All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S14E05.1080p.WEB.h264-NiXON_track3_[eng]

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.

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