WEBVTT - Season 8 Episode 01: May Their Passage Cleanse the World

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<v Speaker 1>American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews and his expedition team were

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<v Speaker 1>getting restless. It was May nineteen twenty two, and the

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<v Speaker 1>men were in Erga, the capital city of Mongolia that

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<v Speaker 1>would later be renamed Ulamberta. Their goal was a meeting

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<v Speaker 1>with Mongolia's newly established prime Minister, the Aal kans Kuttak

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<v Speaker 1>dam dim Bazaar, in the hope of being granted a

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<v Speaker 1>permit to conduct an archaeological expedition in the heart of

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<v Speaker 1>the Gobi Desert. It was a fragile time in the

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<v Speaker 1>newly independent state. Only the year before, Mongolia had undergone

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<v Speaker 1>a revolution that left it in a precarious position, teetering

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<v Speaker 1>between the influence of the Soviet Union and Chinese governments,

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<v Speaker 1>with much in sand security among the new ruling powers

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<v Speaker 1>over whom they could trust. There had even been reports

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<v Speaker 1>that white men found in the region were being captured

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<v Speaker 1>and horribly tortured. One rumor told of a man being

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<v Speaker 1>skinned alive. So Andrews could have been forgiven for feeling

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<v Speaker 1>a little nervous when he finally received an invitation to

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<v Speaker 1>speak with Prime Minister dam dim Bazar. After making his

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<v Speaker 1>way to the Mongolian Parliament. It was ushered into a

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<v Speaker 1>back room, where he found Premier dam Dimbazar and a

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<v Speaker 1>group of his officials sitting together in somber silence. Some

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<v Speaker 1>pleasantries were exchanged before Andrews tentatively began his pitch for

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<v Speaker 1>the permits when dam Dimbazar held up his hand for

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<v Speaker 1>Andrews to stop. As the Prime Minister explained to Andrew's interpreter,

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<v Speaker 1>he was more than happy to grant Andrews's permission to

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<v Speaker 1>conduct his expedition, but only if he did something for

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<v Speaker 1>him in return, of course, said Andrews in reply, what

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<v Speaker 1>do you need? And so damn Dimbazar made his request

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<v Speaker 1>that while Andrews and his team were out searching for

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<v Speaker 1>ancient artifacts in the desert, they also spend some time

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<v Speaker 1>trying to capture something for him. For centuries, people of

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<v Speaker 1>the Gobi Desert had told extraordinary tales of a strange

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<v Speaker 1>creature that was said to be headless, legless, about two

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<v Speaker 1>to five feet long, and resemble approximately the intestines of

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<v Speaker 1>a cow. It was also rumored to spit a corrosive

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<v Speaker 1>yellow saliva and generate blasts of electricity so strong they

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<v Speaker 1>could kill a full grown camel. Some said it was

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<v Speaker 1>so poisonous that merely to touch it meant instant death.

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<v Speaker 1>The creature reputed to live in the most desolate parts

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<v Speaker 1>of the Gobi Desert, and they called it Allegrei or Hi, or,

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<v Speaker 1>as it came to be known in English, the Mongolian

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<v Speaker 1>death worm. You're listening to unexplained, and I'm Richard McLain Smith.

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome back. If ever there was a man on which

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<v Speaker 1>to model the movie character Indiana Jones, it was Roy

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<v Speaker 1>Chapman Andrews born in eighteen eighty. The American explorer, adventurer,

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<v Speaker 1>and naturalist would eventually become the director of the American

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<v Speaker 1>Museum of Natural History, But in the nineteen twenties, Andrews

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<v Speaker 1>was on a quest to find the earliest evidence of

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<v Speaker 1>human life. Andrews was a proponent of the out of as,

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<v Speaker 1>the theory of humanity's origins, in which it's believed the

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<v Speaker 1>earliest humans emerged from the present day region of Asia

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<v Speaker 1>as opposed to Africa. Neither the Mongolian Prime Minister nor

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<v Speaker 1>any of his officials had ever seen the so called

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<v Speaker 1>Intestine worm for themselves, but as Andrews listened to them,

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<v Speaker 1>conferring with his interpreter, he could tell from the look

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<v Speaker 1>on their faces that they all very much believed it existed.

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<v Speaker 1>Damn Dim Bazaar, for one, said he knew a man

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<v Speaker 1>who had seen it, while a cabinet minister reported that

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<v Speaker 1>a cousin of his late wife had also witnessed the

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<v Speaker 1>strange creature. The assembled dignitaries had practical instructions for Andrews.

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<v Speaker 1>When he found one of the deadly worms, he must

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<v Speaker 1>be sure to handle it with long steel forceps they

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<v Speaker 1>set so as not to come into direct contact with

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<v Speaker 1>the creature. They also advised that he should wear dark

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<v Speaker 1>glasses to neutralize the disastrous effects of even looking at

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<v Speaker 1>such a poisonous creature. For six years, from nineteen twenty

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<v Speaker 1>two to nineteen twenty eight, Andrews led several ventures known

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<v Speaker 1>as the Central Asiatic Expeditions to search for the earliest

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<v Speaker 1>human remains in Mongolia and the Gobi Desert. During these expeditions,

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<v Speaker 1>Andrews and his team found many previously unknown fossil specimens,

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<v Speaker 1>including the first scientifically recognized dinosaur eggs, But what they

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<v Speaker 1>didn't find was a Mongolian death worm or any evidence

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<v Speaker 1>that they even existed. However, writing in his nineteen thirty

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<v Speaker 1>two book The New Conquest of Central Asia, Andrews conceded

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<v Speaker 1>that if the faith in its existence was not so

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<v Speaker 1>strong and widespread among the Mongolians, and if everyone did

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<v Speaker 1>not describe the animal exactly the same way, I would

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<v Speaker 1>believe it to be an idle myth. It would be

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<v Speaker 1>another ten years or so before stories of the death

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<v Speaker 1>worm emerged once more from out of the Gobi Desert,

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<v Speaker 1>when sometime in the nineteen forties, Russian paleontologist Ivan Yefromov

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<v Speaker 1>heard some locals talking about it while he was there

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<v Speaker 1>looking for fossils of his own. Yefromov dabbled in writing

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<v Speaker 1>science fiction, and the Mongol tales he heard inspired him to

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<v Speaker 1>write a story called Olgoi Korkoy, a Russian version of

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<v Speaker 1>the worm's Mongolian name. In this fictional tale, his worms

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<v Speaker 1>could grow around five feet long and had the power

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<v Speaker 1>to kill people from a distance. It was just a

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<v Speaker 1>short story, but it was a harbinger of more to come,

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<v Speaker 1>because giant, lethal desert worms were destined to loom large

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<v Speaker 1>in science fiction over the coming decades. In the late

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen fifties, an emerging author by the name of Frank

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<v Speaker 1>Herbert traveled to Florence, Oregon, in the United States and

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<v Speaker 1>visited the Oregon Dunes, where the largest expanse of coastal

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<v Speaker 1>sand dunes in North America rise to heights of up

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<v Speaker 1>to five hundred feet. There, Herbert's interest in deserts was sparked,

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<v Speaker 1>and in a letter to his literary agent, he wrote

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<v Speaker 1>that he was impressed by the idea of how moving

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<v Speaker 1>junes might be able to swallow whole cities, lakes, rivers,

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<v Speaker 1>and highways. He went on to write what became the

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<v Speaker 1>award winning epic series June, one of the world's best

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<v Speaker 1>selling science fiction novels. The saga revolves largely around the

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<v Speaker 1>uncompromisingly arid planet Oracus, which is inhabited by enormous deadly worms.

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<v Speaker 1>Another version of deadly fast tunneling desert worms appeared in

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<v Speaker 1>the nineteen ninety comedy horror film Tremours. Unlike the deathly

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<v Speaker 1>serious June series set on alien worlds, Tremours, with its

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<v Speaker 1>tongue in cheek black humor, was set in the Nevada Desert.

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<v Speaker 1>The idea for the story came to the writers S. S.

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<v Speaker 1>Wilson and Brent Maddock while they were producing a series

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<v Speaker 1>of educational safety videos for the US Navy. Climbing a

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<v Speaker 1>large desert boulder to get some footage from a high

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<v Speaker 1>vantage point near one of the desert naval bases, they

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<v Speaker 1>asked each other, what if there was something that wouldn't

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<v Speaker 1>let them leave the rock? They were on something like

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<v Speaker 1>a shark, they thought, but on land. Like Frank Herbert,

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<v Speaker 1>the writers of Tremors envisaged monstrous tunneling worms, highly sensitive

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<v Speaker 1>to the slightest vibration and hungry for human flesh. Explanations

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<v Speaker 1>of what inspired the creation of the monster worms have

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<v Speaker 1>included whales, dragons, and even giant nematodes. What's not recorded

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<v Speaker 1>is whether Herbert or the Tremor's team had ever come

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<v Speaker 1>across stories of the Mongolian death worm, but one young

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<v Speaker 1>Czechoslovakian man called Ivan mccurla most certainly had born in

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<v Speaker 1>Bohemia in nineteen forty three in what is now part

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<v Speaker 1>of present day Czech Republic. Mccurlo had read all about

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<v Speaker 1>the accounts of Broyd Chapman Andrews, and even Yefhramov's fictional

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<v Speaker 1>tale about the supposedly deadly Mongolian worms. It sparked a

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<v Speaker 1>childhood fascination with legendary creatures that never left him. At

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<v Speaker 1>the age of sixteen, mcurla moved to Prague, where he

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<v Speaker 1>studied mechanical engineering and zoology and electronics before deciding to

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<v Speaker 1>pursue his longtime hobby of cryptozoology more seriously. Ivan mccurla

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<v Speaker 1>organized expeditions to unsuccessfully search for the Lockness Monster, the

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<v Speaker 1>Tasmanian tiger, and the so called elephant bird of Madagascar,

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<v Speaker 1>and authored numerous books on cryptozoology, but what he became

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<v Speaker 1>best known for was his passionate quest to find the

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<v Speaker 1>Mongolian death worm. In one nineteen eighty seven book about

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<v Speaker 1>the land and legends of the Gobi Desert, macurla described

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<v Speaker 1>how the creature was said to live near water sources

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<v Speaker 1>in the western or southern part of the country, only

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<v Speaker 1>coming to the surface after rainfall, and that when it

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<v Speaker 1>travels under ground, it creates waves of sand on the

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<v Speaker 1>surface by which it can be detected. At the time,

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<v Speaker 1>macurla was unable to see this for himself due to

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<v Speaker 1>the Communist era travel restrictions in both Czechoslovakia and Mongolia.

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<v Speaker 1>That all changed one November in nineteen eighty nine, when

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<v Speaker 1>the Czechoslovakian Communist Party, which had ruled unopposed for forty years,

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<v Speaker 1>were suddenly swept aside. Now free to travel, Macurla, along

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<v Speaker 1>with photographer friend Eerie Scubian, and a doctor called YadA Procopec,

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<v Speaker 1>made their fur expedition to the Gobi Desert the following year.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a difficult trip. There were still official restrictions

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<v Speaker 1>on travel within the country and practical difficulties getting to

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<v Speaker 1>the remote parts of the Gobi Desert that the worm

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<v Speaker 1>was said to inhabit. Despite the severe lack of transport infrastructure,

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<v Speaker 1>with no buses and barely any roads, macurl eventually managed

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<v Speaker 1>to convince someone to drive them into the southern Gobi.

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<v Speaker 1>Once there, his team began collating eyewitness accounts. One after another.

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<v Speaker 1>Locals gave eerily similar accounts of a creature they described

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<v Speaker 1>as looking like a cow's intestine filled with blood, usually

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<v Speaker 1>about half a meter in length and as thick as

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<v Speaker 1>an average male's thigh. Another strange but consistently described trait

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<v Speaker 1>was how the creature had no eyes, nostrils, or mouth,

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<v Speaker 1>making it difficult to tell its head from its tail.

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<v Speaker 1>It was also reported to move strangely unlike ordinary worms

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<v Speaker 1>by rolling or squirming sideways. One night, after befriending a

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<v Speaker 1>couple of Mongolian nomads after a few bottles of vodka,

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<v Speaker 1>the Czech team were treated to more unsettling details about

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<v Speaker 1>the alleged worm. The nomad said that it not only

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<v Speaker 1>spits an acid, corroding anything it touches, but that this

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<v Speaker 1>substance turns everything yellow. The color yellow they set attracted

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<v Speaker 1>more worms. Once, they claimed, a young boy was playing

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<v Speaker 1>outside with a yellow boar when there was a sudden

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<v Speaker 1>disturbance in the sand around him. Moments later, a giant

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<v Speaker 1>word broke through the surface and stopped to regard the boy.

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<v Speaker 1>Untroubled by its appearance, the boy was said to have

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<v Speaker 1>been killed instantly when he tried to touch it. When

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<v Speaker 1>the parents allegedly came across the tragic scene, they found

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<v Speaker 1>a disturbingly large trail in the sand that led away

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<v Speaker 1>from their sun. In anger, they followed the trail until

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<v Speaker 1>they too came across the worm, only to both then

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<v Speaker 1>also be killed by it. One elderly woman local to

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<v Speaker 1>the same area explained that when the worm wanted to

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<v Speaker 1>kill someone, it would move half its length out of

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<v Speaker 1>the sand and inflate a bubble over its exposed body,

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<v Speaker 1>from which it squirted its deadly poison. Sadly for Ivan mccurla,

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<v Speaker 1>he and his team failed to find a death worm

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<v Speaker 1>on their expedition. Three years later, however, maccurla returned to

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<v Speaker 1>Mongolia for a follow up trip. Over the course of

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<v Speaker 1>eight weeks, he and his team used explosives to blast

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<v Speaker 1>holes in the desert to try and scare the worms

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<v Speaker 1>out of hiding, but still they found nothing. Then, on

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<v Speaker 1>a visit to a Buddhist monastery, things got a little scary.

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<v Speaker 1>That afternoon, maccurla was approached by a monk who knew

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<v Speaker 1>all about his expedition. As they sat in the quiet temple,

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<v Speaker 1>the hot air thick with the smell of incense, the

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<v Speaker 1>monk told mccurla that the Algoy Korkoy was a creature

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<v Speaker 1>of supernatural evil and that he was endangering his life

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<v Speaker 1>searching for it. That night, as mccurla slept night mayish

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<v Speaker 1>images of the giant worm flashed through his unconscious mind.

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<v Speaker 1>He woke up with a start to find his back

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<v Speaker 1>covered in blood filled boils procopec. The expedition's doctor became

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<v Speaker 1>alarmed when Over the next few days, even more hemotoments

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<v Speaker 1>appeared on mccurler's body, and he began to show signs

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<v Speaker 1>of heart failure. This incident was captured in a TV

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<v Speaker 1>documentary the teammate called The Sand Monster Mystery, which aired

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<v Speaker 1>on Czech television in nineteen ninety three. Thankfully, mccurla went

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<v Speaker 1>on to make a full recovery and undaunted, in the

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<v Speaker 1>summer of two thousand and four, he launched what would

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<v Speaker 1>be his third and final expedition to find the Mongolian

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<v Speaker 1>death worm. This time he enlisted the help of Pilot. Together,

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<v Speaker 1>they filmed great swathes of the goby's vast expanses via

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<v Speaker 1>a video camera attached to an aircraft, as well as

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<v Speaker 1>using night vision goggles to search in the dark, but

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<v Speaker 1>yet again, the team failed to find any evidence of

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<v Speaker 1>the worm. In an interview on Prague TV after this final,

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<v Speaker 1>unsuccessful expedition, mccurla seemed resigned to never finding the creature.

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<v Speaker 1>He said that for many years he believed the creature

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<v Speaker 1>could be a zoological reality, but after his most recent experiences,

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<v Speaker 1>he began to suspect that it might in fact be

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<v Speaker 1>some kind of psychological phenomenon. Instead a hallucination, perhaps brought

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<v Speaker 1>on by the extreme heat of the Gobi Desert. The

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<v Speaker 1>following year of two thousand and five, it was time

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<v Speaker 1>for a British team to have a crack at finding

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<v Speaker 1>the worm. As the director of the Center for Forty

0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:16.679
<v Speaker 1>in Zoology or c f SAID, a cryptozoological club based

0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:21.399
<v Speaker 1>in Exeter in the southwest of England, Richard Freeman was

0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:27.280
<v Speaker 1>no stranger to quests for mysterious creatures. A lifelong fan

0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.840
<v Speaker 1>of doctor who he'd been a zookeeper and head of

0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:35.000
<v Speaker 1>reptiles at a major UK zoo for a while before

0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:40.080
<v Speaker 1>also being drawn into the world of crypto zoology, Freeman

0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.880
<v Speaker 1>relished the search of animals that mainstream biologists believed were

0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:50.800
<v Speaker 1>legendary more extinct. His past expeditions included hunts for the

0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:55.919
<v Speaker 1>Cupa cabra, a blood drinking nocturnal creature from Puerto Rico,

0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.840
<v Speaker 1>and the Orang pendeck, a supposed ape man said to

0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:05.720
<v Speaker 1>live in unexplored valleys in Sa Martra. Now he had

0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.760
<v Speaker 1>assembled a small team of fellow c f SAID members

0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:16.480
<v Speaker 1>to go to Mongolia with him. Arriving in Mongolia's capital, Ulambatar,

0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:20.359
<v Speaker 1>the team headed south towards a remote area of the

0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:26.159
<v Speaker 1>Gobi Desert region covering over eight thousand square miles called Noyan,

0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:31.159
<v Speaker 1>where many reported sightings of the death worms had come from.

0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.719
<v Speaker 1>As they drove, Freeman looked out at the jeep's window,

0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:41.760
<v Speaker 1>transfixed vast fields of sand dunes merged with gravel plains

0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:46.679
<v Speaker 1>that seemed to stretch into infinity, appearing like giant mirrors.

0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:51.640
<v Speaker 1>Due to being coated with the mineral mica. The surrounding

0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:55.280
<v Speaker 1>cliffs were so red they seemed to be on fire.

0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.520
<v Speaker 1>As the party traveled deep into the south, they met

0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:05.840
<v Speaker 1>and interviewed around twenty four apparent eyewitnesses, who all had

0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:11.640
<v Speaker 1>stories of seeing the giant death worm. As both explorers

0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.840
<v Speaker 1>Chapman and mccurlor had noted before them, descriptions of the

0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:21.760
<v Speaker 1>worm were remarkably consistent. Almost all the witnesses claimed to

0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.639
<v Speaker 1>have seen it, lying on the ground, motionless, being about

0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.879
<v Speaker 1>two feet long and as thick as an arm, with

0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:36.040
<v Speaker 1>scaly skin. All believed it to be extremely poisonous. One

0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:40.200
<v Speaker 1>elderly man named Luvsandorsch claimed to have seen it back

0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:44.439
<v Speaker 1>in nineteen seventy two. It was traveling across the desert

0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:47.399
<v Speaker 1>one day when he saw what he first thought was

0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.439
<v Speaker 1>a human arm lying on top of the sand. It

0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:54.320
<v Speaker 1>was only when he got closer that he noticed it

0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:59.240
<v Speaker 1>was moving. It was a large wormlike creature, he said,

0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:04.400
<v Speaker 1>that kept changing colour to match its surroundings. He said

0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:08.440
<v Speaker 1>they were thought to live underground in soft sand, and

0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.240
<v Speaker 1>that they were able to generate an electrical charge, but

0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:14.639
<v Speaker 1>they weren't around as much as they used to be.

0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.920
<v Speaker 1>A woman named Sukh took Freeman's team to a location

0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.560
<v Speaker 1>near the border with China and a forest of sacks,

0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:30.200
<v Speaker 1>all a strange shrubby drought tolerant plant which grows in thickets.

0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:35.040
<v Speaker 1>It was there she said that she supposedly saw a

0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:39.280
<v Speaker 1>brownish gray worm about half a meter in length writhing

0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:44.680
<v Speaker 1>within the plants, before disappearing among the roots of a tree.

0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:49.040
<v Speaker 1>The team found numerous burrows in the area, assumed to

0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.880
<v Speaker 1>be made by rodents, which they surmised might be an

0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:57.000
<v Speaker 1>excellent food source for the death worms. But no sooner

0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:00.480
<v Speaker 1>had they begun to set traps to catch the rodents

0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:05.040
<v Speaker 1>and worms, an enormous sandstorm rose up in the distance

0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:10.120
<v Speaker 1>that quickly descended, shredding their tents to confetti and forcing

0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:24.160
<v Speaker 1>them to leave the area. After moving on from the

0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:28.600
<v Speaker 1>forest of Saxel, Freeman's expedition met with an old ex

0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:33.240
<v Speaker 1>army colonel named Hervu, who still lived near an abandoned

0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:38.359
<v Speaker 1>military base called ovoutin Autreat years ago when he was

0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:43.040
<v Speaker 1>a soldier. Hervu set out on a motorbike patrol just

0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:47.640
<v Speaker 1>as the desert sun was beginning to set. At some point,

0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:51.840
<v Speaker 1>he apparently came upon what he thought was a busted

0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:56.200
<v Speaker 1>old tire on the ground, all coiled up, but as

0:22:56.200 --> 0:22:59.640
<v Speaker 1>he got closer, he realized it wasn't a tire at all,

0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:05.080
<v Speaker 1>but some kind of weird worm like creature. For half

0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:09.119
<v Speaker 1>an hour, Urzu watched it as it lay there, unmoving,

0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:14.040
<v Speaker 1>the light glinting off its scaly skin, still wet from

0:23:14.080 --> 0:23:18.480
<v Speaker 1>recent rain. Eventually, he rushed off to get his camera,

0:23:18.920 --> 0:23:23.840
<v Speaker 1>only to find on his return that the creature had gone.

0:23:24.000 --> 0:23:27.720
<v Speaker 1>That night, the ex colonel took Freeman and his team

0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.760
<v Speaker 1>to the site of the encounter, where they camped, laying

0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:35.800
<v Speaker 1>out rodent traps and laboriously digging holes in the dirt.

0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:40.679
<v Speaker 1>They sank bucket traps, hoping to lure in a death worm,

0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:45.400
<v Speaker 1>but the traps caught nothing. Again, the team moved on,

0:23:45.960 --> 0:23:50.400
<v Speaker 1>this time to a nearby oasis rich in wildlife, where

0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:54.600
<v Speaker 1>they met with a woman named could Youuenger. Back in

0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:58.280
<v Speaker 1>the nineteen eighties, could Youuenger was out walking with her

0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:02.760
<v Speaker 1>grandfather when he called her over to look at something again.

0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:07.320
<v Speaker 1>It was a brownish forty centimeter long wormlike creature with

0:24:07.440 --> 0:24:11.880
<v Speaker 1>no discernible head or tail. She didn't remember much else

0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:15.480
<v Speaker 1>about it, other than that she was very frightened of it.

0:24:17.160 --> 0:24:21.240
<v Speaker 1>Once again, Freeman's team set out bucket traps to try

0:24:21.240 --> 0:24:25.200
<v Speaker 1>and catch the creature, but as they started digging holes

0:24:25.240 --> 0:24:29.520
<v Speaker 1>around the oasis, Freeman gazed up to see a small

0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:34.000
<v Speaker 1>dust devil beginning to grow about a mile away. His

0:24:34.119 --> 0:24:39.440
<v Speaker 1>interest turned to consternation as the small dusty vortex rapidly

0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:45.920
<v Speaker 1>grew larger, then began barreling directly toward them. When it hit,

0:24:46.320 --> 0:24:50.520
<v Speaker 1>the fierce winds and blowing dust engulfed the entire camp,

0:24:50.880 --> 0:24:55.480
<v Speaker 1>smashing and scattering everything in their path. The wind was

0:24:55.520 --> 0:24:59.040
<v Speaker 1>so strong that at one point Freeman saw one of

0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:03.760
<v Speaker 1>their Mongolian drivers flying past him, horizontally hanging on to

0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:07.920
<v Speaker 1>a billowing tent as it was swept out into the desert.

0:25:08.880 --> 0:25:13.359
<v Speaker 1>Thinking back to Ivan mccurlur's hunch, that perhaps the worms

0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:18.280
<v Speaker 1>were in fact some kind of psychological phenomenon. It was

0:25:18.320 --> 0:25:22.119
<v Speaker 1>as if something didn't want them to discover the truth.

0:25:23.640 --> 0:25:27.720
<v Speaker 1>After a month in Mongolia, the Center for Fortian Zoology

0:25:27.800 --> 0:25:32.720
<v Speaker 1>expedition was over, and there was no specimen or even

0:25:32.920 --> 0:25:37.840
<v Speaker 1>sighting of a death worm to show for their efforts. However,

0:25:38.400 --> 0:25:41.639
<v Speaker 1>Richard Freeman believed that the trip had been good for

0:25:41.720 --> 0:25:46.159
<v Speaker 1>one thing, namely, that it confirmed his suspicions about the

0:25:46.200 --> 0:25:50.880
<v Speaker 1>creature's true identity. I don't think it's a worm at all,

0:25:51.080 --> 0:25:54.919
<v Speaker 1>he said later. Instead, he had come to believe it

0:25:55.040 --> 0:25:59.920
<v Speaker 1>was in fact some kind of limbless burrowing reptile, either

0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:03.720
<v Speaker 1>a giant member of an already known group of reptiles,

0:26:04.560 --> 0:26:17.040
<v Speaker 1>or a worm lizard. Worm lizards are also known as Amphisbinians,

0:26:17.520 --> 0:26:22.080
<v Speaker 1>named after Anfisbinia, a mythical Greek serpent with a second

0:26:22.200 --> 0:26:25.760
<v Speaker 1>head on its tail. They're one of the most mysterious

0:26:25.880 --> 0:26:31.000
<v Speaker 1>and poorly studied groups of reptiles, neither snakes nor lizards.

0:26:31.400 --> 0:26:34.719
<v Speaker 1>Most known species of this primitive group are found in

0:26:34.760 --> 0:26:40.119
<v Speaker 1>Africa and South America, but they also occur in the Caribbean, Mexico,

0:26:40.600 --> 0:26:45.640
<v Speaker 1>the Middle East, and even Florida. With tails that resemble

0:26:45.720 --> 0:26:50.040
<v Speaker 1>their heads. Worm lizards range anywhere from ten to seventy

0:26:50.119 --> 0:26:54.199
<v Speaker 1>centimeters long and have rings of scales that wrap around

0:26:54.240 --> 0:26:59.920
<v Speaker 1>their bodies meat eating predators. They search for prey underground burrow,

0:27:00.000 --> 0:27:05.159
<v Speaker 1>going through soil and loose sand, with strong, reinforced skulls

0:27:05.240 --> 0:27:10.159
<v Speaker 1>and muscular bodies. Specimens of worm lizards can be found

0:27:10.200 --> 0:27:14.040
<v Speaker 1>in museums all over the world, including the British Museum

0:27:14.119 --> 0:27:18.919
<v Speaker 1>of Natural History, eerily suspended in large jars of alcohol

0:27:19.080 --> 0:27:23.360
<v Speaker 1>to preserve them. ID cards list them as coming from

0:27:23.400 --> 0:27:29.000
<v Speaker 1>places like Guyana, the West Indies and Buenos Aires, but

0:27:29.200 --> 0:27:33.840
<v Speaker 1>specimens in museums are not always what they appear to be.

0:27:35.200 --> 0:27:39.600
<v Speaker 1>For nearly two hundred years, a mysterious giant gecko sat

0:27:39.640 --> 0:27:42.840
<v Speaker 1>in a storage area at the Natural History Museum of

0:27:42.920 --> 0:27:48.640
<v Speaker 1>Marseilles in France. No one knew anything about it, although

0:27:48.680 --> 0:27:52.679
<v Speaker 1>the style of taxidermy pointed to it having been collected

0:27:52.920 --> 0:27:57.720
<v Speaker 1>in the eighteen thirties. Larger than any gecko known today,

0:27:58.240 --> 0:28:01.000
<v Speaker 1>its main body was well ow for a foot long,

0:28:01.280 --> 0:28:04.520
<v Speaker 1>while its tail was another two feet long. On top

0:28:04.560 --> 0:28:07.760
<v Speaker 1>of that, it had always been thought to come from

0:28:07.800 --> 0:28:12.600
<v Speaker 1>New Zealand, but in twenty twenty three. Professor Matthew Heineke,

0:28:13.040 --> 0:28:18.159
<v Speaker 1>a herpetologist a specialist in reptiles and amphibians, applied the

0:28:18.240 --> 0:28:22.560
<v Speaker 1>latest DNA analysis to a sample taken from the specimen's

0:28:22.600 --> 0:28:26.600
<v Speaker 1>FEMA and compared the results with a data set of

0:28:26.680 --> 0:28:31.080
<v Speaker 1>the entire gecko family tree. It turned out that the

0:28:31.160 --> 0:28:34.320
<v Speaker 1>giant gecko was not from New Zealand at all, but

0:28:34.480 --> 0:28:39.680
<v Speaker 1>instead closely related to geckos found today in New Caledonia,

0:28:40.320 --> 0:28:44.480
<v Speaker 1>an island in the southwest Pacific Ocean, a good seven

0:28:44.560 --> 0:28:49.320
<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty miles east of New Zealand. Could it

0:28:49.360 --> 0:28:53.520
<v Speaker 1>be that the Mongolian death worm has, in actuality already

0:28:53.600 --> 0:29:00.479
<v Speaker 1>been found, Perhaps decades ago Russian herpetologists, out hunting for

0:29:00.520 --> 0:29:05.000
<v Speaker 1>snakes in the Gobi Desert unwittingly caught one and added

0:29:05.040 --> 0:29:10.800
<v Speaker 1>it obliviously to their reptile collections. Is it out there now,

0:29:11.280 --> 0:29:17.680
<v Speaker 1>lurking suspended in alcohol in a dusty jar, somewhere unidentified

0:29:18.000 --> 0:29:22.800
<v Speaker 1>and long forgotten in the dark, cavernous basement of some

0:29:22.960 --> 0:29:29.320
<v Speaker 1>former Soviet era museum. That question, and the true identity

0:29:29.600 --> 0:29:33.360
<v Speaker 1>of the Mongolian death worm, for the time being at least,

0:29:34.040 --> 0:29:43.360
<v Speaker 1>remains unexplained. This episode was written by Diane Hope and

0:29:43.440 --> 0:29:48.440
<v Speaker 1>produced by me Richard McLean Smith. Diane is an audio

0:29:48.440 --> 0:29:51.520
<v Speaker 1>producer and sound recordiced in her own right. You can

0:29:51.560 --> 0:29:54.960
<v Speaker 1>find out more about her work at Dianhope dot com

0:29:55.000 --> 0:30:00.120
<v Speaker 1>and on Instagram at in the sound Field. Unexplained as

0:30:00.160 --> 0:30:04.440
<v Speaker 1>an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain Smith.

0:30:05.120 --> 0:30:08.400
<v Speaker 1>All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are

0:30:08.440 --> 0:30:13.080
<v Speaker 1>also produced by me Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The book

0:30:13.120 --> 0:30:17.080
<v Speaker 1>and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can

0:30:17.120 --> 0:30:21.720
<v Speaker 1>purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores.

0:30:22.400 --> 0:30:25.480
<v Speaker 1>Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get

0:30:25.480 --> 0:30:28.280
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0:30:28.320 --> 0:30:31.680
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0:30:31.720 --> 0:30:34.480
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0:30:34.520 --> 0:30:37.240
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