The Weirdest Scientific Discoveries That Challenge What We Know

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Get ready to be amazed by the weirdest scientific discoveries that challenge everything we thought we knew! From mind-boggling phenomena to groundbreaking revelations, this video will blow your mind. #WeirdScience #ScientificDiscoveries #MindBlown Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Transcript
00:00:00Meet Costello. He's a Brazilian reef octopus, but Costello isn't a regular octopus. While watching him,
00:00:07scientists began to suspect that he might be experiencing nightmares. When he was sleeping,
00:00:12he was changing colors, making some wild movements, expelling water, and even releasing ink.
00:00:18They decided to study Costello for a while. His behavior during sleep resembled stress and fear.
00:00:25The study showed that he might see vivid dreams, which are, at times, spooky.
00:00:30Well, as just one octopus, these cute underwater creatures are known for their intelligence and sometimes human-like behavior.
00:00:38So it's entirely possible that they see dreams just like we do. In Costello's case,
00:00:44he might be haunted by memories of tough times off the coast of the Florida Keys. Poor Costello has a rough past.
00:00:51He lost a tentacle to a predator before captivity.
00:00:54So maybe that's what he sees in his dreams. If proven true,
00:00:58this discovery could reshape how we perceive intelligence and awareness in both animals and humans.
00:01:06Well, it turns out plants can talk. Well, kind of. Scientists found out that plants actually make ultrasonic clicks when they're stressed.
00:01:16Imagine tomatoes and tobacco plants in a jam.
00:01:18They're making sounds like popping bubble wrap, but way too high for us to hear. These are called ultrasonic signals,
00:01:25and they might be their way of indicating stress.
00:01:29That would mean that plants can't communicate with each other, and stressed plants prefer to be drama queens and let
00:01:36everybody know about their troubles. They make around 30 to 50 pops and clicks per hour.
00:01:41Calm and healthy plants don't do nearly as much.
00:01:44And not only do plants talk, but even have their own language.
00:01:49They make different sounds depending on whether the plant is experiencing thirst or is bothered by a snipped stem or something else.
00:01:58Moreover, some of them are so dramatic that they start ringing alarms even before they show signs of dehydration,
00:02:04when they know they're getting close to it.
00:02:07Scientists aren't sure why they do that, though.
00:02:10They believe that it might involve cavitation, a term that means air bubbles dancing in the plant's plumbing.
00:02:17Plants that sing these symphonies include corn, wheat, grapes, and even cacti.
00:02:22That is quite a big discovery in agriculture. We could use it to check if our crops are thirsty and stuff like that.
00:02:29So now we'll be eavesdropping on plants and deciphering their secret language.
00:02:34Okay, time for some universal news.
00:02:36Recent studies are shaking up what we thought we knew about the universe's age.
00:02:41Our findings during the last decades showed that the universe must be around 13.7 billion years old.
00:02:48However, a new study shows that it might be almost twice as old, up to 26.7 billion years.
00:02:55Keep in mind that it's not proven, so for now, the official number stays the same.
00:03:00Scientists were using the time since the Big Bang and studying ancient stars to measure the universe's age.
00:03:06But some stars were playing hard to get, looking older than the universe itself.
00:03:11For example, the ancient star Methuselah, which is estimated to be around 14 billion years old,
00:03:17which would be older than our universe.
00:03:19Also, the James Webb Space Telescope caught galaxies looking super mature just a few hundred million years ago.
00:03:26All this poses some hard puzzles for astronomers.
00:03:31But this new hypothesis combines the expanding universe theory with something called the tired light theory.
00:03:37This suggests that light loses energy as it zips across cosmic distances.
00:03:42Combine this with the expanding universe theory and bam!
00:03:46As the universe expands, the light loses energy, so we simply can't see all the supernatural objects.
00:03:52As the universe expands, the light loses energy, so we simply can't see all the super ancient stars that are very far away from us.
00:03:59Which is why we could make a mistake in calculating our universe's age.
00:04:04The new model also pushes back when galaxies started forming.
00:04:08It suggests that those early galaxies spotted by the Webb telescope took way longer to form than we originally thought.
00:04:15This study is a serious shake-up in the scientific community.
00:04:18If we made such a huge mistake in calculations, we'd have to rethink the very fundamental astrophysics principles.
00:04:25That would be a giant leap, and we'd have to make a huge makeover of almost everything.
00:04:31Which is why we need to be very cautious about it. So while scientists test this new theory, we just have to wait for the results.
00:04:39Now these aren't the only space news. The new AI technology is already being actively used for scientific research.
00:04:47This time, AI is helping us to look for signs of extraterrestrial life.
00:04:52Researchers in SETI created machine learning algorithms that would help us sift through the cosmic noise faster and more efficiently.
00:05:00When you point a radio telescope at the stars, it's like turning into a celestial radio station that's full of different signals.
00:05:07We catch everything from pulsars to radio galaxies and earthly interference.
00:05:13Obviously, it would be pretty hard to identify a potential signal from extraterrestrials in all this mess.
00:05:20For over 60 years, scientists had to do all this manually.
00:05:24It was a daunting task to scan the skies and explore countless stars and radio frequencies.
00:05:29But now AI came to help. The algorithms are trained to recognize and distinguish known interference patterns,
00:05:37like those from mobile phones and electronic devices amidst the cosmic data.
00:05:41They spot anything deviating from known patterns, the potential needle in the haystack.
00:05:47And we've already had some breakthroughs here. The astronomers caught eight signals that didn't fit known patterns.
00:05:53While not confirmed as extraterrestrial life, they show that there's a great potential for future research.
00:06:02Going back to animals, this time we're visiting prehistoric Earth.
00:06:06Imagine turtles so massive they make today's turtles look like tiny toys.
00:06:11Recently, scientists stumbled upon the fossilized remains of one of these giants.
00:06:16It's a sea-dwelling titan that cruised the European waters about 80 to 70 million years ago.
00:06:22The discovery was accidental. The hiker in northern Spain stumbled upon fragments of this creature near the Pyrenees Mountains.
00:06:29This turtle was roughly the size of a rhino, around 30 feet in length.
00:06:33Just to give you an idea, this creature would be about the size of an average car.
00:06:38It shows that extreme sizes were more common before an extinction event.
00:06:43The turtles we know now, of smaller, still substantial sizes, dominated afterward.
00:06:49But the ancient oceans were filled with giant turtles munching on mollusks and jellyfish.
00:06:55This discovery also challenges the idea that gigantic turtles were exclusive to North America.
00:07:01The existence of this turtle proves that these colossal reptiles were hanging out in European waters, too.
00:07:07So this might be just the tip of an iceberg. And you'll want to steer around that one, too.
00:07:14And finally, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has made a great discovery.
00:07:19It detected a crucial carbon compound in space.
00:07:23It's called methylcation. And this tiny molecule, even if it might seem insignificant,
00:07:28could help us unlock the secrets of interstellar organic chemistry.
00:07:33Carbon is incredibly important.
00:07:35Carbon molecules are building blocks that construct everything from stars to planets to, well, us.
00:07:42It's the key ingredient for life.
00:07:44And scientists are eager to understand how it shaped our existence on Earth,
00:07:48and if it could do the same elsewhere in the universe.
00:07:51And methylcation plays a very important role in the creation of complex carbon-based molecules.
00:07:59That's why it's very cool that we discovered methylcation, even if it's very far away.
00:08:05NASA scientists found it in a young star system.
00:08:08This system is chilling about 1,350 light-years away from us, in the Orion Nebula.
00:08:15The star in this system, which is smaller and a bit weaker than our Sun, is
00:08:19bombarded by intense ultraviolet light from nearby hot young massive stars.
00:08:25You'd think such strong UV radiation would destroy complex organic molecules.
00:08:30But the research team believes that it might actually kick-start the formation of these carbon compounds.
00:08:36Maybe stronger stars and their insane radiation levels actually work as energy sources for life.
00:08:43They set off a chemical chain reaction, which results in complex carbon stuff like plants and animals.
00:08:49Seems like we found yet another puzzle piece.
00:08:52Chances are, we're going to find life beyond Earth by 2035, and there's no need to travel to a galaxy far, far away.
00:09:00Our Milky Way galaxy is full of totally suitable environments.
00:09:04Don't get too hyped up, though. We're talking about microbes or chemical markers, not Hollywood-like green humanoids.
00:09:11Even so, when we finally find traces of life, it will change how we see our place in the universe.
00:09:17NASA's Kepler Space Telescope discovered something incredible.
00:09:22Almost every star has planets, and many of these planets might be habitable.
00:09:27Rocky planets like Earth and Mars are even more common in our galaxy than gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter.
00:09:34Also, we already know that our galaxy is very rich in water.
00:09:39There's water in interstellar space, and there's water in our galaxy, too.
00:09:43Our galaxy is very rich in water.
00:09:46There's water in interstellar clouds, where stars and planets form, in the debris disks around other stars, in comets, just everywhere.
00:09:55What's really hard, though, is finding life itself.
00:09:59Ideally, to finally find it, we need to land on every single planet out there and literally check under each rock.
00:10:06But thanks to the newest research, we can at least narrow down the search to potentially habitable worlds.
00:10:12The James Webb Space Telescope, a super-powerful telescope that was launched into space in 2021, is on to this.
00:10:20It checks the atmospheres of nearby super-Earths, rocky planets that are a bit bigger than Earth.
00:10:26It searches for life-related gases, chemicals that can only be produced by living things.
00:10:32And they already found some clues.
00:10:34For example, they detected signs of such a chemical on a planet called K2-18b.
00:10:41This planet is 120 light-years away, which is pretty close on a space scale.
00:10:47This planet is in the Goldilocks zone, which means a zone around the star where the temperatures are just right for liquid water to exist.
00:10:56It orbits a red dwarf star, the smallest type of star there is.
00:11:00Such stars are a bit fainter than our sun.
00:11:03It will take about a year to check if these hints of life are real.
00:11:07If so, it would mean that life is much more common than we previously thought.
00:11:12But even if it's not, there are 10 more Goldilocks planets on their list to study.
00:11:18The James Webb Space Telescope is a very cool tool, but it has limits.
00:11:23It can't detect small, Earth-like planets due to their size.
00:11:27To fix this, NASA plans to launch another tool, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope.
00:11:34This one will be even better at spotting such planets and life-related chemicals.
00:11:39And also, we have the SETI project.
00:11:42SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
00:11:46This project has been on a hunt for extraterrestrial creatures since the 1980s.
00:11:52They also believe that we'll find signs of life within the next 10 years.
00:11:57Not so long ago, they started a super big and cool project.
00:12:02It's called COSMIC, and it uses an array of radio telescopes in New Mexico.
00:12:08You might have seen those in the movie Contact.
00:12:12COSMIC allows scientists to listen to hundreds of thousands
00:12:16and potentially millions of star systems at the same time.
00:12:20If there are any interesting signals, scientists can check them right away,
00:12:24instead of waiting for weeks or even months.
00:12:27The signals themselves are often very sudden and short,
00:12:30but COSMIC can detect even the shortest ones that last nanoseconds.
00:12:36COSMIC can also help with other research,
00:12:38like studying mysterious and unexplained fast radio bursts or even dark matter.
00:12:44This is the biggest and most powerful tool
00:12:46for searching for extraterrestrial life we've ever created.
00:12:50But it's not enough to just listen.
00:12:52Why don't we reach out ourselves?
00:12:54NASA has sent some signals into deep space.
00:12:58In 2002, their Deep Space Network sent a signal to the Pioneer 10 satellite.
00:13:04But there was an obstacle in the path.
00:13:06A white dwarf star, 27 light years away from Earth.
00:13:10If there's a planet around this star, perhaps the signal reached them too.
00:13:15If there are any intelligent species there, we could receive a reply by 2029.
00:13:22The DSN keeps sending powerful transmissions into space.
00:13:26These signals will bump into 222 stars within the next three centuries.
00:13:32Maybe someday we'll receive a reply from somewhere far away.
00:13:36But why haven't we received a response yet?
00:13:39There are about 200 billion galaxies in the universe, each with around 100 billion stars.
00:13:46If just 1% of those stars had one planet, that's still 200 quintillion possible planets.
00:13:53And we can narrow it down even further.
00:13:56If the chance of them having life is 1 in a trillion,
00:13:59that would still leave us a few hundred thousand planets.
00:14:02So, where is everyone?
00:14:04This is a famous question known as the Fermi Paradox.
00:14:09The first possibility isn't that terrifying.
00:14:12It's possible that the universe is full of life.
00:14:15But this life isn't intelligent in our traditional sense.
00:14:19Some planets might have microbes, birds, or space dinosaurs.
00:14:24This is called the Great Filter Theory.
00:14:26It suggests that there are certain filters that life has to overcome in order to become intelligent.
00:14:32And maybe other species just haven't overcome them yet.
00:14:36Think about it.
00:14:38Life on Earth started in the ocean, then crawled onto land, diversified into many forms,
00:14:44went extinct in massive events five times, evolved again, and eventually led to humans.
00:14:51We built societies, developed healthcare, and only then started searching for another life.
00:14:57There's another idea, called the Gaian Bottleneck Hypothesis,
00:15:02which suggests basically the same thing.
00:15:04While it might not be too hard for basic life to start,
00:15:08it's incredibly tough for that life to survive and thrive over long periods.
00:15:13Venus might have had oceans and Earth-like conditions too, but something went wrong.
00:15:18Its oceans boiled away because of a runaway greenhouse effect.
00:15:22Now it's sterile.
00:15:24Mars also had liquid water on its surface once,
00:15:27and both the Moon and Mercury had thick atmospheres for a short time.
00:15:32Meanwhile, Earth has had liquid water on its surface for almost its entire existence.
00:15:39It's super rare and remarkable for a planet to hold temperatures from
00:15:4232 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit for millions of years.
00:15:48So, maybe it's a mistake to look for intelligent life,
00:15:51especially the one that uses the same technology as we do.
00:15:55It evolved under completely different conditions after all.
00:15:58That's also where the so-called Drake Equation comes in.
00:16:03It's a formula that gives us a chance to calculate the potential of life
00:16:06becoming intelligent on a planet.
00:16:10To calculate the result, we need to know several variables.
00:16:13How many stars there are, how many of them have planets,
00:16:17the chance of these planets having life, and so on.
00:16:21Unfortunately, we don't know these numbers yet, and the result might be insignificant.
00:16:26But let's assume that there is at least one other intelligent species.
00:16:31Why haven't we met yet?
00:16:33There might be many reasons.
00:16:35Maybe they don't think we're interesting enough.
00:16:37Or maybe the problem is with us.
00:16:40Perhaps we keep missing their signals.
00:16:42Or maybe we miss the entire species itself.
00:16:45The universe is insanely huge and ancient.
00:16:48It's over 14 billion years old.
00:16:50If we compress Earth's entire evolutionary history into a 24-hour day, life starts at 4 am.
00:16:58Dinosaurs go extinct at 11.40 pm.
00:17:02Human-like creatures appear 2 minutes before midnight.
00:17:06In this analogy, humans have existed for just 77 seconds,
00:17:10and our technology capable of detecting extraterrestrial life is even newer, less than a second.
00:17:17With such vast distances and timespans,
00:17:20the chances of us existing at the same time as other civilizations are slim.
00:17:25If their civilization lasted only a few millennia, we could easily miss them entirely.
00:17:31But that doesn't mean we should give up our search.
00:17:34Scientists were worried that Earth's radio signals had dimmed over time.
00:17:38But a recent study showed that it's actually the opposite.
00:17:42The numbers of our satellites keeps growing, and this makes our planet more detectable.
00:17:48By the end of the decade, we could have 100,000 satellites,
00:17:51making Earth incredibly bright in the radio spectrum.
00:17:55If there is an advanced civilization out there,
00:17:58they will easily spot us even from very far distances.
00:18:02Astronomers are super optimistic about it.
00:18:05There's a high chance they'll find extraterrestrial creatures while you and I are still around.
00:18:12There are entire communities of unusual tiny organisms that live in lagoons in Patagonia,
00:18:18and they are some of the first forms of life ever.
00:18:21No one had known about them until two scientists, Brian and Maria,
00:18:25went to explore certain areas in Patagonia.
00:18:28Now Patagonia occupies nearly half of Argentina, and few people live there.
00:18:33Only some farmers and sheep ranchers that mostly stay near rivers and grow things such as apples,
00:18:39pears, and alfalfa.
00:18:40A long time ago, it was a wild and distant place where Indian tribes lived.
00:18:46But this time, we're going to follow the tracks of life forms that appeared long before humans
00:18:52and look closer at these interesting microorganisms Brian and Maria found.
00:18:57Those two had to drive for 9 hours on some rough roads to reach their destination.
00:19:02They stayed in a small village. Only 35 people live there.
00:19:06These people depend on just one spring because it almost never rains there.
00:19:11On the last night in the village, Brian realized that satellite images he had taken
00:19:16had shown a set of lagoons that were only 10 miles away.
00:19:20The next day, the small team jumped into a car and went up the road as far as they could
00:19:25until it became too difficult to drive.
00:19:28They continued hiking the rest of the way.
00:19:30It was hard because they had to carry water to deal with the intense sunlight.
00:19:36In some spots, they ended up sinking up to their knees in a slush made of salt.
00:19:41Up there, there were 12 lagoons with perfectly clear waters.
00:19:46The place itself didn't offer much, except for very acidic and salty water
00:19:50and intense direct sunlight.
00:19:52But it was kinda like traveling back in time
00:19:55because those conditions were like what Earth looked like many, many years ago.
00:20:00When Brian examined the lagoons, he was surprised to see many unusual microorganisms there.
00:20:07We call them stromatolites, and they're so small we can't even see them without a microscope.
00:20:12But they get together and form large communities.
00:20:16In the past, many unusual species lived this way.
00:20:19For example, cyanobacteria.
00:20:22They were important back in their time because they produced oxygen.
00:20:25Earth in its initial stages didn't have much of this gas in its atmosphere.
00:20:31The first stromatolites might've been formed by diverse types of bacteria
00:20:36that didn't necessarily produce any oxygen but were just living their peaceful life there.
00:20:41They formed layers, piling on top of one another,
00:20:44so that at least some of them could get a bit of sunlight.
00:20:48They used sand and sticky liquids to stay close together.
00:20:51Brian was also incredibly surprised because those were the biggest living stromatolites
00:20:56he had ever seen.
00:20:58Living stromatolites usually grow to be over 3.3 feet high.
00:21:03But the newly found ones were 15 feet wide and a few feet tall,
00:21:07which is giant compared to those living in other places.
00:21:11And fossilized ones were even larger.
00:21:14A long time ago, they could grow bigger than today
00:21:17because there weren't many other species that could eat or harm them.
00:21:21Also, there are many other organisms today that can grow faster and more massive than them
00:21:27and take up their space.
00:21:29That's why stromatolites can only survive in rare places
00:21:32where hardly anything else can live.
00:21:35Like in these very salty lagoons located high above sea level in Puta de Atacama.
00:21:41The stromatolites found there are the most famous ones
00:21:44because they might be some of the best examples of the earliest life on our planet.
00:21:49But they're not actually the first form of life on Earth.
00:21:53The oldest of their fossils are 3.5 billion years old,
00:21:57while some other evidence we have tells us that life on our planet
00:22:01appeared around 4.1 billion years ago.
00:22:04Maybe some stromatolites lived back then as well.
00:22:08But Earth has changed a lot since then,
00:22:10and the places where they might've lived haven't survived.
00:22:14Now, all this may not seem like a lot at first glance,
00:22:17because no one has found an exotic and weird beast our world has never seen.
00:22:22But these are notable examples of what searching for life
00:22:25somewhere else in the universe might look like.
00:22:28Scientists who are interested in studying Mars often come to this place,
00:22:32since it might be similar to what the Red Planet looked like an exceptionally long time ago.
00:22:38If there were fossils hidden in the Red Planet,
00:22:41If there were fossils hidden in the ancient rocks on Mars,
00:22:45they might look like these stromatolites.
00:22:48Another faraway land has revealed some of its secrets.
00:22:51It's Antarctica, with an ancient lost world found under its ice.
00:22:56Antarctica hasn't always been this frosty, isolated land of snow and ice sheets.
00:23:02Once, it used to be part of the Gawanda supercontinent,
00:23:05together with what is now South America, Africa, Australia,
00:23:09the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian subcontinent.
00:23:12But at some point, it split off and went to build a life on its own.
00:23:17It formed as other land masses started to move away, which created its coastline.
00:23:23But Antarctica was different in many other ways back then too.
00:23:27It used to be a land covered in magnificent forests and rivers full of life.
00:23:32Scientists used radar and satellites to explore a mysterious world
00:23:36hidden under the ice there.
00:23:38This ancient land, which is close to the Indian Ocean,
00:23:41is as big as the US state of Maryland or Belgium.
00:23:45It's more than 14 million years old.
00:23:48Some studies say that this area formed over 34 million years ago,
00:23:52which was way before Antarctica got into its deep freeze.
00:23:56At first, temperatures there were higher, possibly like the weather in Patagonia
00:24:01or the cold, temperate rainforests of Tasmania, New Zealand,
00:24:05or maybe even more tropical than that.
00:24:08But as the climate became cooler, small glaciers started forming on hills close to the rivers.
00:24:14Valleys sunk deeper because of all that ice covering them.
00:24:17And then, temperatures dropped even lower,
00:24:20and a giant layer of ice covered the entire continent, hiding those old glaciers.
00:24:28Rivers shaped this lost world a long time ago,
00:24:32way before it ended up covered in ice that's almost 2 miles thick in some spots.
00:24:37Scientific studies of this area showed that
00:24:40those landscapes had been full of highlands and mountains.
00:24:43The ice that formed over Antarctica made the whole area very cold,
00:24:47so the landscape couldn't erode anymore.
00:24:50This means everything has remained basically the same and untouched
00:24:54under the ice for millions and millions of years.
00:24:58What's interesting is that we know less about this land hidden under the ice
00:25:02than about the surface of Mars.
00:25:04One way to explore it would be to drill through these ice sheets
00:25:08to check for samples of sediments below.
00:25:10They could tell us more about the ancient flora and fauna frozen underneath.
00:25:15It's not a new method.
00:25:17A similar method was used to collect 2-million-year-old samples in Greenland.
00:25:22Australia has a secret world too.
00:25:25Ancient organisms were found hidden in rocks in the northern parts of the continent
00:25:29that are about 1.6 billion years old.
00:25:32These microscopic things are part of a family called eukaryotes.
00:25:37The members of this family that exist today include plants, fungi, animals,
00:25:42and even those tiny organisms with just one cell, such as amoeba.
00:25:47All living things with nuclei in their cells, including us,
00:25:51can trace their family tree back to one of the oldest members of this family.
00:25:56That one is called the last eukaryotic common ancestor,
00:25:59and it lived more than 1.2 billion years ago.
00:26:03Those ancient organisms were more complex and bigger than bacteria.
00:26:07Maybe they were the first predators on Earth, hunting bacteria.
00:26:13Now, have you ever seen cricket balls that are 3 billion years old?
00:26:17Klerkstorp spheres were found in deposits of the mineral pyrophyllite in South Africa
00:26:23and rock the science world.
00:26:25They do look like tiny ancient cricket balls with seams-like lines around the middle.
00:26:30Back in the 1980s, some folks claimed these spheres had been made
00:26:34by an advanced pre-flood civilization we know nothing about.
00:26:38One museum curator shared stories about how they rotated on their own in a display case.
00:26:44There was also a TV show that invited a psychic
00:26:47who declared the spheres were pieces of an ancient spaceship.
00:26:51But according to geologists, these spheres are actually
00:26:54pretty common concretions or spherical objects
00:26:58formed by different minerals than the surrounding rock.
00:27:00The seam-like lines are just imprints from the host rock's layers building up over time.
00:27:05The Klerkstorp spheres come in different shapes,
00:27:08from noticeably flattened spheres to distinct disks.
00:27:12As for that episode when one of these spheres spun on its own,
00:27:16the curator of the Klerkstorp museum cleared that up too.
00:27:19He said that when he put one sphere on its glass shelf when a journalist came to visit,
00:27:24the sphere naturally rotated a bit because it's round.
00:27:28The area where the museum is located often
00:27:30experiences earth tremors from gold mining activities nearby.
00:27:35The oldest known human-like footprints could be 6 million years old.
00:27:40They were found on the Greek island of Crete in 2002.
00:27:44If the number is correct, it would mean that early human ancestors
00:27:47may have migrated between Europe and Africa much earlier than we previously thought.
00:27:53This doesn't mean Africa is not the cradle of humankind, though.
00:27:56It could just prove that early human ancestors moved back and forth between continents.
00:28:02Some researchers believe the footprints were left by a bipedal creature
00:28:06possibly related to an early human ancestor nicknamed El Grieco.
00:28:11According to scientists who studied them, the footprints have a very human-like shape,
00:28:16with five toes and a parallel big toe.
00:28:19Some scientists are skeptical about it and suggest the prints might be from a late European age.
00:28:25The new study analyzed fossilized marine microorganisms found in the sedimentary rocks
00:28:30to determine the footprint's age and prove it's actually 6 million years.
00:28:36The next amazing find that keeps scientists entertained is the Dorchester plot.
00:28:41It's a beautifully crafted metal vessel with some fancy geometric designs
00:28:45embossed in shiny silver. The plot was discovered in, who could've thought,
00:28:50Dorchester in 1852 under quite unusual circumstances.
00:28:55During a powerful blast, the plot broke into two pieces.
00:28:59Scientists believe it was originally embedded within a rock or boulder
00:29:02known as Puddingstone. The rock from which the Dorchester plot emerged
00:29:07is dated to be around 500 million years old. So it could mean the plot itself is also that old.
00:29:14The current and less exciting theory suggests that the Dorchester plot is a Victorian-era
00:29:19candlestick holder. Such things were really trending back then, so it's not a surprise
00:29:24to find such a fancy household item from that time. The Dorchester plot falls into the category
00:29:30of uparts, or out-of-place artifacts. Those are objects that seem too advanced for the
00:29:35time period they're supposedly from. If we accept that the plot is 500 million
00:29:41years old, then whoever made it was way ahead of their times in terms of crafts and tech.
00:29:47One extra mystery is that the plot has an engraving of a plant that most likely disappeared
00:29:52from Earth over 100,000 years ago. Sounds like good proof the plot is really extra old.
00:30:00It looks like the oldest map in Europe is a stone from 4,000 years ago.
00:30:05This Bronze Age slab was found in France in the year 1900 at an ancient burial ground.
00:30:11The carvings on the slab show in three dimensions the river Odin network with a fantastic accuracy
00:30:17of around 80% over an 18-mile stretch. There are other stone-carved maps around the world,
00:30:24but this one is unique because it shows a specific area to scale. Looks like the slab's
00:30:29carvings don't just map rivers and hills, but also settlements, barrow sites, and field systems.
00:30:36Archaeologists say the slab wasn't used for navigation, but rather to symbolize power.
00:30:42The detailed markings on the slab might have served to illustrate the domain of a local ruler,
00:30:47possibly a prince or king, to show their control over the territory.
00:30:52When the ruler lost power, the slab was likely repurposed as part of a burial vault.
00:30:57The unique artifact was stored in the cellar of a museum. For decades, no one even noticed
00:31:03until several scholars read older reports about the slab and decided to check it out.
00:31:09They conducted a detailed analysis using 3D techniques. Their research proved that the
00:31:14creators of the slab had not only etched lines into the rock, but also modified its surface
00:31:20to reflect the topography of the landscape with high accuracy.
00:31:24The Salzburg Cube, also known as the Wolf's Egg Iron, was discovered in the late 19th century in Austria.
00:31:32Now, don't let the name mislead you. It doesn't look like a cube at all. It's more like a rounded
00:31:37object with two flat sides. Down the middle, there's a groove, and the surface is covered
00:31:42with pits and craters. This unique appearance is the reason why many people think it might be
00:31:47something out of this world. Workers accidentally found this artifact when they blew apart a piece
00:31:53of coal. The coal seam it came from is thought to be over 60 million years old. The Salzburg Cube
00:31:59moved between museums, mysteriously vanished in the early 20th century, and then showed up again.
00:32:06A professor from Bonn University suggested it might be from a meteor,
00:32:10but they found no evidence of elements that you'd normally see in meteorites,
00:32:14like cobalt or nickel. Then, researchers thought it must be a human-made object,
00:32:20possibly a Victorian-era candlestick holder.
00:32:23No one knows the true story of the cube or its current location. Yep, it disappeared again.
00:32:30Have you heard about the Meister print? It's a fossilized sandal print discovered in 1968,
00:32:36and it has sparked a lot of intrigue. There's a trilobite inside the print,
00:32:41which supposedly went extinct around 500 million years before humans even existed. But many
00:32:47historians think this age is an exaggeration. When Meister found the fossil, it was authenticated.
00:32:53But the scientist who did it didn't confirm it was a human sandal print. He only agreed
00:32:59there was a trilobite there. When another scientist visited the site, he found a 6-inch
00:33:04impression he believed was from a child's moccasin. But the footwear seemed to be new.
00:33:09So, could it be evidence of time travel? Proof that humans existed millions of years earlier
00:33:15than we thought? Or a sign that someone else visited early Earth? Or is it just a rock
00:33:21formation that looks like a sandal print? We still don't have the answers.
00:33:26Back in June 1936, a couple was walking along Red Creek in London, Texas, when they stumbled
00:33:34upon something unusual. It was a piece of wood sticking out of what seemed to be an
00:33:40ancient rock formation. About 10 years later, their curious son decided to crack open the rock
00:33:45to see what was inside. And he saw a hammer, which looked surprisingly modern. Then, one unique
00:33:52finds enthusiast decided that the rock encasing the hammer was from the Cretaceous period.
00:33:59This would mean that someone dropped a 19th-century hammer while dinosaurs like
00:34:03Triceratops were still roaming the Earth. So, if this hammer was truly from the Cretaceous period,
00:34:09then the whole evolutionary theory would be wrong. And if the hammer was modern, it would
00:34:15mean the Cretaceous rock formation it came from was much younger than we thought. But the real
00:34:20answer was much simpler. The hammer was indeed modern, and geological processes had encased it
00:34:27in rock. Minerals can harden around an object in a relatively short time. So, the hammer was
00:34:33probably dropped by a miner a century or so ago, and the rock formed around it afterward. And no,
00:34:40it wasn't a Victorian-era candlestick holder either.
00:34:46Unlike many other ancient Egyptian burial grounds, King Tutankhamen's tomb stayed hidden and free of
00:34:52unwanted thieves for 3,000 years. One reason was that the tomb was smaller than average,
00:34:57and tucked away in a place called the Valley of the Kings. This area was already being
00:35:02extensively explored by the time they stumbled upon Tut's spot. The entrance was all covered
00:35:08in debris from building a nearby tomb, which must've also helped keep it a secret. There were
00:35:14also zero writings or signs on the outside of the tomb. Time passing also played a part in keeping
00:35:20it in amazing shape until the 1920s, when a man named Howard Carter finally made it in.
00:35:30But was Carter that big of a hero? Some recent findings say he might've been sneakier than
00:35:35initially thought. People used to think Carter wasn't just a glorified treasure hunter,
00:35:40he was a true archaeologist. Before Tut, he'd been on a relentless quest for Egyptian artifacts.
00:35:47He discovered his interest in these unusual objects when he was a child,
00:35:51and soon started drawing the sculptures and inscriptions that were found in ancient tombs.
00:35:56After stumbling upon the remains of King Tut, Carter spent a decade recording and processing
00:36:01all sorts of objects, like golden thrones, chariots, and statues from Tut's tomb,
00:36:07shipping them down the Nile to Egypt's museum in Cairo. Well, at least that was the official story.
00:36:14More recent discoveries claim that not all of the objects made it to Egyptian officials.
00:36:19A secret letter seems to uncover Carter's little 10-for-them-1-for-me policy.
00:36:26The letter in question was sent to Sir Alan Gardner, a philologist and friend of Carter's,
00:36:31dated from 1922. In these writings, Carter mentioned having found the tomb and was asking
00:36:37his buddy for some advice. In another letter from 1934, Gardner seems to be thanking Carter
00:36:44for an amulet, which was sent to him as a thank-you gift. Carter was adamant that it
00:36:49didn't come from Tut's tomb, but evidently, it did. Even the British director of the Egyptian
00:36:58museum was on to Carter's sneaky endeavors but couldn't prove it. He compared Gardner's amulet
00:37:04to others from Tut's tomb, and lo and behold, they were a perfect match. Gardner was so disappointed
00:37:11to have been put in such a sticky situation that he vented to Carter in another letter.
00:37:16Deciding to be a good friend, Gardner didn't throw the famous archaeologist under the bus.
00:37:22Instead, he advised Carter to take those stolen goods back to Cairo, just like he'd advise you
00:37:28to like this video and subscribe to the Bright Side channel for more amazing videos on the most
00:37:33unique topics in history. It's not the only shady piece of information on Carter's post-discovery
00:37:41behavior. In 1947, a man named Alfred Lucas, who used to work with a controversial archaeologist,
00:37:49gave some information in an obscure journal in Cairo. He claimed that Carter sneakily cracked
00:37:55open the burial chamber door himself. Then he sealed it back up like nothing had happened before
00:38:01the official uncovering. Why would he do that? Well, the same theory suggests that Carter and
00:38:07his crew might've entered the tomb early so they could get their hands on some ancient goodies.
00:38:12Obviously, these people couldn't risk having such objects sold while they were still alive,
00:38:17but made sure they were auctioned off after they passed. Carter, though, never confessed to
00:38:23anything. He made no official denial either. But the Egyptian government couldn't risk any
00:38:28more mysterious disappearances, so they prohibited him from entering the tomb for a while.
00:38:36Some have connected this apparent stealing to the curse of King Tut. If you've never heard of it,
00:38:42know that it became quite the scary tale soon after King Tutankhamen's resting place was
00:38:47uncovered. It claimed that anyone messing with the tomb of the boy pharaoh would face some serious
00:38:53bad luck. It's not all dramatic like a mummy going on an aggressive spree, but word got out
00:39:00that the people involved in disturbing King Tut's lair met some mysterious, untimely ends.
00:39:07The main untimely passing related to this supposed curse is that of George Herbert,
00:39:12the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. He was this British aristocrat who helped fund the search for the
00:39:17tomb. He passed away just a year after the tomb was opened. Now, people love to call it mysterious,
00:39:24but it turns out that Herbert was already in pretty bad shape health-wise when he got to Cairo,
00:39:30and he ended up getting taken down by a regular disease.
00:39:35Now let's talk numbers. There were a lot of people linked to this tomb opening.
00:39:40Security guards, archaeologists, and supporting staff. And sure, a few of them did pass not long
00:39:46after the tomb started receiving visitors. As much as we'd like this curse to be true
00:39:51for the sake of, you know, good storytelling, statistically, if you have a bunch of people
00:39:56connected to opening a tomb, you'd expect some passings just by random chance. The average
00:40:02lifespan for those supposedly targeted by the ancient curse was more than 20 years after the
00:40:08spell was supposed to kick in. Herbert's daughter even lived until the 1980s, that's half a century
00:40:14later. And Howard Carter himself lived until 1935, a solid 16 years after the big reveal.
00:40:23Some have suggested that the whole curse was nothing more than a careful PR strategy.
00:40:28You see, when Tutte's tomb was found, Howard Carter wanted to make a priority out of keeping
00:40:33nosy reporters away. So he might've come up with a curse hanging over anyone entering the
00:40:39boy king's resting place. But what was stolen from King Tutte's tomb anyway? Well, some jewelry,
00:40:47to begin with. It might've been snatched by Howard Carter himself, according to a French specialist.
00:40:53He did some intensive research by looking at old pictures taken from inside the tomb back in the
00:40:591920s. He compared those images to various objects from museums and auction houses. He soon started
00:41:06to piece together the whereabouts of some of Tutte's jewelry. First up, there's this collar
00:41:12that used to be on Tutte's chest. It was all broken into pieces, and some parts went via Carter
00:41:18to the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Missouri. Meanwhile, other bits ended up on a necklace
00:41:24owned by some unnamed people who tried to sell it in 2015 but failed. Even the Nelson-Atkins
00:41:31Museum agrees, as they've confirmed the information on their website. Then there's a headdress piece.
00:41:38Some beads from it that once belonged to Tutte apparently got stolen by Carter too.
00:41:43They were also strung into a necklace and are now being held at the St. Louis Art Museum.
00:41:48Another fancy collar made out of glazed ceramic magic spent some time at the Met,
00:41:54far away in New York. Thankfully, it was sent back to Egypt a bit over a decade ago.
00:41:59This seems to have been, as you'd expect by now, also stolen by Carter.
00:42:06Missing artifacts aside, King Tutte still gave a ton of amazing objects that helped us learn more
00:42:13about this incredible ancient culture. Starting with the famous burial mask, it's this massive
00:42:1821-inch gold art piece with semi-precious stones and glass paste. It weighs 22 pounds and showcases
00:42:26the boy pharaoh with a long beard and a headdress with a cobra and vulture. On the back, there's
00:42:32this spell from an important ancient Egyptian spiritual book that's supposed to make sure it
00:42:38works just as well in the afterlife. Tutte was also apparently a board game enthusiast.
00:42:44They found 4 board games in his tomb, some made of ivory. Archaeologists also found a pair of gold
00:42:51sandals, though you'd imagine they were more for show than for comfort. In fact, the pharaoh
00:42:57probably never wore them in his lifetime. Speaking of fashion items, it turns out Tutte was quite the
00:43:03fancy ruler. They even found a mannequin in his tomb that was used to pick out, adjust, and store
00:43:09his outfits and jewelry. The boy king seemed to have also enjoyed some music, based on the two
00:43:14trumpets historians found in his tomb. Though they were played back in 1935 in a BBC broadcast,
00:43:21the instruments are today considered too fragile to be maneuvered.
00:43:26In February 1961, three adventurous rock lovers were searching for geodes near Oloncha, California.
00:43:32They took one of their findings home and studied it because it looked pretty unusual. They managed
00:43:38to cut through the matrix and discovered something unexpected inside. Instead of the usual mineral
00:43:44formations, it had a cylindrical object resembling porcelain inside. There was a metal shaft at its
00:43:51center, and around it, a hexagonal sheath made of copper and some unidentified substance. Its
00:43:56discoverers were hoping they had found an example of some unknown technology from 500,000 years ago.
00:44:03It could be proof that there was a hyper-advanced ancient civilization like Atlantis, or that time
00:44:09travel was real. Maybe someone came all the way from the future and accidentally dropped the item.
00:44:16Or maybe some intelligent extraterrestrial beings brought it when visiting Earth. If any of these
00:44:21theories were true, it would mean that scientists have to completely rewrite all human history as
00:44:26we know it. But not everyone shared the excitement, and truth-seekers and alternative archaeology
00:44:32circles were trying to solve the mystery of the so-called COSO artifact until the late 90s with
00:44:37theories and debates. Then a group of skeptics took images and x-rays of the discovery, and
00:44:43showed them to spark-plug collectors. They have identified the artifact as a spark-plug with
00:44:48corroded metal components from the 1920s, and not ancient technology at all. Almost 20 years later,
00:44:55one of the co-discoverers of the artifact agreed to take it for inspection at the University of
00:45:00Washington. They officially confirmed it was a 1920s-era champion spark-plug, and the stone
00:45:07matrix containing the artifact wasn't a geode, but a concretion. Those can form because of natural
00:45:16processes over decades or years, but not millennia. The COSO artifact is a good example of an out-of-place
00:45:23artifact, which is a thing in pseudo-archaeology. It's something found in a place or time where it
00:45:29shouldn't logically be. These artifacts seem too advanced for the time period they're found in.
00:45:34They could also mean human activity existed when humans weren't supposed to be around.
00:45:40The Baghdad Battery is another example of such an artifact. It was found in the 1930s by a German
00:45:47archaeologist and consists of a clay jar, a copper cylinder, and an iron rod going through the jar's
00:45:54stopper. Its top, which was broken off, probably had been sealed with asphalt. Its discoverer
00:46:00noticed that it had two different metals and possibly an electrolyte, which are key components
00:46:05of a battery. There are no ancient writings to support this theory, but when scientists ran tests
00:46:11and filled it with an ionic solution like vinegar or wine, it showed that it could conduct electricity.
00:46:17If it really was a battery from 2,000 years ago, it might have been used in ancient medical
00:46:22practices or even embedded in statues to make it look like they were buzzing to impress people.
00:46:28Koenig, who found it, believed it was used for electroplating, a process for coating metals.
00:46:34Even if it was used as a battery, the Baghdad artifact could only produce a small amount of
00:46:39energy, around one volt of electricity. So, some people believe it was used as a storage container
00:46:45for sacred scrolls. Back in the 1930s, a couple stumbled upon something strange while walking
00:46:52along Red Creek in London, Texas. It was a piece of wood sticking out of what looked like an ancient
00:46:58rock formation. Around a decade later, their son, who was really curious to find out its secret,
00:47:04decided to crack open the rock and found a surprisingly modern hammer inside. This discovery
00:47:10caught the attention of Karl Bau, a young earth creationist who claimed the rock surrounding the
00:47:15hammer dated back to the Cretaceous period. He saw it as evidence against evolutionary theory.
00:47:22After some investigation, scientists proved that the rock was not as ancient as it seemed.
00:47:27Geological processes have just encased the modern hammer over time, so it wasn't evidence of humans
00:47:33coexisting with dinosaurs like the Flintstones, as some hoped. It was just a case of a miner
00:47:38dropping his hammer centuries ago and nature doing its thing. A Chinese archaeologist supposedly
00:47:45stumbled upon some caves that seemed to serve as a burial ground for small beings with big,
00:47:50oval heads. Alongside these remains, there was rock art depicting figures with round helmets,
00:47:56the sun, the moon, the earth, and stars connected by groups of pea-sized dots. They also found over
00:48:04700 mysterious stone discs etched with spiral grooves. Things got even weirder when these discs
00:48:11were sent to a Chinese professor who claimed the grooves were actually written characters.
00:48:16According to his translation, the discs told the tale of Dropa visitors from another planet
00:48:21who had crashed their spaceship on Earth about 12,000 years ago and had tried to live among
00:48:26us until they were hunted down by locals. But there's no concrete evidence that any of this
00:48:31actually happened. The story was first published back in the 1960s in a couple of articles,
00:48:37but it all seemed a bit fishy. None of the people involved, the archaeologist, the professor,
00:48:42or even the university they supposedly worked at seemed to have left any trace in the records.
00:48:47And while there is a group in Tibet called the Dropka, they're fully human,
00:48:51not extraterrestrial visitors, and there's no solid proof that the Dropa stones exist at all.
00:48:58In a remote part of China, there are some bizarre pipe-like formations known as the Beigon Pipes.
00:49:04A local explorer found them back in 1996, protruding from Mount Beigon and along the
00:49:10shores of Toussaint Lake nearby. Some people thought they were the work of ancient guests
00:49:14from other planets. When samples of the pipe material were tested, they contained mostly
00:49:20common minerals, but there was a mysterious 8% of unknown stuff. Special testing revealed that
00:49:26these pipes had been there before humans. Chinese geologists later visited the site and suggested
00:49:32that these pipes were formed naturally over time. It could be sediment piling up in the fissures in
00:49:38the earth or even fossilized tree roots from the area's lush past, but it's not certain.
00:49:44There's a mysterious terracotta head in Mexico with a hard-to-pronounce name,
00:49:49discovered back in the 1930s during a burial excavation. This head looked a lot like fancy
00:49:55Roman statues, so it wasn't clear what it was doing in Mexico. For some reason, the discoverer
00:50:01kept it secret for several decades. The head was found in a pyramid with three floors about 40
00:50:06miles from Mexico City, alongside gold, copper, and pottery. Some argue that if this head really
00:50:13is many centuries old, it could mean the Romans or some other civilization had made it to Mesoamerica
00:50:19before Columbus did. There are also drift voyage theories mentioning a shipwreck after which some
00:50:25artifacts and survivors made it ashore. Some suggest that this figurine head was a little
00:50:30souvenir brought over by the Vikings, but there's no solid archaeological proof of the Vikings
00:50:36meeting the folks in Mesoamerica. There are some artifacts floating around, but none of them have
00:50:41been stamped as undeniable evidence of pre-Columbian contact, so the mystery of how this head ended up
00:50:47where it did remains unsolved. While digging a trench along a river in Romania, workers found
00:50:54a wedge, which is now famous as the Aluminum Wedge of Ajd, or the Object of Ajd. Right next to it,
00:51:01there were some mastodon bones. Those distant relatives of elephants lived 11,000 years ago,
00:51:07so the wedge is probably of the same age. The cool part is that it's made of aluminum,
00:51:12a metal not even discovered until the 1800s. This material requires serious heat to produce.
00:51:18The wedge is also covered in a thick layer of oxide that's been sitting there for hundreds of
00:51:23years. Some folks believe this wedge must have crash-landed here on a spacecraft from some
00:51:29planet. Some scientists think it's all a hoax, and others suppose it might be a human-made object
00:51:35with an unknown purpose. In 1968, a chemist named Spencer Silver was working for a company.
00:51:42His task was to create a brand-new adhesive that was strong and powerful. It should be much better
00:51:48than anything available at the time. After lots of experimenting, Spencer ended up with an adhesive
00:51:54that stuck but was also easy to remove. At that point, he probably felt like he failed. But little
00:52:01did he know that he was about to change the history of sticky notes forever. He made the Post-it.
00:52:11Cornflakes were created by accident too. Dr. Kellogg experimented with various grains.
00:52:17It's a bit murky when it comes to pinpointing the exact moment Kellogg's cornflakes were invented.
00:52:23Several family members and sanitarium employees claimed credit for the creation. According to
00:52:28company history, in 1898, a batch of wheat-based cereal dough was accidentally left out for an
00:52:35extended period. This caused the dough to ferment. It was then rolled out on thin sheets and baked.
00:52:41The slightly moldy dough produced large thin flakes that were crispy and tasty. Over time,
00:52:48corn was found to produce even crunchier flakes compared to wheat.
00:52:51By 1909, Will's company produced 120,000 cornflake boxes daily.
00:53:00Some kitchen appliances were also created by chance. Percy Spencer was an engineer working
00:53:06on radar equipment. One ordinary day, when he was working, he happened to have a chocolate
00:53:11bar in his jacket pocket. At one point, it started melting. That got him thinking,
00:53:17could it be the microwaves coming from the radar's magnetron that caused this?
00:53:22To test his theory, he took some corn kernels and, one by one, watched them burst. In no time,
00:53:28Percy came up with the very first microwave oven, which was put on the market in 1946.
00:53:35It's amazing how a melted chocolate bar led to the invention of something that revolutionized
00:53:40cooking. In 1938, there was a chemist named Roy Plunkett. He was trying to develop a new
00:53:46kind of refrigerant. But something unexpected happened. While messing around with some gas,
00:53:52he noted that it turned into a waxy solid substance. That accident led to the creation
00:53:58of polytetrafluoroethylene, or what we now call Teflon. We thank him for the cooking
00:54:04pans in our kitchens. Yet, this material is actually used in various industries.
00:54:09I mean, it's even used as a protective coating on spacecraft.
00:54:13Another huge discovery was made in 1921. Two scientists managed to isolate insulin from the
00:54:18pancreas of a dog. This marked a turning point in the treatment of diabetes. This issue had been
00:54:24around for a very long time, over 3,000 years. The earliest record we have is in a papyrus
00:54:31manuscript from 1,500 BCE. Now, let's go back to insulin and the pancreas. In the 19th century,
00:54:39there was an experiment to remove the entire pancreas from a dog. Such dogs developed severe
00:54:45diabetes, just like humans. This was a surprise, because at the time, scientists thought the
00:54:51pancreas didn't have much to do with diabetes. Meanwhile, the world's first antibiotic also
00:54:57came about by pure accident. In 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming returned from a vacation.
00:55:05He realized he forgot to clean one of the dishes he used in the lab. He found mold growing on that
00:55:13forgotten dish. It turned out that the mold had unintentionally contaminated the dish.
00:55:19When the scientists looked closer, he noticed that the area surrounding the mold was completely
00:55:24bacteria-free. He named his finding penicillin, after the fungus species Penicillium notatum.
00:55:31Today, penicillin stands as the world's most commonly used antibiotic.
00:55:39A pharmacist named John Walker was conducting chemical experiments when he accidentally
00:55:44scraped a coated disc. To his surprise, the stick burst into flames. This sparked an idea in Walker,
00:55:51and in 1827, he began selling friction matches at his pharmacy. Walker's matches were cardboard
00:55:58sticks coated in potassium chlorate and antimony sulfide. They would ignite when
00:56:03struck against sandpaper. Walker's invention quickly gained popularity, but he made an
00:56:09unusual choice. He didn't patent it. Consequently, others copied his design and started selling
00:56:15their versions. In time, they overshadowed his role as the original inventor. Sadly,
00:56:21when he was alive, he didn't receive recognition as the creator of the first friction match.
00:56:27Now, some accidental inventions can be as small as a matchbox,
00:56:31and others can be as large as a ship. In 1982, near Kas in southern Turkey,
00:56:38a sponge diver stumbled upon something incredible. It was an ancient shipwreck from the late 14th
00:56:44century BCE. He first discovered some objects and described them as metal biscuits with ears.
00:56:51Interestingly, experts later identified those as oxide ingots. This discovery got the archaeologists
00:57:01excited. They sent a team to investigate the wrecked site further. Over the next decade,
00:57:0611 expeditions took place, each lasting a few months. The divers completed over 22,000 dives
00:57:13during this time. They uncovered an extraordinary collection of artifacts from the late Bronze Age.
00:57:20The ship itself was about 33 feet long. The ship's most likely route was from Cyprus or
00:57:26Syria to Greece. Its mission was to deliver goods. Among the cargo, there were tons of
00:57:32copper and ingots, as well as gold and silver jewelry, tools, and various edible goods.
00:57:38Today, you can see the incredible artifacts from the shipwreck
00:57:42in the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology. They've even reconstructed the ship!
00:57:50In 2017, something unusual happened in Portugal. A man discovered presumably the biggest sauropod
00:57:57dinosaur skeleton in all of Europe. He was working on some construction in his backyard.
00:58:03Then he stumbled upon fragments of fossilized bones. A team of researchers got to work.
00:58:09It was rare to find such well-preserved bones of massive dinosaurs. They even found all the
00:58:15ribs still in their original anatomical positions. This dino was part of the species that roamed the
00:58:21Earth around 100 million years ago. There might be more parts of the dinosaur skeleton nearby.
00:58:27This means experts have to continue digging. Speaking of people who discover incredible
00:58:34stuff in their backyards, we should look at Derinkuyu. This place is in Turkey, Cappadocia.
00:58:41This place is known for its striking fairy chimneys and colorful hills. There's also a
00:58:46hidden city that remained concealed for centuries. This underground structure extends more than 279
00:58:53feet below the surface. It boasts an intricate labyrinth of 18 levels of tunnels. It's the most
00:59:00extensively excavated subterranean city in the world. Its history is very rich too. It changed
00:59:06hands from the Persians to the Byzantines. The city was a sanctuary for up to 20,000 people,
00:59:13providing shelter for extended periods. This astonishing discovery didn't happen until 1963.
00:59:20A local resident stumbled upon the place while searching for his lost chickens.
00:59:25When he renovated his house, his chickens kept vanishing in a newly formed gap.
00:59:31After a thorough look and some digging, the man uncovered a hidden tunnel.
00:59:35This was just the beginning. More than 600 similar entrances were discovered later.
00:59:41The Hittites were often credited with the construction of the oldest levels.
00:59:45Now it's believed that the Phrygians, skilled architects of the Iron Age,
00:59:49played a significant role in expanding the underground city.
00:59:56Lastly, there's a natural medication called quinine, which comes from the Chikona tree's bark.
01:00:02People have been using it to fight off malaria since the 1600s.
01:00:06A legend says that an indigenous man might have started using it even earlier.
01:00:11The story goes that a guy with a high fever got lost in the jungle.
01:00:15He had to drink water from a pond surrounded by quiniquina trees.
01:00:19He thought he was getting poisoned, but surprisingly, he got better.
01:00:24After that, his whole village started using quiniquina bark.
01:00:28Malaria is still a big deal today.
01:00:30People have been trying to make quinine in the lab because it's so useful.
01:00:34Back in 1820, some scientists figured out how to get quinine from the Chikona bark.
01:00:40Yet it took more than 100 years for chemists to get the exact chemical structure of quinine.
01:00:46This was a breakthrough in the world of chemistry.
01:00:51Remember the Neanderthals? Our superstar humanoid cousins of the Pleistocene era
01:00:56in all their wide-nosed and slope-foreheaded glory?
01:00:59They roamed through Europe and Asia for over 350,000 years before they vanished.
01:01:04This was around the same time our ancestors, the Homo sapiens,
01:01:07decided to take a vacation from Africa and explore the world.
01:01:11We may never know what truly happened to the Neanderthals
01:01:14and why they didn't make it to the present times,
01:01:16but thanks to some hefty archaeological digging and impressive fossil finds,
01:01:21we now know a bit more about them.
01:01:23One theory for their disappearance is that the climate wasn't suitable for them anymore.
01:01:27Supporters of this idea think Mother Nature turned on the Neanderthals and sent them packing.
01:01:33Unfortunately, if we look at Neanderthal archaeological sites in Italy, for example,
01:01:38there are no signs of weather catastrophes that could have wiped out this entire species.
01:01:44Others believe there was a bit of resource competition between Neanderthals and humans.
01:01:49That's why specialists also dug around several other archaeological sites
01:01:53where Neanderthals and sapiens might have rubbed elbows for about 3,000 years.
01:01:57In this case, it does seem that the Neanderthals were a bit behind with their tools.
01:02:02Their technology was like flip phones in the age of VR.
01:02:06But who knows if these two species ever crossed paths in that particular region.
01:02:10The evidence is still fuzzy.
01:02:13How they went extinct isn't the only information we're curious about when it comes to Neanderthals.
01:02:18Other scientists, for instance, are trying to decode some of the Neanderthal molecular barcodes
01:02:23to identify their specific traits, some of which you might share, believe it or not.
01:02:28Sure, Neanderthals as a whole species did, in fact, go extinct.
01:02:33But that's not to say remnants of their DNA can't be found in humans.
01:02:37Now you know how things go when folks live near each other.
01:02:40Some genetic mixing was bound to happen.
01:02:42The evidence?
01:02:43A dash of Neanderthal DNA which was found in modern folks.
01:02:47Now, this is where the plot thickens.
01:02:49Scientists thought that since Neanderthals never lived in Africa,
01:02:52their DNA wouldn't be found in modern African populations.
01:02:56Well, it turns out that African people have about 0.5% Neanderthal DNA too.
01:03:02This doesn't mean our Neanderthal relatives simply teleported through
01:03:05African territories without leaving any trace behind.
01:03:09What this discovery actually implies is that early humans might have visited Europe,
01:03:14mixed their genetic material with that of Neanderthals,
01:03:17after which they returned to Africa.
01:03:19That's a lot of migration.
01:03:22How did we stumble upon that Neanderthal DNA these days, you might wonder?
01:03:26Well, scientists gathered thousands of people from all around the world.
01:03:30Participants came from places like East Asia, Europe, South Asia, America, and Africa.
01:03:36Percentages may vary, sure,
01:03:37but around 20% of the good old Neanderthal DNA is still found in U.S. modern folks.
01:03:42Sure, the average Joe only carries about 2% of that caveman swagger.
01:03:46If you're from certain places or families that have a smidge more Neanderthal in their gene soup,
01:03:51you're looking at 3% tops.
01:03:54Is there anything in particular that we share with our long-gone humanoid cousins?
01:03:59As it turns out, our Neanderthal ancestors gifted us
01:04:02more than just their company for some thousands of years.
01:04:05They also passed down the incredible legacy of...
01:04:08their noses.
01:04:10Well, you see, the Neanderthals were outfitted with some seriously high-rising sniffers.
01:04:16These weren't just cosmetic,
01:04:18they were also quite the asset in chilly climates.
01:04:21The icicle-dripping, teeth-chattering kind of cold
01:04:24where your breath could freeze before it leaves your lips.
01:04:26During those days, the Neanderthal noses worked as personal heaters,
01:04:31warming and humidifying the cold, dry air they inhaled.
01:04:36For that kind of extreme weather,
01:04:38these impressive nasal skyscrapers turned out to be quite handy.
01:04:42When our Homo sapiens ancestors decided to leave the sunny savannas of Africa
01:04:46for a spot of frostbite up in Eurasia,
01:04:49they bumped into the Neanderthals.
01:04:51This encounter resulted in not just an exchange of pleasantries,
01:04:54but also an exchange of genes that coded for larger noses.
01:04:58This newfound genetic nugget was discovered by scientists
01:05:01who dug deep into the DNA of over 6,000 volunteers.
01:05:05To complete the study,
01:05:06these scientists meticulously compared this genetic data
01:05:09to snapshots of the volunteers' faces.
01:05:12They measured the distances between various points on each face,
01:05:16such as the height of the volunteers' nose bridges.
01:05:19They then played a game of spot the genetic marker
01:05:21to identify if certain facial traits were linked with specific genes.
01:05:26By the end of this exciting chase,
01:05:28they hit the jackpot 33 shiny new genome areas were linked to facial features.
01:05:34One standout gene, named ATF3,
01:05:36was traced back to our Neanderthal ancestors
01:05:38and seemed to be the maestro of controlling nose height.
01:05:41Participants with Native American ancestry
01:05:43had Neanderthal hand-me-downs in this gene,
01:05:46contributing to their taller noses.
01:05:48Think of the ATF3 gene as a Neanderthal housewarming gift to us humans
01:05:52as we stepped into colder climates from Africa.
01:05:56Interestingly, this isn't the first time our ancestors have played pass the gene.
01:06:01Back in 2021, the same research team
01:06:04uncovered a gene influencing lip shape called TBX15.
01:06:08This gene was a little love note from the Denisovans,
01:06:11another set of our ancient relatives,
01:06:13who lived in Asia and went extinct around 30,000 years ago.
01:06:18Another part of the scientific community believes
01:06:20our Neanderthal buddies had this weird genetic feature
01:06:22when it came to their brains.
01:06:24Is that why they didn't make it?
01:06:25Through this theory, it was suggested that U.S. humans
01:06:28might owe our brainy edge to a quirky gene mutation.
01:06:31This mutation gave our neocortex,
01:06:34that's the smarty-pants part of the brain,
01:06:36a little population boom in the neuron department.
01:06:40This amazing gene of ours isn't all that different from the Neanderthal version.
01:06:44It's just one amino acid off,
01:06:46just like ordering a coffee with one sugar instead of none.
01:06:50This tiny tweak is found in virtually all modern humans.
01:06:53Meanwhile, our extinct relatives,
01:06:55the Neanderthals, Denisovans, and other primate pals,
01:06:59all missed the mutation memo, at least according to the study.
01:07:03Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves.
01:07:05Just because we have more neurons
01:07:07doesn't necessarily mean we're geniuses by comparison.
01:07:10But these results do suggest that we might have rewired the brain
01:07:13in a way that gave us a cognitive leg up.
01:07:16Also, it's not all about this lone amino acid difference.
01:07:20It's just a piece of the puzzle.
01:07:22Scientists have previously found a whopping 96 differences
01:07:25between our DNA and that of Neanderthals
01:07:27that could have potentially affected our different outcomes as species.
01:07:32Studying Neanderthal DNA also gave us some insight into their relationships.
01:07:36In fact, we now have some solid evidence of what a Neanderthal family looked like.
01:07:40And surprisingly, it's not really that different from ours.
01:07:43For this study, researchers gathered information
01:07:46from a Neanderthal archaeological site located in Asia.
01:07:50They discovered that one particular family included a doting Neanderthal dad,
01:07:55his teen daughter, and a sprightly young lad who was possibly their nephew or cousin.
01:08:00Part of the group was also an older female relative, maybe an aunt or granny.
01:08:05Now, our young damsel would eventually pack her bags,
01:08:08wave a teary goodbye, and leave her papa's home when she found Mr. Right.
01:08:13Had she been a boy like her young cousin, she would have been a happy homebody.
01:08:17But worry not, she wasn't stepping into a world of strangers.
01:08:21Her new community likely had some familiar, friendly faces.
01:08:25But how were scientists able to predict the ending of this story?
01:08:28By browsing through their gene pool,
01:08:30researchers were able to figure out that the Neanderthal social structure was patrilical.
01:08:35What this means is that most female Neanderthals left their homes
01:08:39when choosing a partner and started a new life with another family.
01:08:44The same research shows that our cave-dwelling clans likely weren't living in isolation either.
01:08:49Families living close by were probably visiting the same rock sampling areas
01:08:54to make their stone tools, the equivalent of a neighborhood hardware store.
01:08:58And when they weren't tooling around,
01:09:00they were busy hunting delicious meals like ibex, horses, bison, and other wandering critters.
01:09:05Scientists, however, were careful to add that this ancient family portrait
01:09:09might not represent the full spectrum of Neanderthal social life.
01:09:12They've kindly asked future archaeologists to get more Neanderthal DNAs on the Ancestry websites.
01:09:18Scientists were looking at a list of gas clouds when they saw something strange.
01:09:22Five groups of blue stars that are not quite a galaxy and not a known type of star cluster either.
01:09:28These groups of stars are called blue blobs, and they're located in the Virgo galaxy cluster.
01:09:34Now, the big question is, how did these blue blobs form if they don't have any
01:09:39nearby parent galaxy where they could form?
01:09:42Scientists realized there are two possible answers to this question.
01:09:46Scientists realized there are some heavy metals present in these blobs.
01:09:52Generally, when stars are born, they create heavy elements called
01:09:55metals. These metals are essential building blocks for new stars.
01:10:00In big galaxies, many stars form over time, and as a result, more metals get created too.
01:10:06These heavy metals in the blue blobs were a clue that the stars in these
01:10:09blobs were formed from gas that was stripped from a larger galaxy.
01:10:13Think of it as a piñata. The candy is the gas, and the piñata is this bigger galaxy.
01:10:19The blue blobs are the leftover candy that was scattered around.
01:10:22Wow, didn't expect to get hungry while talking about stars.
01:10:28How did the gas get stripped away from the bigger galaxy anyway?
01:10:31There are two ways. When galaxies pass by each other,
01:10:34their gravitational attraction can cause gas to be pulled away from one galaxy and into the other.
01:10:40This is called tidal stripping, and it's the first way these blobs can happen.
01:10:44It's like when two magnets attract and pull metal objects toward each other.
01:10:50Another way is ram pressure. This happens when a galaxy moves through a cluster of hot gas at
01:10:55a pretty high speed. The gas in the cluster can push against the gas in the galaxy and force it
01:11:01out back, similar to a car pushing air out of the way as it drives. And you lose your hat in a strong
01:11:07wind. As time goes by, these stars and the blue blobs will keep on moving apart.
01:11:14Eventually, they will form smaller clusters.
01:11:19Have you ever seen pictures of Earth taken from space? They're amazing. But have you seen the
01:11:24one with two blue blobs of light? The first blob of light you see here is a large lightning strike
01:11:30in the Gulf of Thailand. It's rare to see lightning from space because of all the clouds,
01:11:36but this one was so huge it lit up the clouds around it like some kind of a brilliant ring.
01:11:42How cool is that? The second blue blob of light is a bit different.
01:11:48We're looking at the reflection of the Moon's light on our home planet.
01:11:53The Moon actually reflects the light coming from the Sun onto the Earth.
01:11:57And when that light goes through the Earth's atmosphere, it creates a big
01:12:00blue blob with a fuzzy outline. It's like a shiny blue hat our planet is wearing.
01:12:07It's similar to the reason why the sky is blue during the day. When sunlight enters Earth's
01:12:12atmosphere, gases and particles in the air scatter it in all directions. Blue light has
01:12:18the shortest and smallest waves, so it gets scattered the most. And that's why we get to
01:12:23enjoy a beautiful view of a clear blue sky. The same thing actually happens to the light coming
01:12:29from the Moon. When it reflects off the Earth and goes through the atmosphere, the blue light waves
01:12:35get scattered the most, making the Moon appear blue in the photo.
01:12:40Speaking of unusual stars, there's one in the Centaurus constellation called Lucy.
01:12:45It looks like a tiny white dwarf, but it's actually very dense. There's a mass of the
01:12:49entire Sun squeezed into an object only a third of the size of our home planet.
01:12:54That's like stuffing a whole watermelon into a golf ball.
01:12:58Lucy is also incredibly cool. Its core temperature is almost 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
01:13:04This may sound hot at first, but for comparison, our Sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.
01:13:12And the best part that makes Lucy so special is the diamond at its heart. Its carbon core
01:13:18has crystallized into a massive diamond that's 10 billion trillion trillion carats in size.
01:13:23It's hard to even imagine how big it is.
01:13:28Scientists found out about this awesome diamond by listening to the star's vibrations,
01:13:32which is like a star's heartbeat. And after they discovered Lucy, scientists found some
01:13:38other stars with crystallized cores and massive diamonds the size of Earth, too.
01:13:44Our universe is like a giant jewelry store.
01:13:50Most of the astronomers from the Northern Hemisphere are familiar with the star named
01:13:54Vega. First, it's brighter than expected. But if you could take a look at it from a different angle,
01:14:00you'd see this star is actually squashed. It has a specific oblong shape because it rotates
01:14:06at a high rate. It spins once every 12 and a half hours, which throws the material out around its
01:14:13equator. This material then cools and darkens and forms a dark, mysterious halo around Vega.
01:14:22When stars reach the end of their lives, they often explode in a dazzling supernova,
01:14:27getting brighter and brighter before they finally fade away. But one supernova, IPF-14Ls,
01:14:35decided not to obey the rules. It started to fade away like most other stars. But then,
01:14:41when everyone expected it to be gone, it suddenly came back to life and brightened up again.
01:14:46And not just once, it kept fading and brightening at least five times in a row.
01:14:52Scientists were so surprised to see this. When they measured the light from the supernova,
01:14:57they found it was evolving 10 times slower than other stars. It was aging way more slowly, too.
01:15:03When it looked 60 days old, it was actually 600 days old.
01:15:08It could be even older, because scientists had recorded another supernova in the same spot almost
01:15:1370 years ago. There are some theories as to how it could have happened. Maybe the supernova was
01:15:19bumping into some surrounding material and then making it glow. Or maybe it was a giant star that
01:15:24was shedding material all the time to prevent, or at least postpone, its own collapse.
01:15:32At first, it may seem like you're looking at a simple variable star here,
01:15:36my Camelopardalis. But when astronomers looked more closely, they realized it was a pair of stars.
01:15:43The two stars are moving around each other at really high speeds,
01:15:46and their atmospheres are starting to mix because they are so close.
01:15:51People believe this example is the start of a union between two stars. In the end,
01:15:56the two celestial bodies, which already weigh 32 and 38 solar masses each,
01:16:00will join together to make a gigantic one with more than 60 solar masses.
01:16:06Scientists have thought for a long time that this is how super big stars form.
01:16:11They've never really seen it happen.
01:16:16The universe is 13.8 billion years old. And from what we can see, one mysterious star,
01:16:22HD 140283, could be 14.4 billion years old. Hmm, something's not right here.
01:16:30This star has all the chemical signs of a second generation star,
01:16:34which is a star that formed from gas and dust after the first generation of stars exploded.
01:16:40This star, sometimes called Methuselah's star, is 190 light years away. Its brightness,
01:16:48distance, and composition help us figure out how old it is. At least 13.2 billion years old.
01:16:56While the age of 14.4 billion years is probably put there as a potential range.
01:17:02Even if it's younger than the universe, or is it? It's still by far the oldest star near us.
01:17:07Let's not forget the one with a tail either. It's called Mira. Sometimes it's bright,
01:17:12and other times it's faint, making it a bit of a tricky one to spot in its constellation.
01:17:19Sometimes it's one of the brightest stars up there, while other times,
01:17:22it is one of the fainter ones in its constellation.
01:17:26It's the system with two stars, a red giant and a white dwarf. The red giant used to be like our
01:17:34The red giant used to be like our own sun, but now, as it's closer to its end,
01:17:39it's shedding its outer layers into space. And Mira has a comet-like tail too. As the red giant
01:17:46sheds its outer layers, it creates a stream of gas and dust that follows the stars as they move
01:17:51through space. Egyptian archaeologists made an extraordinary discovery near Cairo just recently.
01:17:59Drumroll please! The most ancient and most complete mummy yet discovered in the country.
01:18:05Yes, they were keeping it under wraps. The 4,300-year-old mummy was found in a group of
01:18:12tombs close to the step pyramid of Djoser, dating back to the Egyptian Old Kingdom.
01:18:17It was covered in layers of gold. The team also found several other tombs,
01:18:22including one belonging to an ancient Egyptian official, and another belonging to a secret
01:18:27keeper who had the power to perform special ceremonies. Another interesting tomb was that
01:18:32of a writer, which featured the largest statues ever found in the area. This vast burial site is
01:18:38also home to more than a dozen pyramids and resting grounds. Probably one of the most famous
01:18:43mummies in the world is that of Hatshepsut. She ruled Egypt like a boss for around 20 years,
01:18:49building all sorts of impressive buildings and creating new trade routes. But when archaeologist
01:18:55Howard Carter found her tomb in the Valley of the Kings, her sarcophagus was empty. However,
01:19:01Carter did find two coffins in another tomb, one of which belonged to Hatshepsut's witness
01:19:07and the other to an unknown woman. In 2006, a team of specialists decided to investigate
01:19:13whether that mysterious lady was the queen herself. They found a molar tooth in a wooden
01:19:18box with Hatshepsut's name on it, and when they compared it to a gap in the mummy's mouth,
01:19:24it was a perfect match. Ramses II was a pretty impressive ruler,
01:19:29but it was his mummy that eventually made history. Now, we don't hear too much about his daddy.
01:19:35Okay, I'll stop. Ramses is considered to be the most powerful pharaoh in all of Egypt,
01:19:40as he reigned for a whopping 6 decades. He also lived to be over 90 years old. Now,
01:19:46that's pretty amazing, considering the time he lived in. Ramses II supposedly had over 100
01:19:52offspring, too. Talk about a big family! When he passed away, his body was originally buried
01:19:58in the Valley of the Kings. But some sneaky guys tried to rob his tomb of all his treasures.
01:20:03Officials back in the day weren't having any of that, though, so they moved his body to a
01:20:08secret location to keep it safe. Fast forward to the 1800s, and Ramses II's mummy was discovered,
01:20:15along with a bunch of other rulers and important officials. But it wasn't in the best condition,
01:20:21so archaeologists flew it to Paris to get it, well, you know, pampered. Problem was,
01:20:27he couldn't just be transported into another country. The only solution available was to give
01:20:32Ramses II his own passport. His occupation was listed as king, and the document even featured
01:20:39his photo. You know, most mummies aren't necessarily known for having the most hydrated skin.
01:20:45But that of an ancient woman, also known as Lady Di, proves otherwise. No, not that Lady Di.
01:20:52This wealthy lady from ancient times was discovered in an ornate tomb in 1971,
01:20:58and she looked fabulous, if we can say so, about a mummy. Thanks to the special conditions in her
01:21:03tomb, like the moisture in the environment and the lack of oxygen, her body was almost perfectly
01:21:09preserved. Her skin was soft, her hair was on point, and she was still flexible. The museum
01:21:15that now proudly displays her mummy also shows a ton of fancy items that were buried with her,
01:21:21like dinnerware and musical instruments. Archaeologists investigated the mummy further
01:21:26and discovered that she passed away from a heart attack at around 50 years old. Even
01:21:31though it hasn't been around for over 2,000 years, Lady Di is still making history.
01:21:37The mummy of Ötzi the Iceman was discovered in the Alps in 1991. Austrian authorities initially
01:21:44thought he was a modern mountaineer because he was so well-preserved. Turns out, he was actually
01:21:50from the Copper Age. He was found in a mountain pass over 10,000 feet above sea level. Through
01:21:56studying his mummy, we've learned so much about life in Copper Age Europe. For example, we know
01:22:02that he was a native of Central Europe and enjoyed eating meat. He also suffered from arthritis,
01:22:08narrowing arteries, and intestinal problems. But he likely used acupuncture and medicinal
01:22:14herbs to treat these conditions. And apparently, he was pretty handy with tools. He sharpened them
01:22:20just days before his untimely demise. Who knows if he was expecting trouble or just getting ready
01:22:27for some routine work? King Tut in his story is most likely the one that made all mummies famous.
01:22:35This pharaoh passed away at the young age of 19, more than 3,000 years ago. But his mummy is still
01:22:42one of the most well-known in the world. When his tomb was opened in 1922, people went wild because
01:22:48it was still intact, unlike many other royal tombs. It had some seriously blinged-out coffins,
01:22:54including one made of solid gold. Not only did Tut's tomb give us a glimpse into ancient Egyptian
01:23:00history, but his mummy also taught us a lot about the time he lived in. DNA analysis helped identify
01:23:07his parents and revealed that the pharaoh had a rare bone disorder that might've made walking
01:23:12a bit tough. Ginger is most likely one of the coolest mummies you'll ever hear about.
01:23:19He's like a time traveler from 5,000 years ago who's still looking fly with his golden hair and
01:23:25perfectly preserved nails. Ginger was discovered in Egypt and is believed to be the earliest known
01:23:31mummified body. Before people even knew about mummification, they used to place bodies in
01:23:37shallow graves in the hot dry sand. And since the sand absorbed all the water, bacteria couldn't
01:23:43reproduce and the body was preserved naturally. Now, scientists are not sure if Ginger's
01:23:49preservation was intentional or not, but since he was buried with some pottery vessels,
01:23:54it's likely that whoever buried him knew some serious preservation techniques.
01:23:58If you want to meet Ginger in person, he's currently chilling at the British Museum.
01:24:04One Dutch art collector bought a statue from Asia and ended up finding a weird discovery.
01:24:09The statue contained a mummy hidden inside. Unfortunately, the body was too fragile to move,
01:24:16so they had to leave it there. The coolest part is that this mummy is over 1,000 years old
01:24:21and was on display for 200 years before being encased in the statue. When scientists did a
01:24:27CT scan, they found out that the mummy was filled with paper scraps covered in writings. Experts
01:24:33think he might've done this thing called self-mummification, which is a pretty intense
01:24:38process involving a special diet and tea that makes your body less prone to bacteria. Only a
01:24:44few people could handle this ritual, and those who managed to do that were seriously respected.
01:24:50No other Egyptian queen has baffled scientists and historians like the stunning Nefertiti.
01:24:57Based on her statues, she was known for her slender neck, wide eyes, and high cheekbones.
01:25:02Her name translates to the beautiful woman has come. Talk about living up to your name, huh?
01:25:08Even though she wasn't a pharaoh herself, Nefertiti still managed to leave a lasting impression.
01:25:14Written records suggest that, as a wife and queen, she held an incredibly influential role.
01:25:20Because of her power, she was indeed admired, but she also managed to make quite a lot of
01:25:25enemies throughout her life. She was also related to King Tut, but not biologically. Rather,
01:25:32she was his stepmother. So far, locals have yet to identify her mummy, but that may soon change.
01:25:39A local Egyptologist who has been busy excavating tombs in the Valley of the Kings
01:25:43has found two mummies that he believes could be Nefertiti and her daughter. According to
01:25:49specialists, we may soon finally get a definitive answer about the identity of these two mummies.
01:25:55And if one of them does turn out to be Nefertiti, we could be in for a real treat. DNA analysis and
01:26:02CT scans of the mummy could give us the most complete and accurate image of the queen that
01:26:07we've ever seen. It's crazy to think that we've only scratched the surface of what lies beneath
01:26:12modern-day Egypt. Nefertiti ruled during a time of great power and prosperity in Egypt,
01:26:18but unfortunately passed away in a period of social turmoil, leading to her gravesite being lost.
01:26:26Where's my mummy?
01:26:29So imagine being one of the first people sent to explore Mars. As you're approaching the red
01:26:34planet, something strange and creepy draws your attention. There, yes, right there. Doesn't it
01:26:40look like a mammoth bear's head? What, or who, could possibly create a bear's snout in the middle
01:26:47of a crater? Unfortunately, or should I say luckily, there's nothing mysterious about the
01:26:52bear's head. It's just a facial pareidolia. That's a tendency to see facial features in everyday
01:26:58things. Hmm, but speaking about the finding on Mars, should we rename the phenomenon into
01:27:04bareidolia? You could see that coming, couldn't you? Alright, check it out. You see a V-shaped
01:27:10hill that looks like a nose. Then there are two craters that look like eyes. And then there's a
01:27:16circular fracture pattern, the head, that surrounds the nose and the eyes. Experts think that the face
01:27:22could be created when a deposit was settling over a buried impact crater. And the nose might be a
01:27:28mud or volcanic vent with solidified lava or mud flows around it. Anyway, the crater does look like
01:27:34a bear's face, I'll give you that. But thanks to HiRISE, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's
01:27:39high-resolution imaging science experiment camera, another of NASA's amazing acronyms,
01:27:45we've seen many other crazy craters on the Red Planet. Like smiley faces, a bird, or an elephant.
01:27:53First, let's have a look at the famous face of Mars. These images were first taken by the Viking
01:27:58orbiter in 1976. At that time, the resolution was obviously quite poor. Plus, the lighting was
01:28:04slanted, which produced the result that shocked people in the 1970s – a face carved abroad,
01:28:10staring back at Earth. Did it mean there was another civilization on Mars that had created
01:28:16this monument? Nah. Look at the photo of the same spot taken by the current Mars Reconnaissance
01:28:22Orbiter. The resolution is much, much better, and the face has miraculously turned into an
01:28:28ordinary hill. Or look at this teeny Bigfoot, whose image was captured in 2008. I say teeny
01:28:34because this creature is just a few inches tall. And when the photo was taken, Bigfoot was only
01:28:40several yards away from the camera. And here, one curious soul zoomed in on a small rock and
01:28:46spotted something that resembled a gorilla. That's how some people started to believe there were apes
01:28:51on Mars. Yeah, really. Let me show you some more examples of imaginary creatures and faces on the
01:28:57Red Planet. Most of them come from a series of images taken by the Themis camera. Currently,
01:29:03it's on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which only needs 2 hours to orbit the Red Planet,
01:29:08carrying some important scientific instruments. Let me introduce my happy Martian to you. This
01:29:142-mile-wide crater was photographed in 2008. The next crater chain looks like a wasp with its
01:29:20wispy wings of impact debris. The whole feature was probably created by a meteorite that fell at
01:29:26a very low angle and broke into pieces right before the impact. Do you see a woolly mammoth
01:29:32or an elephant here? Lava flows in one region on Mars left this image on its reddish soil. The
01:29:39region itself, called Elysium Planitia, is famous for the planet's youngest lava flows. For example,
01:29:45the one that looks like a mammoth most likely formed in the past 100 million years. Just yesterday.
01:29:52Now let's talk about love, or rather its symbol, the heart. Do you like these two hearts on the
01:29:58surface of the Red Planet? This one is actually a mesa top outlined by frost. And this heart
01:30:04shape is an impact crater. The hit tore away dark surface material and exposed lighter soil
01:30:09underneath. Then some of the material probably flew downslope, creating the heart. And this
01:30:16dust-covered hummingbird. Can you see its long beak and head? Scientists aren't sure how this
01:30:21shape was formed, but they think erosion and wind played a part in its creation.
01:30:26These dark sand dune deposits look like a howling wolf. And here, can you see a series of
01:30:32interlocking gears? This image looks like the letter T, right? The right-angle fracture was
01:30:38created by the tectonic stretching of the Martian crust. Do you think we might find other letters
01:30:43of the alphabet on Mars too? Why not? And now how about another bizarre thing astronomers noticed
01:30:49on the surface of Mars? Is that a door to someone's house? It was NASA's Curiosity rover
01:30:55that sent this image to Earth. It became viral because this formation over here, see, looks like
01:31:01a door. Unfortunately, scientists, due to their irrational minds, were quick to disappoint us.
01:31:07They claimed that it was just a natural part of the Martian landscape.
01:31:12There were several clues that made them think it wasn't a real door. For example,
01:31:16the opening is tiny, a mere 3 feet high. They're sure that what looks like a door
01:31:21is actually an opening in a rock created by natural forces, like winds and erosion.
01:31:26If you look at the rock closely, you may notice strata. Those are layers of silt that stand out
01:31:31because they're harder than the surrounding material. These strata dip here, on the left,
01:31:36and a bit higher, on the right. They likely appeared around 4 billion years ago in a river
01:31:42or a wind-blown dune. Since the strata became visible, powerful Martian winds have eroded them
01:31:47even more. And look at this, see those cracks? That's how rocks weather on the Red Planet.
01:31:54This small cave probably formed when several fractures crossed the strata. A pretty large
01:31:59boulder might have fallen out under its own weight, and this created the door-shaped opening.
01:32:04This theory is quite plausible, because even though the gravity on Mars isn't as strong as
01:32:09on Earth, it's still strong enough to do it. Besides, see that rock to the right of the opening?
01:32:15It has a suspiciously smooth vertical edge. It must be the culprit. It probably fell out not so
01:32:21long ago. But it's not only the Red Planet that can boast of having unusual formations.
01:32:28Let's take this comet, for example. This image was taken by the European spacecraft Rosetta
01:32:34in 2014. Can you see a face on its right-hand side? Or the Moon? Here's its famous rabbit.
01:32:42It sits upside down, with its ears pointing downward. Some people see a man on the Moon.
01:32:48It can either be his face or the entire body. If someone sees the whole human figure,
01:32:53it usually looks like it's carrying sticks. Sometimes, it's a toad. To spot it,
01:32:58look at the top left-hand side of our Moon. The toad is facing upward, see?
01:33:04Now look at this spinning neutron star. Such a star is a collapsed core of a supergiant star
01:33:10with a total mass of 10-25 solar masses. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects,
01:33:16like quark stars or white holes, neutron stars are the densest and smallest known stellar objects.
01:33:23Anyway, back to this particular star. As you can see, this space object,
01:33:27located 17,000 light-years away from Earth, is surrounded by a cloud of energetic particles.
01:33:33And this image, taken by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, appeared in 2009 and became viral
01:33:40in no time. All because many people spotted a hand-like structure among all that space stuff.
01:33:46NASA explained that the star was spinning incredibly fast, spewing energy into the
01:33:51space surrounding it. This created intriguing and complex structures, like the large cosmic hand
01:33:57so many people see. Now look at the Horsehead Nebula in the constellation Orion. This is a
01:34:03freezing cold and dark cloud of dust and gas that was first noted in 1888. This dark shadowing is
01:34:10created by dust. And at the base of the nebula, there are many bright spots. Those are young
01:34:16stars at the stage of formation. Pay attention to this extremely bright star in the top left side
01:34:21of the horsehead. Its radiation is so powerful that the star is starting to erode the cloud
01:34:27around itself. It means that, in millions of years, the nebula might not resemble the head
01:34:32of a horse anymore. Well, I won't be around then. The European Southern Observatory Very Large
01:34:39Telescope has captured an image in which we can see the collision of three different galaxies.
01:34:44We can even observe the effect they have on each other. But the coolest thing is that,
01:34:48while colliding, they created a recognizable shape.
01:34:52Because doesn't it look like a giant space hummingbird?
01:34:59Incredible news has recently spread across the Internet. NASA has discovered evidence of a
01:35:05parallel universe. But is this actually the truth? Well, there is a grain of truth in this story,
01:35:11but it's not that simple. Let's consider it. Perhaps you've seen the articles that said,
01:35:16NASA has finally found a parallel universe. This story was widely publicized, and people got
01:35:22divided into two camps – those who took this news at face value and those who considered it
01:35:28all complete nonsense. But both sides aren't exactly right. Let's start from the beginning.
01:35:35The discovery was made by NASA's ANITA. This name stands for the Antarctic Impulsive
01:35:41Transit Antenna. Yeah, it was designed to study neutrinos. Neutrinos are high-energy cosmic
01:35:48particles. They're incredibly small, lack any charge, and have almost no mass. Trillions of
01:35:55such particles pass through our bodies every second. And we don't even notice them. All because
01:36:00they almost don't affect ordinary matter – that's how insignificant they are. On average,
01:36:06in our entire life, each of us gets affected by a maximum of one neutrino. So basically,
01:36:12hunting neutrinos is like hunting ghosts. To catch them, you would have to send a whole
01:36:17stream of these particles through a giant piece of lead, and it has to be trillions of miles thick.
01:36:23At the same time, you have a 50-50 chance that you'll stop one of them. Therefore,
01:36:28in order to detect them, scientists had to come up with some clever tricks.
01:36:33We know that neutrinos, like other similar particles, come to us from outer space.
01:36:39They travel to Earth from the Sun, stars, and even from the Big Bang itself. Some of them come
01:36:45to us from particularly big sources, such as black holes, supernova, pulsars, and even from
01:36:51various unidentified objects. Some of these particles have particularly high energy. And
01:36:57for scientists, these neutrinos are the most interesting ones. But oddly enough, most high
01:37:03energy neutrinos don't actually come to us from afar. They form right here, next to Earth.
01:37:09This process has a cute name – particle shower.
01:37:16Well, this is how you can explain it in simple words. A granny particle gets into Earth's
01:37:22atmosphere. Usually, it's a particle with very high energy. Then, it generates several children
01:37:28that have less energy. Each of them then makes more grandchildren whose energy is even less
01:37:33than theirs, and so on, until we have a giant family tree of low-energy particles. In the end,
01:37:39there may be billions of them. During this process, piles of neutrinos are created. Then,
01:37:45they begin to sink deep into our Earth. During their journey through the planet,
01:37:50they touch the upper layers of its crust or ice. For example, Antarctica's ice. When faced with
01:37:56all these obstacles, they create radiopulses. And as you might've guessed, these are the exact
01:38:03radiopulses that scientists are trying to find. It may be a surprise to you, but Antarctica is
01:38:09pretty deserted. You think? And that's why it's the best place to study microscopic particles,
01:38:15which usually can barely be traced. There won't be any interference or anything like that.
01:38:21We can catch these pulses with the help of powerful antennas. NASA places these antennas
01:38:26on balloons that can rise as much as 20 miles above Earth's surface. That's how they've been
01:38:31tracking these neutrinos for the past years. Alright, now we know what ANITA is doing.
01:38:37But what about that parallel universe stuff? Nah, don't worry, we're getting there.
01:38:42In 2018, ANITA began receiving abnormal radio signals that caused quite a stir in the scientific
01:38:48community. Remember how neutrinos come to us from outer space and then gradually sink deep into our
01:38:55planet? So, recently, ANITA has discovered neutrinos that didn't descend from space as usual,
01:39:01but rather rose up from Earth. In other words, these particles, called tau neutrinos,
01:39:08basically travel back in time. But how is this possible? Scientists began to research them.
01:39:14At first, they thought that maybe it was a detector error, or an error in interpreting the data.
01:39:20But no, everything was correct. Something very exotic was happening. If so, then first we must
01:39:27try to find a simple explanation. What if these tau neutrinos just came to Antarctica from some
01:39:34other source? Maybe they came to Earth from the other side and somehow passed through the boundary?
01:39:40To test this theory, scientists decided to seek help from another cool neutrino observatory
01:39:45called IceCube. Yes, very cool! This observatory is located near the South Pole. It consists of
01:39:525,160 optical detectors buried in ice. And all these powerful detectors are designed to detect
01:39:59neutrinos. ANITA researchers were like, hey guys, we found some strange radio signals.
01:40:05Could you please check where they come from? No problem, IceCube replied and started their
01:40:10research. And as a result, they found… nothing. Yep, IceCube didn't detect any signal sources at
01:40:17all. It turned out that these strange particles had basically appeared out of nowhere. How could
01:40:23this be? Scientists tested many different theories, but none of them could explain
01:40:28the situation accurately. Later, IceCube published an article which basically said, nope,
01:40:34we have no idea where these signals came from and how to explain them in terms of the standard model
01:40:40of the universe. Oh, now it's getting interesting. So what on Earth are these signals? Having exhausted
01:40:47normal explanations, scientists began to consider ideas that go beyond our understanding. One of
01:40:54them said that perhaps these particles had come to us from a parallel universe where time flows
01:41:00in the opposite direction. This crazy-sounding theory is the result of the famous multiverse
01:41:06theory. According to it, about 14 billion years ago, when the Big Bang happened, two twin universes
01:41:13were born. One of them was ours, and the other was a parallel one. And they're almost identical in
01:41:19everything, except for some things. For example, time in this parallel universe doesn't move in the
01:41:25same way as it does in ours. It moves backward. Besides, everything there would look upside down
01:41:32to us, as if we're looking in a mirror. Therefore, scientists call it the Antiverse, and believe it
01:41:38could be filled with antimatter. And even though all this may seem strange and crazy to us,
01:41:44for those who live in that Antiverse, their way of life would be quite normal. In fact,
01:41:49they would rather find us, the strange ones. So these mysterious neutrinos could be born in this
01:41:55Antiverse. Let's say they somehow existed there and then accidentally got into our world,
01:42:01where we were able to detect them. The idea of the multiverse itself is really incredible.
01:42:07If it's true, then it may mean that there is an infinite number of realities, many of which are
01:42:12much better than ours. Quantum mechanics even says that it's quite possible that every second
01:42:19of every day, any of your decisions divides the universe into two. And so, there are quintillions
01:42:25of parallel universes where our lives have gone very differently. Something like this is hard to
01:42:31even imagine. Of course, it would be great if we could find a way to get into another universe.
01:42:36And if these mysterious tau neutrino particles were able to cross the boundaries of two worlds,
01:42:43maybe we can do that too? But, unfortunately, this phenomenon alone isn't enough to say whether
01:42:49the multiverse theory is true or not. This is just one of several possible options.
01:42:54At this stage of human development, we cannot prove or disprove this theory.
01:43:00Maybe someday in the future we'll find out the truth, but definitely not now.
01:43:05The only thing we can say now, after this discovery, is that we've found strange radio
01:43:10signals which standard physics can't explain. So we need to move in this direction and study
01:43:16them to learn more about this incredible phenomenon. But people like to dream about space,
01:43:22so no wonder we've gotten so excited about this. And it would be great if one day it turned out
01:43:27that this theory was actually true. The theory of parallel universes has been popular in various
01:43:33movies and books for a very long time. Where would you go if you found out that you could
01:43:38travel between realities? Me? I'd look for a different reality of ice cream.
01:44:02Leave it to people wandering on Google Earth to stumble upon the world's newest
01:44:06and weirdest places ever. Like this mysterious pyramid discovered in Antarctica.
01:44:12Soon enough the internet blew up with all sorts of theories regarding this unusual shape.
01:44:18Could it be a sign from a different life form? Is this pyramid indeed natural or is it man-made?
01:44:26For starters, it's not the first time we've discovered a pyramid in the Antarctic.
01:44:30The first one was observed by the British Antarctic Expedition in the 1910s and kept
01:44:35secret for a long time, its discovery being kept hidden only added to the mystery.
01:44:40A second such structure was discovered in 2016 which further increased the interest in the matter.
01:44:47The mystery was soon enough deciphered by scientists. These formations are just mountains.
01:44:55They're located near the Ellsworth Mountains, a range over 250 miles long,
01:45:00so they're just mountain peaks that have broken through the ice sheet.
01:45:04As for their particular shape, it's just a coincidence. Pyramids are found throughout
01:45:09nature. The Matterhorn in the Alps and Mount Balenstender in Iceland, for example,
01:45:14are quite similar in terms of shape. As for the official name of these peaks,
01:45:18they're called Nunnitaks, or peaks of rock peeking through a glacier or an ice sheet.
01:45:25Antarctica has way more incredible features, like the fact that it's home of 60 to 90%
01:45:31of the world's fresh water. That's because its ice sheet is the biggest on our planet,
01:45:36stretching across 5.4 million square miles. I'll spare you the calculations,
01:45:42but that leaves only 1% of the continent ice-free. Antarctica's ice reaches 2.7 miles thick at its
01:45:49deepest point, meaning half the height of Mount Everest. Should it ever melt completely,
01:45:55our sea levels would rise to roughly 200 feet. It wasn't always this cold, though. At some point
01:46:01in our planet's history, Antarctica had some average temperatures as the city of Melbourne
01:46:06has today. It took a lot of research, but scientists figured out that Antarctica's
01:46:11temperatures could have reached up to 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Sure, that was 40 to 50
01:46:17million years ago, but if you think about it, it was at the same time when dinosaurs roamed our
01:46:21Earth. Time is also different on this icy continent. All the lines of longitude that help
01:46:28us calculate different time zones merge into a single point at the South Pole. Here, there are
01:46:34six months of daylight in the summer, followed by six months of complete darkness during the colder
01:46:39season. So, scientists working here stay, on average, in the same time zone they've come from.
01:46:52The bloodfalls aren't a chapter of a thriller movie. They are merely a series of waterfalls
01:46:57located in one of the driest regions of Antarctica. They emerge from an underground lake, filled with
01:47:04a special type of bacteria. These little organisms use sulfates as fuel instead of sugars, which makes
01:47:11them very intriguing for scientists. The water contained in this lake is so full of iron that
01:47:17it basically just rusts when it meets air. So, the reddish color of the waterfall also gives it its
01:47:23trademark name. The megalodon was the largest predator ever known in our planet's history.
01:47:30In terms of its location, the megalodon lived practically in all waters on our globe, except
01:47:36near the poles. The reason why there were no megalodon teeth found in Antarctica is probably
01:47:41because the gigantic creature was adapted to only warm tropical and subtropical waters. If you plan
01:47:48to visit Antarctica by boat someday, just know you might not get there on a non-metallic boat.
01:47:54The hull of your transportation device must be made of either steel or aluminum to withstand
01:48:00the harsh weather conditions here. Antarctica isn't home to a lot of bugs. In fact, there is only
01:48:06one true species of insect that calls this place home. It's a wingless midge called Belgica antarctica.
01:48:14This fly is so tiny that it only reaches 0.08 to 0.23 inches long, but it's still the
01:48:21Antarctic's largest terrestrial animal. A lot of Antarctic fish also come with an antifree substance
01:48:28in their blood. They don't necessarily need it for protection against the cold temperature, but
01:48:33mostly against touching ice. These antifreezes are made up of large glycoprotein molecules.
01:48:40They surround any small ice crystals that may form, making sure they don't spread through the
01:48:45animal's tissues, which could cause a lot of damage. They also create a sort of small pillow, blocking
01:48:52the sharp ice crystals, so they're less likely to cause any pain. It also doesn't rain a lot here on
01:48:58this icy continent, but one amazing meteorological quirk of Antarctica is that it's full of diamond dust.
01:49:04This dust is basically small ice crystals that pop out of humid air close to the Earth's surface.
01:49:12Think of it like an icy fog. As they flow through the air and get touched by sunlight, they begin to
01:49:18sparkle, making visitors here feel like they're surrounded by diamonds. It's probably the last
01:49:25place you'd want to go into labor, but in 1978, the first person was born here ever.
01:49:31Emil Marco Palma was its name, and ever since, 10 other people have been born here in Antarctica.
01:49:38There's a lake on this icy continent that is so full of salt, it makes it impossible for it to
01:49:43freeze over, even if temperatures can go as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit. That's because pure water
01:49:49freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Water that has salt in it, or any other substance for that matter,
01:49:55will freeze, but at a way lower temperature. That lower temperature is adjustable depending on the
01:50:01substance itself and the amount that has been placed into the water. Antarctica was the last
01:50:08official continent to be discovered. It remained completely unseen until the 1820s, but it took
01:50:15another 20 years to confirm it was actually a continent and not just a group of icy islands.
01:50:22Just because it's really cold here doesn't mean you can't go on a date here. One December night,
01:50:28an American scientist that was posted in Antarctica logged into a dating app simply out of
01:50:33curiosity. He was certain no other profiles would show up, but to his surprise, he found someone soon
01:50:40enough. Another researcher who was stationed just 45 minutes away, by helicopter of course.
01:50:46They eventually got together and went on the first date in Antarctica ever recorded.
01:50:52Apart from ice, this continent has something else way more abundantly than any other piece of land
01:50:58on Earth. Meteorites. If we look at the research done by scientists, meteorites have equal chances
01:51:05of reaching any place on our planet. However, once they go through our atmosphere, the situation is a
01:51:11bit more complex. That's because different climates on our planet, like the humid ones found near the
01:51:17jungle, have a lot of moisture and oxygen, which will corrode most meteorites. The climate in
01:51:23Antarctica is really dry, so the possibility of meteorites corroding is little to none. More so,
01:51:30it's way easier to spot these rocks on the icy white surface of this area than in any other
01:51:35place on Earth. If you're not scared of the cold, you'll surely freak out when you hear about the
01:51:41winds here. That's because Antarctica is, for the most part, the windiest place on Earth. Wind speeds
01:51:48have been reported here to reach even 200 miles per hour!
01:51:54Now here's something. Baltic amber is one of the most common resins found in the world.
01:51:59The resin for this is that due to the vast forests of pine, their numerous deposits are so common,
01:52:06they provide wonderful treasures from long ago. Ants are especially common in the Baltic amber,
01:52:12which comes from pine trees. Its resin is rich in sugar, so the ants often live amongst
01:52:17the trees, close to the easy source of food. One block found in East Germany has preserved
01:52:23one ant that is estimated to be about 48 million years old. Think of the birthday cake! But what
01:52:30makes this fine interesting is another animal inside the amber. It's a mite, notorious hunters
01:52:36in the insect world, capable of traveling at great speed. These guys quickly latch onto their hosts,
01:52:43sucking them dry. They're also capable of destroying entire hives in one go.
01:52:48And within this piece of amber, the amber provides a display of their final struggle.
01:52:54In Southeast Asia, feathers belonging to something unique have been found from 80
01:52:59million years ago. They were captured in resin during the Cretaceous period,
01:53:03a peak time for dinosaurs. The many feathers inside are from the calurosaur. It looks like
01:53:09a dinosaur, but this animal is more related to birds. Other feathers like this have been found
01:53:15in resin. They belong to avian and other non-flying dinosaurs. The discoveries have
01:53:20helped reimagine what dinosaurs actually looked like. Still, dinosaurs may have had feathers
01:53:26instead of being completely bald. Of course, for most of them, the feathers weren't used for flying,
01:53:32but they helped the dinos stay warm. However, the feathers weren't all that was found,
01:53:37and a part of the calurosaur's tail is also preserved. Still, it's so small and ancient
01:53:43that its DNA hasn't survived to map their entire genome. The enclosed tail is also very delicate,
01:53:49and it can't be removed from its protective amber shell. But although these findings can only be
01:53:55observed, they've still provided a great insight in the evolution of birds.
01:54:00But how does amber preserve things so effectively, even at the initial stages? The trees produced
01:54:06the resin to protect any small gaps in the bark against feeding insects. Its antiseptic nature and
01:54:12lack of water content ensures it doesn't degrade for a long time. This also makes it more resilient
01:54:19as it petrifies over long periods, eventually becoming a fossil. Some of the oldest amber
01:54:25ever found was from the Triassic period, showing how long it can last. The pieces from Italy are
01:54:31about 230 million years old. And inside one of these ancient droplets holds the oldest arthropod
01:54:39ever recorded. This mite found inside has provided a broader understanding to their evolution.
01:54:46Today, they're known to mainly annoy gardeners by feeding on the petals of flowering plants.
01:54:51However, at the time the mite was caught, flowers didn't have any petals, and it would be without
01:54:57this tasty meal for another 100 million years. 100 million years ago, Myanmar was part of Gondwanda,
01:55:05the great supercontinent. At that time, Myanmar wasn't part of Asia yet. But it was still lush
01:55:11with a great forest, which contained many species of lizards that lived amongst the undergrowth,
01:55:17hiding away from dinosaurs. Many of them have been stored within amber. This fact helped
01:55:22discover ancestors of geckos and chameleons. By using CT scans, scientists have analyzed them,
01:55:30providing a glimpse into the formation of their scales, teeth, feet, and claws. It also
01:55:35provided an understanding of how these archaic creatures once appeared. Although mostly pieces
01:55:41of lizards, by using modern technology, the scientists have been able to create 3D images
01:55:47of the lizard. These images can reveal how those guys appeared in their full form.
01:55:53The images show that they still retain some of their exact features to this day,
01:55:57like the chameleon's sticky pads used for climbing. A salamander fossil from around 20 million years
01:56:04ago is one of the most intact specimens ever found in amber. Details of its final moments
01:56:10show that it had been attacked before getting stuck in the resin. However, what's confusing
01:56:16about this find from the Miocene era is that the amber was found in the Caribbean, but it
01:56:21came from a tree that's closer related to those from East Africa. The lizard also has ancestry
01:56:28from the same area. Finds like this have opened a whole new understanding about how these small
01:56:34lizards migrated. It's expected that they would have ridden fallen logs which took them across
01:56:39the seas to new homelands. Not only to the Caribbean, but to all continents except for
01:56:45Antarctica. Nobody goes there, it's too cold. In the Dominican Republic, you can find some of
01:56:51the rarest of all ambers. This Dominican amber came from neotropical forests from around 20
01:56:58million years ago. Many of the trees that made the resin are now extinct. The amber is almost
01:57:03completely see-through and can come in an array of beautiful colors. The most common colors are red,
01:57:09yellow, and even blue, and are easily mistaken for gemstones. One was found with a flea caught
01:57:15in it, dating to when the forest was at its peak and the mammalian variety thrived. Fleas were
01:57:22likely common at the time, and this flea in particular had recently fed on a mammal before
01:57:27getting stuck. However, something more intriguing was found within the flea. While scientists check
01:57:33what mammal DNA was within the flea, they found that it was carrying an ancient bacterial blight.
01:57:40These blights have been constant throughout Earth's history, dramatically decreasing
01:57:45populations of animals and plants. This now-extinct blight in the amber helped scientists determine
01:57:51how much the bacteria have evolved and how it spread. Now, most remnants of insects inside
01:57:58amber aren't much more than the exoskeleton bodies. But with some found in Myanmar, they were
01:58:04so well-preserved that even the color of the insects is still intact. Colors in nature appear
01:58:10in three different ways. The first is bioluminescence, that's produced by a chemical reaction
01:58:16within a living organism. The second is about pigments, where the color appears in an animal
01:58:21or plant tissue. The third is called structural coloration, and the production of colors here
01:58:27is explained by microscopic surfaces fine enough to react with the light.
01:58:32The rare insects in amber were found in the form of structural coloration, but only at specific
01:58:38wavelengths. It all explains the very intense colors rarely found. 99 million years later,
01:58:45these bugs can still show their vibrant colors – blue, purple, and green. Some of them appear
01:58:51so different in color and shape that they almost look like they're from another world. Which,
01:58:56of course, they are – a very old one. Ants have been around for about 168 million years,
01:59:03based on fossil evidence provided. They're well-known for their social hierarchies and
01:59:08their hive mind system. They've dominated almost every corner of the insect world.
01:59:13But when these social capabilities came about have been difficult to determine. Yet, recently,
01:59:19amber dated from 100 million years ago has shed some light into their evolution.
01:59:24Several amber pieces have preserved various ant types, including the worker ants, guardian or
01:59:30soldier ants, and even a queen ant. Before these pieces were found, it was estimated their social
01:59:35nature occurred millions of years later. A piece of amber dated 100 million years ago
01:59:42helped shed light on the evolution of birds. A perfectly preserved bird that hatched preserved
01:59:48in amber was already equipped with its flight feathers. With the earlier physical abilities,
01:59:53they would be capable of moving around the nest by themselves at a very young age.
01:59:58And it's expected they could search for their own food almost immediately. But as birds continued
02:00:04to evolve and spend more time in the skies, their brain developed larger for their cognitive
02:00:09abilities. After hatching, their early development was then more focused on the brain. And the chicks
02:00:16slowly became more reliant on their parents over time. In Spain, a massive treasure trove of amber
02:00:23and other fossils has been found. Inside, there were remnants of an entire ecosystem that existed
02:00:29110 million years ago. A bunch of individual fossils were found. The vast collection includes
02:00:36many types of insects, mollusks, arachnids, plants, 50 different dinosaur bone fragments,
02:00:42feathers, and hair from mammals. And a McDonald's burger wrapper. Nah, just kidding.
02:00:48With the abundance of findings, it's helped researchers understand the ancient terrestrial
02:00:53ecosystem that once existed. With loads of specific details of the environment,
02:00:58they've reconstructed the swamp. This way, it's now possible to experience what it was like in
02:01:04the world of dinosaurs. That's it for today. So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give
02:01:11the video a like and share it with your friends. Or if you want more, just click on these videos
02:01:15and stay on the Bright Side!

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