this discovery could be,

and if it might provide further evidence that life on Earth

was seeded by extraterrestrials.

So here we've got a box

full of heavy meteorites. (chuckles)

Oh, wow.

Within a stony meteorite, we've got something called

the chondritic meteorite. They are interesting because

they have organic materials in it.

The meteorite that I found

extremely interesting, uh, special,

two meteorites, actually... Zag and Monahans meteorite.

They are both ordinary chondrites,

but they are not ordinary. (chuckles)

They both fell to Earth in 1998.

And what's more interesting is,

both of these meteorite has salt crystal,

that stunning blue coloration to them.

More interesting is, within this salt crystals,

we found water,

liquid water inclusion within them.

I'm trying to wrap my mind around this.

So you're telling me

that you found meteorites that actually contain

liquid water in them. What would you say

to someone who would argue that maybe

the water entered the meteorite

- after it fell on Earth? - We were lucky

because they both fell in a dry condition,

and they were retrieved really quickly

once they... We observed the fall.

So it was not contaminated by the rain.

Okay.

Should we have a look at it in the clean lab?

Yes, please, that would be amazing.

NARRATOR: Before they can examine

the meteorite sample, Giorgio and Dr. Chan change

into protective gear that will keep the laboratory sterile.

All right.

- And so this is it? - This is it.

- Should we have a look under the microscope? - Yes, please, yes.

Trying to move that in focus now.

There it is.

I'm going to enlarge it on my screen.

This is it. You're looking at a speck of water in a meteorite.

This is the first time that we've found

amino acids with water.

This is extraordinary.

NARRATOR: Amino acids?

These organic compounds are the building blocks of life,

so finding them within liquid water

on a meteorite is extraordinary.

Could alien proteins like these have started life on Earth?

One of the exciting things about the discovery

of the blue salt crystals in the asteroids that crashed to Earth

is really the amino acids.

Amino acids are the building block of protein,

and so it really shows that Earth isn't the only place

where the right chemistry exists for which you can get life.

MICHIO KAKU: The panspermia theory cannot be dismissed,

and one reason is as follows: In the early Earth, we were hit

by meteors and asteroids,

so our oceans probably boiled off many times in the past,

making life impossible.

But then when the solar system became quiet

and we had oceans... boom... Life gets off the ground.

NARRATOR: Scientists are finding more and more evidence

that shows organic material arrived here

from other worlds billions of years ago,

and some believe that process continues to this day.

What is this?

- This is a NanoSIMS. - Okay.

It's capable of doing isotopic analysis.

NARRATOR: In another laboratory,

Dr. Chan shows Giorgio the machine that analyzed

the meteorite samples on a nanometer scale.

The results are then displayed on a computer screen,

showing a comparison between amino acids

found on Earth and those that arrived here from space.

This is very interesting, because, uh, first of all,

we're seeing a bunch of amino acids

that are common in-in terrestrial life,

and over here, we've got other extraterrestrial

- amino acid inside. - Really?

This is a revolutionary discovery.

I immediately go to the idea of panspermia... that life

has been brought throughout the entire galaxy by means

with which we can't even fathom how it was done.

The building blocks of protein

that we know to be necessary for life, these very

building blocks, the same amino acids that we found on Earth,

is ubiquitous in the, in the universe.

It's everywhere. It's found on-on asteroid.

It's found on-on comets, too.

So, in your estimation, what is the likelihood

of life having begun elsewhere?

We've got so many different galaxies

and there are so many Earth-like planets,

and, uh, we-we could have water elsewhere.

We-we know that amino acids, the building blocks of life,

are ubiquitous,

um, so I think it-it's totally possible.

Thank you so much for sharing this information with me.

I think this has been one of the most enlightening

conversations that I've ever had.

- So thank you for your time. - Thank you very much.

- Yup. Good to have you here. - Thank you. All right.

NARRATOR: Are the seeds of life being sent to Earth

inside meteorites and possibly developing

new alien species in the deepest parts

of our oceans?

And if so,

to what end?

Perhaps further clues can be found

by examining one of the most mysterious and intelligent

creatures in the sea:

The octopus.

NARRATOR: March 2018.

A scientific paper sparks a sensation in the press.

In it, a team of 33 scientists,

including Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe,

claim that octopuses possess extraterrestrial DNA.

What we find in the octopus genome is just almost uncanny.

It has something like 50,000 genes.

Compare that with the human,

which has something like 25,000 genes.

So the octopus, in many ways,

appears to be more complex than the human.

Now how did this complexity manifest itself?

There's ample evidence to suggest

that it came from outside.

CHILDRESS: As scientists study octopi,

they're amazed at what they're finding, and they're not seeing

a connection to some ancestor of the octopi.

It's like these creatures were brought here, in their entirety,

and put into our oceans.

FISHER: The octopus is a really fascinating organism.

The octopus's brain, instead of just being centered

in its head like ours, is actually distributed.

And there are these brains in their arms,

as well as the essential brain in their head.

ILIFFE: An octopus can certainly

manipulate its environment.

It builds its own homes

by piling rocks and shells on top of it.

FISHER: Octopuses are very adept at camouflaging themselves

by changing their color to that of their surroundings.

Really, really quickly, I mean, almost...

It looks instantaneous to us.

It can also manipulate its body into different shapes

to imitate other animals.

NARRATOR: Some scientists have speculated

that in the absence of humans,

the animal best suited to evolve

into the dominant species on the planet

is not another primate, but the octopus.

And there is one ability in particular

that suggests the octopus could one day rule the Earth:

It can edit its own genetic code.

ILIFFE: DNA, the double helix, is like a zipper.

The zipper can be unzipped,

and then another molecule is created,

called RNA.

RNA, it transfers the information

from DNA to proteins.

So the octopus have the amazing ability

to edit their RNA, thus, they can make new proteins.

NARRATOR: Although this ability isn't fully understood,

it suggests that the octopus can rapidly adapt to its environment

far faster than other creatures.

FISHER: What RNA editing does is essentially

mediated by changes in the environment,

usually temperature, for example.

NARRATOR: Camouflaging skin?

Tool use?

The ability to edit its own genetic code?

Is it possible that this extraordinary creature,

with three hearts and nine brains, is not from Earth?

Perhaps evidence can be found by examining mythological accounts

from across the ancient world.

Numerous cultures told stories of humanlike beings

coming out of the ocean,

and worshiped gods that resembled sea creatures.

Interestingly, a great many of these aquatic deities

resemble the octopus.

All the way round the world, there are traditions

to do with a creator god in the form of an octopus.

For instance, in ancient Crete, there are numerous

images and paintings of an octopus

with bizarre, large eyes.

In Ecuador, at a place called Manta,

were these bas-relief carvings of this bizarre octopus deity.

We have to ask ourselves, is it possible that the ancients

were aware that the octopus is truly alien to this planet?

NARRATOR: Is it possible that the octopus is related

to a race of extraterrestrials that visited Earth

thousands of years ago?

Or did our ancestors encounter intelligent creatures

that were the result of alien experimentation?

Ancient astronaut theory proposes

that in the distant past, the human race

was genetically modified by otherworldly beings.

If true, could they have altered other creatures as well?

HENRY: In the ancient record in mythology,

we find a very intriguing story, and that is,

the gods experimented

when they were coming up with the human form.

They experimented with various types of creatures:

Half human, half dog hybrids,

half human, half horse hybrids,

humans that had aquatic features.

They seemed to be experimenting and looking

for just the right fit for conditions of life on Earth.

We think that stopped, but that may not be true.

NARRATOR: Are extraterrestrials

continuing to introduce new life-forms to planet Earth,

and perhaps altering existing life-forms to this day?

Ancient astronaut theorists suggest

that, just like we are conducting research

on other planets,

otherworldly beings may be using our oceans

as their own research laboratory.

NARRATOR: St. George's, Bermuda, 1978.

Dr. Tom Iliffe, a research scientist

at the Bermuda Biological Station,

begins to explore the dozens of underwater caves in the area.

Many of his colleagues tell him that he is wasting his time,

that no meaningful life can survive

in the dense saltwater environments of these caves...

Caves where the sunlight does not reach.

But to his astonishment,

he finds the caves teeming with life.

The blue holes are the underwater caves in the Bahamas.

So they're called blue holes because they're vertical shafts.

When you look at them, the water is a deep, dark blue in color,

crystal clear water.

There have been a number of people who have said,

"There's nothing interesting there,

don't even bother to look," but I took that as a challenge.

I went ahead and tried to find out for myself what was there,

and amazingly, there's just over

350 new species of animals

that I have found in my career.

We know of more animals in these caves

than any other place in the world.

NARRATOR: Not only has Dr. Iliffe discovered an amazing amount

of life within the extreme environment of the blue holes,

but the life-forms he has found

are unlike any other creatures on Earth.

There have been discovered an enormous variety

of higher groups of animals in these underwater caves.

One of the most interesting animals we worked on

represents a new class of crustacea.

It's called the remipedes, and they're unusual

because they are the only crustacean

with venom-injecting fangs.

So they swim up to prey, maybe a small shrimp,

and stick their fangs into it,

inject it with hydrolytic enzymes that paralyzes

and begins digesting the shrimp externally,

and then literally have the ability to suck the juices out

of their prey.

If I were going to build a science fiction monster,

I'd build it around a remipede.

NARRATOR: While scientists are fascinated by the incredible abilities

of the octopus that they still don't fully understand,

it is only one of literally thousands

of extraordinary sea creatures that similarly defy explanation.

And one of them, discovered in 2013,

is the octopus's colossal cousin, the giant squid.

Once thought to be a mythological creature,

the giant squid can grow to over 40 feet in length,

weigh up to 600 pounds

and boasts the animal kingdom's largest eyes...

Eyes capable of accommodating

the lack of sunlight in the deep.

So Architeuthis dux, or the giant squid,

is a really interesting creature in that it's experiencing,

like, deep-sea gigantism, so it can get really, really large,

in the deep-sea environment.

The giant squid's tentacles are covered with suction cups

that have little teeth, and so that allows it

to grab its prey in the dark and pull it to them.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the strangest of all the sea creatures found

in the past 20 years is the ctenophore,

or comb jelly.

It has two neurosystems,

heals from any wound in under three hours with no scarring,

and can even regenerate its own brain.

Comb jellies are such a mystery to scientists,

they have been dubbed "aliens of the sea."

But as bizarre as all these creatures are,

could there be even more incredible life-forms

we have yet to discover?

Exploration of the deep ocean is very difficult and dangerous.

In some respects, a space mission is easier.

The pressures crush

most conventional submarines and submersibles.

There are only a handful of missions that have gone,

say, to the very bottom of the deep parts of the ocean,

like the Mariana Trench.

The deepest part of these oceans are about seven miles deep,

and you need special bathyspheres or submarines

to go that deep.

And when researchers do make these journeys,

they're amazed to find that there's actually life

at these extreme depths, something they didn't expect.

So now we have to wonder,

is it possible that, at these extreme depths in our oceans,

there are extraterrestrials and bases?

It's an incredible thought.

NARRATOR: Could it be that humanity's inability

to fully explore Earth's oceans has prevented the discovery

of a profound and potentially disturbing reality:

That alien creatures from other worlds

not only can and do exist,

but they are most likely thriving in our oceans?

Not only do many ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

they also suggest that not all alien life-forms

are of the silent, swimming variety.

They believe that the sea is vast enough and deep enough

to hide entire colonies of extraterrestrials,

and some with technological capabilities

far surpassing our own.

NARRATOR: Malibu, California.

2014.

Satellite imagery reveals a curious formation

on the seabed six miles off the coast.

The satellite photos show what seems to be, uh,

an oval, flat-topped structure

that's got legs coming down that are holding it up.

It's about 2,000 feet underwater.

In some ways, this would look a little bit like an oil platform.

NARRATOR: In the very same area as the underwater structure,

locals have reported seeing strange lights

emerging from the ocean.

BILL BIRNES: There is this very strange 911 call

from an observer near Point Dume off Malibu,

saying he saw a light coming out of the water,

and calling it in to the sheriff's station.

In Point Dume, and the whole area around there,

USOs are phenomenally common.

A USO is an

unidentified submersible object.

Is there an alien base

in a very deep trench

off the coast of Malibu, and that's why

there are so many sightings of USOs off that coast?

NARRATOR: An underwater alien base?

Could such an incredible notion be true?

And if so, is this just one

of many extraterrestrial installations

hidden deep beneath Earth's oceans?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and point to stories from all over the world of USOs.

NOORY: Witnesses have seen UFOs

busting out from the ocean floor

and just taking right off into the atmosphere

and gone, into space.

BIRNES: You see them off the coast of California.

You see them a lot in the Gulf of Mexico.

Spend some time on the Florida Gulf Coast,

you will see a USO.

NOORY: Sailors have seen lights

following their ships underwater.

They're not submarines,

they're something else, something's going on.

COLLINS: Absolutely anything could be hiding down there.

If aliens were trying to direct

seeds of life,

the most obvious place that they would hide them

is within the oceans themself.

And the depths of them could hide vehicles,

could even hide bases.

Uh, for hundreds, if not thousands of years,

we would not be aware of their presence.

NARRATOR: Alien craft,

hidden in our oceans for thousands of years?

While many dismiss the idea

as little more than science fiction,

ancient astronaut theorists point to a recent innovation

in marine warfare.

In May 2017, the United Kingdom announced

its newest submarine program, the Astute class.

These nuclear attack subs can carry a crew

of almost 100 sailors, descend more than 1,000 feet,

and remain submerged for up to 25 years.

The only reason they need to surface

is to take on food and supplies.

But experts contend that the ocean

is so rich in resources

that advances in technology may soon enable submarines

to harvest all of the materials they need underwater.

The oceans have everything that the crew of a ship

would need to survive.

It's got plants and animals

that can be harvested for food.

There's minerals and salt that can be taken from the water.

You can actually desalinate the water

to make clean drinking water.

You can even separate the hydrogen

from the oxygen in the water

to create fuel

and-and air to breathe.

Everything that is necessary for life

can be found in the oceans,

and it may be that if extraterrestrials

are in our oceans, they're not just hiding there,

this may be their preferred environment.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that extraterrestrials

are not just hiding beneath the sea,

but view our oceans as their preferred territory?

Some scientists suggest

that aquatic creatures are better-suited than humans

for space travel.

DENNIN: Because of the fact

that we're terrestrial and we walk on the ground,

as humans, we're very tied to our 2-D motions...

That is moving only left, right and forward and back.

Creatures that grow up

in a fundamentally aquatic environment

are much more used to all of the 3-D motion that comes

with being able to move up and down,

as well as forward and backward and left and right in the ocean.

Our musculoskeletal system needs the impact of gravity, um,

to remain healthy, and so, I think,

just the weightlessness is one of the biggest challenges

to humans living in space conditions.

So you can imagine that something adapted

to an aqueous environment could

potentially do better in a low-gravity environment.

NARRATOR: Considering the advantages

that aquatic life-forms have over terrestrial life-forms,

and the fact that more than 90%

of Earth's oceans remain unexamined...

is it possible that there are creatures

lurking beneath the water

that are more sophisticated than humans?

If so, could they have been sent here on meteors

from distant planets?

And does our inability to explore the extreme depths

of their world mean that it is only a matter of time

before they emerge from the sea

to take over ours?

NARRATOR: St. Paul, Minnesota.

2008.

Arnold Landé, a retired heart and lung surgeon,

announces he has patented a revolutionary type of scuba suit

that will allow humans to breathe liquid air.

Key to his invention is a special solution

of highly oxygenated perfluorocarbons,

a type of liquid

that can dissolve enormous quantities of gas.

And while the technology is still in development,

if Landé succeeds, humans will be able to dive

to more extreme depths than ever before.

In these dark recesses of Earth's oceans,

could we discover that humans share the Earth

with much more intelligent and sophisticated life-forms

than anything found on land?

Frankly, we have no idea what might be down there.

Exploration has been very limited.

There are vast parts of the ocean

about which we know absolutely nothing.

As humans, we tend to believe that we have dominion

over the Earth, but in the vast oceans beneath us,

there could be all kinds of advanced civilizations.

Even ones that have been here for much longer

than we've been on this planet.

And they've come here from other solar systems

and then came to our planet

where they're now living underwater.

And it seems incredible to us,

but we may be seeing their ships,

these USOs coming out of the water,

and there may be some highly advanced civilization

that's in these vast oceans that we have yet to explore.

Anything could be down there.

TSOUKALOS: Some people have proposed

that the Earth served as some gigantic Petri dish.

And so you have to wonder what else can emerge on Earth

that we don't even know about?

HENRY: Could there be more sophisticated life-forms

than us, not just on distant planets,

but right here in our own oceans?

Not aliens, but earthlings?

NARRATOR: If extraterrestrials seeded the Earth

and continue to use it as a genetic laboratory,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,

could further deep-sea exploration

discover a species more advanced than humans?

Perhaps creatures resembling the amphibious gods

depicted by our ancestors?

And will we only have true dominion over the Earth

once we are able to fully explore

and inhabit these depths as well?

Some ancient astronaut theorists believe

the creatures of the deep may already have plans for humanity.

Are there extraterrestrials in fact in our oceans

that are experimenting with different types of beings?

And are they looking ultimately to upgrade humanity

with some of these discoveries?

Is that what's in our future,

that there could be extraterrestrial beings

that will come out of Earth's ocean

that will deliver some kind of revelation that says,

"Hey guys, this isn't all there is.

You can, in fact, transform yourself into this,"

and that will be the future evolution of humanity.

NARRATOR: Instead of looking for alien civilizations

beyond our solar system,

might we find them in the darkest depths of our oceans?

Is it possible that there is already a species

more advanced than humans

hiding out in places we can't reach

that have been there for thousands of years?

Perhaps we will make alien contact

not when they come down from the sky

but when they reemerge from the sea.