0:00

The future is a hefty responsibility and

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not one that we take lightly. But then

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taking things lightly has never been what

0:06

hefty is about. That's why we've created the

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Hefty Renew program that turns hard to

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recycle plastics into valuable resources like park benches

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and building materials. To participate,

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simply fill up an orange hefty renew bag

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with accepted items, tie it up and drop

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it in with your regular recycling. That's it.

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It's that easy. It's time to

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rethink recycling with Renew. Particular-valued

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resources may vary by geography. More

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info available at hestrerenew.com. Welcome

0:31

to Lore Legends, a subset of lore

0:33

episodes that explore the strange tales we

0:35

whisper in the dark, even

0:38

if they can't always be proven by

0:40

the history books. So if

0:42

you're ready, let's begin. A

0:57

wise man once said, life, uh, finds

1:00

a way. Of course, that was

1:02

before dinosaurs took over the island he was

1:04

on. But even though a film like Jurassic

1:06

Park is just science fiction, there's still truth

1:08

in those words. Because no matter how hard

1:11

nature tries to keep a species down, they

1:13

will always fight back. For

1:15

example, before the Industrial Revolution, peppered

1:17

moths often had white wings, which

1:19

helped them blend into the light-colored

1:22

bark and lichen of local trees.

1:24

Darkwing moths were much more rare

1:27

because they stood out. But coal-burning

1:29

factories began spewing gallons of soot

1:31

into the air, turning the once-light

1:33

trees much darker. All of

1:36

a sudden, those white moths were bright

1:38

and visible against the trees, making them

1:40

easy prey for any passing bird. Pretty

1:43

soon, the peppered moth population started to

1:45

dwindle. That is, until they

1:47

adapted and evolved. Dark-colored moths

1:49

quickly grew in numbers, simply

1:52

because they were better able to blend

1:54

against the now soot-covered trees and therefore

1:56

survive for longer periods of time. Humanity

1:59

almost killed the peppered moth, but

2:01

life found a way. But

2:04

moths aren't the only creatures capable of

2:06

giving nature a run for its money.

2:08

And it's that notion of surviving the

2:10

odds and sticking around that has led

2:12

to the creation of some amazing stories.

2:15

Tales that try to answer the

2:17

question, what becomes of an animal

2:19

that outlasts the dinosaurs and Ice

2:21

Age and multiple extinction events only

2:24

to wind up among us. And

2:26

as we'll see, they often become

2:29

legends. I'm

2:31

Aaron Mankie and this is

2:34

Lore Legends. Since

2:48

the 1950s, a popular theory has arisen

2:50

regarding cryptids. Essentially that they are much

2:52

older than we realize. Some

2:54

might even call them living fossils. In

2:57

the mid 1950s, British author and zoologist

3:00

Maurice Burton defined a living fossil as

3:02

an organism that has survived beyond

3:04

its era. For example, some

3:07

have speculated that the famous Loch Ness

3:09

Monster is actually a plesiosaur, a dinosaur

3:11

that should have got extinct over 60

3:13

million years ago with the rest of

3:15

its kind. Around the

3:18

same time Burton coined his definition, sightings

3:20

of a living fossil began cropping up

3:22

all over New Zealand. It

3:24

was called a moa, a Polynesian name

3:26

that came to represent nine species of

3:29

large flightless birds native to the island.

3:32

Individual examples can be as small as 25 pounds or

3:34

as large as 550 pounds with females weighing

3:38

much more than males. Now

3:41

you would imagine that something that heavy would

3:43

be difficult to get into the sky, but

3:45

that's not actually why they are flightless. No,

3:47

the moa couldn't fly because they had no

3:50

wings, not even a trace of them, but

3:52

they did bear a slight resemblance to the

3:54

emu with feathery domed backs and long necks.

3:56

Their feet were similar too with three toes

3:58

up front and and a smaller one in the

4:01

back. They're commonly referred to

4:03

as megafauna, a category of large

4:05

creatures that includes woolly mammoths and

4:07

mastodons. Even though these giants were,

4:10

well, quite large, they were hardly

4:12

apex predators. Moa mostly ate grasses

4:14

and leaves, making them herbivores. And

4:16

they were even at risk of

4:18

becoming dinner themselves, being preyed upon

4:20

by their natural enemy, the Hast's

4:22

Eagle. But neither species lived long

4:24

once humans arrived in New Zealand.

4:26

Early Polynesian settlers ate their eggs

4:28

and even the birds themselves. They

4:30

used the feathers and skin to

4:32

make clothing while their bones were turned into

4:34

fish hooks and decorative pendants. The

4:36

Moa and the Hast's Eagle were forced

4:39

into extinction pretty quickly. They

4:41

eventually faded into history, relegated to

4:43

campfire stories and likened to other

4:46

folklore creatures, such as the flying

4:48

reptile known in Africa as the

4:50

kangamato. There was no way the

4:52

Moa was coming back, or so

4:54

everyone thought. Some say

4:56

that of all the cryptids believed to

4:58

have lived in New Zealand, the Moa

5:01

is the one that may still exist.

5:03

Cryptozoologist Bernard Hoivlemans said that they were

5:05

shy birds that liked to be alone,

5:07

meaning that they may have found safe

5:09

haven far from the prying eyes and

5:11

the pointy spears of humans. But

5:13

they may not have stepped too far away. During

5:16

the 1800s, numerous sightings

5:18

of large feathered creatures were reported

5:20

and even painted by naturalists, artists,

5:22

and other explorers. In

5:25

another story, a whaling ship called Magnolia

5:27

allegedly captured an enormous 500 pound bird

5:29

in 1844. The

5:32

captain, who also moonlit as a taxidermist,

5:34

made sure to preserve it and shipped

5:36

it off to the British Museum in

5:38

London, except it never

5:40

arrived and no one has seen it since.

5:44

16 years after the Magnolia, a survey

5:46

party in the mountains of Northern South

5:48

Island reported the discovery of strange animal

5:51

prints. Whatever had made them possessed feet

5:53

with three toes, measuring 14 inches long.

5:56

A group of miners followed up with a statement of

5:58

their own in 1864. 1967

6:01

they had spotted a moa in July of

6:03

that year in the southern part of South

6:05

Island One minor wrote a letter

6:07

to the local paper about what he had

6:09

seen He claimed to have witnessed the moa

6:11

on Saturday, July 27th in the middle of

6:13

the afternoon He had been sitting near

6:15

a fire in a hut that he shared with

6:18

other men when he suddenly noticed something by the

6:20

mountains in a distance It was

6:22

more than a mile away as he

6:24

struggled to understand what the strange animal

6:26

was his companions shouted It's a

6:28

moa. It ran quickly

6:30

clearly unaffected by its massive size

6:32

the minor compared it to movements

6:34

of the emu or ostrich a

6:37

few minutes later It was gone the

6:39

men tried to follow its tracks in the

6:41

snow that had fallen along the range But

6:43

a fresh blanket was filling in around them

6:45

and making it hard to see the footprints

6:48

clearly And since then a number

6:50

of other moa sightings have been reported

6:52

almost all of them from South Island

6:54

There are even statements from as recently

6:56

as 1994

6:58

when a hiker noticed the plants along his

7:00

trail had been damaged by what could only

7:02

be described as a moa So

7:05

is this mythical bird still running

7:07

rampant across New Zealand? Maybe

7:10

but it's not the only living fossil out

7:12

there ancient creatures exist all

7:14

over the world in the

7:16

land in the sky and

7:18

especially beneath the waves You

7:30

Far from the islands of New Zealand

7:33

are the Patagonian Andes located in western

7:35

Argentina But Patagonia is more than a

7:37

range of mountains along the tail of

7:39

America It's also home to

7:42

a lake that sits at its base known

7:44

as Nahau wapi And this

7:46

body of water is far from a shallow kiddie

7:48

pool going as deep as 1,400 feet in certain

7:50

spots It's

7:53

cool blue depths make for a tranquil

7:55

scene, but something lurks below its calm

7:57

waters It's said to be

7:59

as old as time itself, a relic that

8:01

should have gone extinct millions of years ago.

8:03

But it's still there, gliding through

8:05

the blue and waiting. Some

8:08

have called it the Patagonian Pliosaur,

8:10

while others refer to it as

8:12

Argentina's Loch Ness Monster. But most

8:14

locals refer to it by another

8:17

more unique name, Nahuelito. It's

8:19

been described as a large sea serpent

8:21

measuring between 30 and 50

8:23

feet long. And apparently the

8:26

Nahuelito has two hunches, leathery

8:28

skin, and occasionally a swan-like

8:30

neck. And although stories of

8:32

a massive lake creature go all the way back

8:34

to the first peoples who lived in the area,

8:37

the first use of the name Nahuelito

8:39

seems to have started around 1989.

8:41

This was the same time when Argentina

8:44

was becoming interested in North American tourism

8:46

as well. A coincidence? Maybe,

8:49

but maybe not. You see,

8:51

it was sighted long before that name

8:53

was coined. That being said, no one

8:56

actually knows what it is. The most

8:58

common belief, as I said before, is

9:00

that it's a plesiosaur, an aquatic reptile

9:02

from the Mesozoic era that has survived

9:04

until now. Witnesses who claim to have

9:07

seen it have described its long neck

9:09

and similar features to that of the

9:11

ancient creature. Except there's one small problem

9:13

with that theory. The lake and the

9:15

Andes Mountains around it weren't formed until

9:18

millions of years after the extinction of

9:20

the plesiosaur. Others believe the

9:22

monster is actually a creature affected by

9:24

nuclear fallout like a real-life Godzilla. Experiments

9:26

in nuclear fission were carried out during

9:28

the 1950s on an island

9:31

in the lake. Some people believe

9:33

that Nahuelito is a byproduct of

9:35

reckless seeing. And yet

9:37

sightings of an animal matching its

9:39

description long predate these experiments. The

9:42

Nahuelito has been thought to be everything

9:44

from a secret government submarine, to gas

9:47

bubbles, to floating logs or clusters of

9:49

sheep swimming together. In 1910, a

9:51

man named Percy Garrett

9:53

came forward claiming to have seen the creature

9:55

with his own eyes. He and his son

9:58

had been sailing on the lake when

10:00

they noticed something large in the water a

10:02

short distance away. According to a news article,

10:04

it was described as being, and I quote,

10:06

15 to 20 feet in diameter and

10:09

perhaps six feet above the water.

10:12

The father and son raced their sailboat

10:14

toward the object, but it disappeared almost

10:16

as quickly as it had derived. The

10:19

younger Garrett wasn't sure if it was a

10:21

plesiosaur, but it had definitely been a giant

10:23

animal of some kind. Percy asked

10:25

around and found out that native people

10:27

in the area were familiar with this

10:29

enormous creature. Yet despite living in

10:32

the region for a number of years,

10:34

neither Percy nor his son ever

10:36

saw the mysterious beast again. Sightings

10:39

continued through the seventies and eighties with

10:41

little evidence beyond shaky camera footage. But

10:45

in 1994, several individuals got a

10:47

closer look at the noveleto than

10:49

anyone had before. It was

10:52

New Year's Day and that had been sighted

10:54

in the waters of the lake. It had

10:56

gotten so close, one witness claimed that she

10:58

was able to hear the monster breathing. As

11:01

you might imagine, the noveleto has become

11:03

something of a town mascot. It's featured

11:05

on all kinds of souvenirs and merchandise.

11:07

As far as we know, it's still

11:09

out there, swimming and lurking. If

11:12

it's truly out there, though, then it's

11:14

hardly the only ancient creature that has

11:16

survived millions of years of climate change

11:18

and evolution. But if the stories

11:21

are true, this one is

11:23

much more dangerous. A

11:34

continent away in the deepest recesses of the

11:37

Congo is a creature that is believed to

11:39

be a true living fossil. This

11:41

ancient relic of another age has been described

11:43

as a sauropod with a head and neck

11:45

like a snake and a long tail. It

11:47

could be anywhere from 15 to 30 feet

11:49

long. And although

11:52

it's technically an herbivore, it's still a predator

11:54

and will kill any creatures that get too

11:56

close. I just won't eat them. It's

11:59

called Mokei- Mokhelemembe, which means one

12:02

who stops the flow of rivers in

12:04

the native language. This impressive

12:06

beast is about as close to a

12:08

living dinosaur as anyone has ever seen.

12:11

Now, as I said, it doesn't eat meat,

12:13

but that doesn't mean that it won't defend

12:15

itself if necessary. Hippopotami have

12:17

allegedly met unfortunate ends when

12:19

grazing too close to Mokhelemembe,

12:22

and humans haven't fared much better. In

12:25

fact, one cryptozoologist noted that wherever the

12:27

creature lives, hippos are nowhere to be

12:29

found. Of course, this is pure

12:32

speculation, but if it's true, then

12:34

that's one heck of a coincidence. Sightings

12:37

date back to 1776, when

12:39

a French missionary to the region

12:41

recorded footprints in the dirt measuring

12:43

three feet in circumference. According

12:46

to his report, they could only have come

12:48

from Mokhelemembe. Since then, others

12:50

have noted their own run-ins with the creature,

12:52

or at least with its tracks. In

12:55

the 1870s, for example, a British trader

12:57

in nearby Gabon claimed to have had

12:59

a similar experience when he wrote in

13:02

his memoirs that the prints he had

13:04

seen were about the size of a

13:06

good frying pan in circumference and had

13:08

three claws instead of five. In

13:11

1909, Mokhelemembe was one of

13:13

several dinosaur-like creatures catalogued in the

13:15

book Beasts and Men by circus

13:18

showman Carl Hagenbach. It's

13:20

likely that he was capitalizing on the

13:22

recent dinosaur craze sweeping the globe following

13:24

the discoveries of sauropod skeletons in 1905

13:26

and 1907. He

13:29

claimed, though, that he was told of a

13:31

huge monster living in the wilds of Africa

13:34

that was a combination of an elephant and

13:36

a dragon. And it was much

13:38

larger than 30 feet long, too. According

13:40

to Hagenbach's sensational description, it was

13:43

more like a brontosaurus. He chartered

13:45

an expedition to find it, but

13:47

nothing ever came of it. Four

13:50

years later, a German crew ventured into

13:52

the African jungle in search of Mokhelemembe,

13:54

but after being told about it by

13:56

local hunters in his official

13:58

reports of the expedition, Captain

14:00

von Stein also compared it to an

14:02

elephant and mentioned its long neck, but

14:05

added that it only had one, very

14:07

long, horn-like tooth. He

14:09

also noted that canoes that drifted too close

14:11

to it would be destroyed and the men

14:13

inside them killed, but not eaten. These

14:16

reports and witness statements only added to

14:18

the creature's notoriety and encouraged others to

14:21

come try their luck at finding it

14:23

themselves. And this fun went on until

14:25

1959 when it came to a violent end. A

14:29

group of locals claimed to have

14:31

killed Mokhelemenbe near Lake Telle in

14:33

the northeast Lekwala area of the

14:35

Republic of Congo. It didn't seem

14:37

like they had gone out intending to catch one

14:40

that day. The group had been fishing and

14:42

had built a dam of wooden spikes to

14:44

keep any large animals away. According

14:46

to their story though, Mokhelemenbe came up to

14:48

their makeshift wall and tried tearing it down.

14:50

And that's when the villagers turned their spears

14:53

on the beast, killing it once and for

14:55

all. But their victory was

14:57

short-lived. The creature was brought back to the

14:59

village, cooked and eaten. But

15:02

in a strange twist, apparently dead

15:04

or alive, Mokhelemenbe was a formidable

15:06

foe. Everyone who consumed that

15:08

meal soon passed away. Some

15:11

22 years later, new expeditions in search

15:13

of the animal were conducted with no

15:16

more success. Some teams couldn't

15:18

even make it to Lake Telle where the creature

15:20

dwelled. But one group did have some luck. In

15:23

1981, an American engineer led a team to

15:25

the lake where they camped out for two

15:27

whole weeks. And during

15:29

that time, they reported several sightings of

15:31

Mokhelemenbe. They spotted it breaching

15:33

the water to look around, along with what

15:36

they described as the sound of a low

15:38

windy roar over the surface. But

15:40

soon enough, that roar dropped to a growl. Unfortunately

15:43

they couldn't obtain any evidence of what

15:45

they had seen. The humidity in the

15:47

area had grown too high and their

15:49

cameras failed as a result. As

15:52

with all tales of Mokhelemenbe, all we have

15:54

to go on are the stories brought back

15:56

from the region. But that might

15:58

be enough to convince certain cryptozoologists. of

16:00

the creature's existence. As

16:02

it turns out, of all the mythical living

16:04

fossils in the world, Mokhele

16:06

Membe might be the most real

16:09

of them all. There's

16:22

something attractive about ancient holdovers from

16:25

movies and TV shows like The

16:27

Highlander or Marvel's Eternals, this notion

16:29

of something from deep in the

16:31

past managing to stick around into

16:33

the present is a thrilling

16:35

idea. Perhaps that's because

16:37

these living leftovers represent a piece of

16:39

what we've lost, or maybe

16:41

it's because we simply love rooting for

16:44

characters who defy the odds and extend

16:46

their presence well beyond normal expectations. Either

16:49

way, the living fossils of folklore offer

16:51

us a lot of thrills and chills.

16:54

As for Mokhele Membe, the jury is

16:56

still out on whether it's a real

16:58

living creature or not. Clearly the stories

17:00

have persisted, but is there an actual

17:02

animal behind them? It's hard to

17:05

answer that definitively. The one thing is for

17:07

certain, if you wanted to hide something away

17:09

from the world, the Likawala region of the

17:11

Congo is a great choice. Even

17:14

today, it's largely uncharted and covered

17:16

with swampy forest. Those who believe

17:18

in the stories argue that the

17:20

area has remained largely unchanged for

17:22

millennia, making it the ideal lost

17:24

world for a dinosaur to thrive in. Critics,

17:27

however, suggest that much of the topography

17:30

actually has changed with the mountains rising

17:32

and falling over time, changes that would

17:34

have had a major impact on any

17:36

animals living there. Today, the

17:39

debate is still open and still heated,

17:41

but whatever each side might offer as

17:43

proof of their argument, for you or

17:45

I, the priorities are much different. Mokhele

17:48

Membe represents something that lovers of folklore

17:50

can't help but get excited about. A

17:53

Story that's just too fantastical to be

17:55

possible and yet comes with centuries of

17:57

first-hand accounts to back it up. Each

18:00

of us gets to make up our

18:02

own mind. that is, of course until

18:05

one of two things happens which will

18:07

move the conversation in a whole new

18:09

direction. Either, definitive proof is discovered that

18:11

more Kelly men they is nothing more

18:13

than legend or someone somewhere will stumble

18:16

upon the evidence that we've all been

18:18

looking for. And either way

18:20

it's going to give us some amazing

18:22

stories to tell. Ancient

18:38

creatures that should have vanished long ago, but

18:40

somehow managed to hold on are one of

18:42

my favorite topics, and judging by the number

18:45

of stories about them out, there are not

18:47

the only one. So if that's you, I

18:49

hope today's tour through a few of them

18:52

was a rewarding journey. but don't go just

18:54

yet. I got one more living fossil tale

18:56

to tell. Stick around through this brief sponsor

18:58

break to hear all about it. This

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22:54

doesn't happen very often, but every now and then, a

22:56

species thought to have been extinct is

22:58

actually rediscovered as a living, breeding part

23:00

of our modern world. These

23:03

animals are called Lazarus taxon, and one

23:05

of the most famous examples is

23:07

the coelacanth. The coelacanth is

23:09

a fish, thought to have gone extinct millions

23:12

of years ago. They can grow

23:14

pretty large, too. Too big for most fish

23:16

tanks, that is, coming in at around 6

23:18

feet long and weighing nearly 200 pounds. You

23:21

might think that something so massive would have

23:23

been easier to find, but the coelacanth's elusive

23:26

nature speaks to just how large the ocean

23:28

truly is, and how much of it we

23:30

have yet to explore. Because

23:32

they have lived for so long, these

23:35

enormous fish have also developed some interesting

23:37

features that are all their own. For

23:39

one, they have something called a rostral

23:41

organ located in their snouts. This unique

23:43

trait makes up a component of the

23:45

animal's electro-sensory system, helping it catch prey

23:48

in the dark. It also

23:50

has an enormous mouth, thanks to

23:52

what the Smithsonian describes as, and

23:54

I quote, an intercranial joint or

23:56

hinge in the skull, and this allows

23:58

the coelacanth to open up its jaw much

24:01

wider than other fish. For

24:03

a very long time people thought that

24:05

it completely disappeared, but a fish that

24:07

large and unique couldn't hide forever. It

24:09

was only a matter of time before it was

24:12

finally found. Two days before Christmas in 1938, Captain

24:15

Hendrik Goosan caught something off the coast

24:18

of South Africa. Of course, a fisherman

24:20

catching fish wasn't all that uncommon, but

24:22

he had struck a deal with a

24:24

woman named Marjorie Courtney Latimer to let

24:26

her inspect anything in his net in

24:28

case there were some interesting specimens

24:30

there. Marjorie was the curator of

24:32

East London South Africa's Natural History

24:35

Museum and she was always on

24:37

the hunt for something new. Goosan

24:39

rang her up as he always did and she

24:42

hopped into a taxi to meet him on his

24:44

boat and as she sorted through the

24:46

pile of fish that he had brought in Marjorie

24:48

noticed a blue fin sticking out from the sharks

24:50

and the rays. She later said, I picked

24:53

away at the layer of slime to

24:55

reveal the most beautiful fish I had

24:57

ever seen. It was a pale mauve

24:59

blue with flecks of whitish spots. It

25:02

glistened in the sunlight and shades of

25:05

green, silver, and blue which reflected off

25:07

its armor-like scales. Its fins were huge,

25:09

almost like arms, and had a long

25:12

tail. Oh, and it was almost five

25:14

feet long too. Marjorie knew

25:16

that she had to get it back to the

25:18

museum, but the taxi driver took one look and

25:20

probably one whiff of the fish and told her

25:22

no. He wouldn't drive her with

25:24

that thing stinking up his cab. The

25:27

two argued and eventually came to an

25:29

agreement. The fish was allowed to ride

25:31

along with them back to the museum

25:34

and once she returned, Marjorie wrote to

25:36

another curator and fish expert J.L.B. Smith

25:38

and included a description and a sketch

25:40

of the animal along with her note.

25:43

Smith responded several days later. It

25:45

was as clear as day to him. Marjorie

25:47

had found a coelacanth. As

25:50

you'd imagine, the fish became a sensation

25:52

with 20,000 people reportedly coming

25:54

to see it the one day it was put

25:56

on display in the museum. Its

25:58

genus was named Latimeria, after

26:00

Miss Courtney Latimer herself. Almost

26:03

60 years later, a different species of

26:06

coelacanth was discovered over 6,000 miles away

26:09

off the coast of Indonesia. In fact, according to

26:11

the fossil record, there used to be around

26:13

90 species of these underwater

26:15

beasts occupying the ocean. Although the

26:17

two that we've discovered are considered

26:19

endangered, there may be more out

26:21

there just waiting to be discovered.

26:24

Because as I said before, life

26:27

finds a way. Here's

26:30

what this is about. I love this Maga. Delight.

26:32

If you want more of the videos you've them

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in the description, then go to ort commut o

26:46

Video Specification Web blog. The front of this

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freezer on by hesitancy. This

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is the Christine Bemusicl, and

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then the two of them are our bows that we've

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