Destination Truth (2007) s01e01 Episode Script

On this episode of Destination Truth, Josh investigates dinosaur sightings and the lost world that is now Papua New Guinea.
The body was like this.
Can you take us to where you saw this animal? But Josh finds more than he bargained for in the jungle night.
Here's something.
What is that? Holy Do you remember the first episode of Lost? It's that thing.
Then Josh searches the Papua New Guinea coast for a mermaid-like creature said to lurk in the Pacific Ocean.
Are you guys getting anything? What's that? I'm Josh Gates.
My travels have taken me to the most exotic and mysterious places on Earth.
I've seen some unexplainable things which have raised some strange questions.
Now, I've pulled together a crack team armed with the latest technology to search for answers.
I'm not sure what's out there waiting for me, but I know what I'm looking for.
The truth.
I come across all kinds of interesting articles in my research, but whenever I read about the authorities or police getting involved, it always makes me want to investigate further.
So, when I came across a piece in the largest and most trusted newspaper in Papua New Guinea, The National, about a SWAT team armed with M16s and shotguns hunting down a dinosaur, I knew I had to get to the bottom of this.
Apparently, the Papua New Guinea police got involved when several eyewitnesses in Tinganavudu, a small village in Kokopo, on the island of New Britain, claimed to have run into an Iguanodon, a type of dinosaur thought to have been extinct for millions of years.
But according to everything I read, the old guy was not only still kicking around, but eating small animals in the swamps of Tinganavudu Village.
Now, if this story came out of anywhere but Papua New Guinea, I probably wouldn't give it the time of day, but since this is one of the least explored countries in the world, with well over 200,000 reptiles and amphibian specimens thought to exist there and thousands of new species of flora and fauna discovered each year, even scientists refer to it as the lost world.
So before you could say unnecessary Spielberg sequel, my team and I landed in Port Moresby with our vast array of tracking gear so I could find out for myself if there really are dinosaurs living in the jungles here.
The game plan was for the team and I to hit the ground running and head straight to the village where the Iguanodon dinosaur had reportedly been spotted, to interview eyewitnesses, and collect and analyze all the evidence we'd find there.
Ready to go? You would not believe the captain we had on this flight.
This guy came on and was like, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to London.
" And then there was this long beat, and he was like, "Excuse me, Auckland.
" I'm not kidding, just like had no idea what city he'd just flown to.
On our way out of town, we stopped to see an anthropology professor who had received some interesting photos of what the natives were calling the bones of an Iguanodon.
That's big, all right, that's huge.
Those are enormous.
Look at the size Is it just vertebrae, or do they have other skeletal pieces as well? So, very recent.
And is it possible that what we're looking at here are the remains of something previously thought to be extinct? People think that it's a type of whale? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued by these pictures, but the only way to find out if these bones were actually those of an Iguanodon was to travel to the village where they were found.
There was just one problem.
The current estimate now is 11 hours to this village.
Yeah, it's 3:00 almost.
It looks like maybe we'll get there by 2:00 in the morning.
Apparently, the village where these bones were unearthed and where several eyewitnesses claim to have come across a living, breathing Iguanodon, was on a remote island 495 miles from civilization.
So the only way to get to Papua New Guinea's version of Jurassic Park is by flying to the small town of Kavieng, driving down the unpaved dirt roads along the coast of New Britain, and finally taking banana boats equipped with engines with about as much horse power as a lawn mower, across the open sea during monsoon season.
It's times like these I think flying coach isn't so bad.
We finally reach Kalil Village around 4:00 a.
m.
And prepared our boats to launch to the Iguanodon grounds of Tinganavudu.
So, this is our boat.
It's Always Tears Under, or Always Tears Under, not a great name for a boat.
But "tears" or "tears," we're going to see.
What this is here is a personal rescue device.
I'll be carrying this with me.
If for some reason the boat sinks, what you need to do is if I haven't activated this, you need to activate this.
Beautiful morning here in Papua New Guinea.
Sun's up.
No clouds.
Perfect boating weather.
Our guide suggested we wait till dawn to launch across the ocean, so we could at least see any trouble coming, which is exactly what you want to hear when getting into a boat without a life preserver.
This is like the end of Castaway.
I mean, if we're going out, we're going out.
We got to drop it and go.
World's Deadliest Catch, Season 4.
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
Grab that oar.
Guys, we got to move the boat! Row! Holy Can't turn back now.
Our own personal Poseidon Adventure ended up costing us one camera, six pairs of socks and Wilson, a volleyball I had found and became friends with.
But I wasn't going to let a couple of shoddy canoes and a perfect storm stop me from getting to the bottom of this dinosaur investigation.
So, I called in the cavalry.
Peter, hello.
We need a helicopter.
Helicopters don't come cheap, but maxing out my Visa was well worth it because before I knew it, we were crossing the treacherous sea and headed to the small village where there had not only been multiple Iguanodon sightings reported, but where the pictures of the giant bones had been taken, as well.
I didn't know what to expect when we arrived at Tinganavudu.
Would the natives be friendly? Or would we suddenly find ourselves in some real-life mash-up of Deliverance and Apocalypse Now? Marc, what is that noise? Ready? Thankfully, this "dino" village welcomed us with not only open arms, but open buffet.
This is taro root? Yeah.
And what is this? Papaya, yeah? It was like a jungle version of Vegas, minus the smokers and guys handing out flyers for prostitutes.
Though if you were looking for a wife, there was always shell money.
Now, how much is the bride price? The bride price is about Is it Depends on the bride? I want to buy her.
I want to buy Virginia.
How much is Virginia's bride price? That costs a million of A million? I know.
Virginia's very valuable.
Very expensive, Virginia.
Things were going along great with the natives, until we were told that if you want to ask the villagers about the Iguanodon dinosaur, you have to be initiated into the tribe first.
Oh, the Buai.
Yeah.
I've had Buai.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I've had the Buai before.
What do What do we do? Okay, you need to take The first thing you do is you take the beetle nut out the shell.
Okay.
That's step one.
You just chew it, and then you take a piece of mustard, dip that in lime, and then you put that in your mouth.
The ten bottles of water we've got in the truck are not enough to get the taste of this out of your mouth.
Believe me.
Eric, the first thing you'll notice when you eat it is how immediately delicious it is.
All right.
You ready? Go.
Spit it out.
Spit it out.
Spit it out.
Spit it out.
Spring break Papua New Guinea.
Where's Marc Carter, and does he have his pants on? Oh, my God! I want all the Buai loaded into the trucks, right now.
We're taking it.
Luckily, what happens in Tinganavudu stays in Tinganavudu.
Wow.
After we recovered from our tribal initiation, everything was going according to plan, until we asked if we could see the dinosaur bones.
And Eshmael's house is back here? Yeah.
I thought it was Eshmael, not Israel.
Israel? Yeah.
Didn't we just go through this, and it turned into Eshmael? Okay, but we want to talk to the chief of the village.
Where is he? So let's go.
We have heard a story about someone here having, um, bones.
Does he know anything about that? What does he say? It turned out Eshmael no longer had the bones.
When was this? Apparently, treasure and bounty hunters are a big problem out here.
So while I couldn't get my hands on the bones, I could track down the Mayor, and find out why exactly he had put together a SWAT team to hunt down a dinosaur that some say hasn't roamed the Earth since the land before time.
The Mayor agreed to take us to the other local eyewitnesses, so I could find out if what they had seen indeed fit a dinosaur description.
Did it look Did it look like this? The body was like this.
The head like the dog, dog's head.
Eyes red.
Okay.
Long neck.
He got long tail.
The unique thing about this thing was that it was very huge, which never have I in this country been beside something so huge like that.
What intrigued me the most about all of these eyewitness accounts is that the largest game typically found in this area of Papua New Guinea are spiders and wild pigs.
But what these witnesses were describing did not sound like Wilbur and Charlotte to me.
This is the foot? That's the foot.
How close to here did you see this animal? About one kilometer.
One kilometer? Can you take us to where you saw this animal? We can go? Yeah.
Let's go.
It is extremely dark and extremely creepy out here.
Very creepy.
Here's something.
What is that? Holy Did it look like this? The body was like this.
The head like the dog, dog's head.
Can you take us to where you saw this animal? We can go? Yeah.
Let's go.
So, Mary, is this the area where you saw the creature? And where exactly did you see it? So the head was down here? Body was here? The tail was all the way down here? We scoured the grounds where Mary claimed to have seen the dinosaur and were surprised to find large sections of broken tree branches and trampled earth where it appeared that something of significant size might have traveled.
Given the physical evidence and the several eyewitness accounts, I decided that this would be the best place for capturing first-hand evidence of the reported dinosaur sightings.
The first thing we should definitely do is break out the tarps, get everything covered, so we can get If we're going to use the tents, we can do that.
This area here has a couple of trees.
We can start rigging up the tarps somehow between them.
Right.
We can use that as a kind of mainframe or whatever, however you want to rig it up.
Everything should be rain covered first, then we break out the gear.
Excellent.
Excellent.
So, let's get all the equipment up on the table now.
Let's see if this holds.
All right, we're in business.
Base camp up and running, we set up our infrared cameras and equipment in 200-meter perimeter in the surrounding forest and valley.
So if a dinosaur, or any large animal for that matter, walked through, we'd catch it on tape or see it with our own eyes.
It's like half of the entire country has never been walked through.
So, you know, Iguanodon or not, it's just incredible to be able to walk around in these parts of the country that are just totally untapped because you just don't know what you're going to come across.
Since the locals reported that the dinosaur killed several animals in the village, we brought a chicken for bait, which I then hung from a tree high because if nothing larger than a pig is supposed to be in these woods, then only a sizeable, un-catalogued predator could reach our PNGKFC.
I think I'm going to try to get this chicken in the line of sight, so we'll catch anything that comes near it on camera.
Something's eating this chicken tonight.
This is not wasted chicken.
Yeah.
Sun's going down.
Purell, please.
An entire shower of Purell in my mouth.
Once we get the four cameras up and running, in the infrared thermal imaging, we're going to need to be really quiet, really organized.
We need to be as still as possible, so we can pick up as much as we can that's, you know, not from our group.
As soon as the sun went down, all sorts of insects and animals and frogs came out, and you can just hear an unbelievable amount of sound right now.
It's almost just deafeningly loud to be standing here, listening to it.
And, um, just the entire thing has just sprung to life.
So, this is a Bullard.
It's essentially an advanced tactical sight.
And what it does is that it seeks out heat signatures in footprints, so I'm just going to scan the whole area, see what I see.
This is where our chicken camera is mounted.
Um, the camera itself is right here.
And it is providing a view of our chicken, which is being monitored on a laptop back at base camp.
It is extremely dark and extremely creepy out here.
Very creepy.
It's so dark out here that we need to use all of our senses to detect this supposed dinosaur.
Let's listen for any twigs breaking, branches snapping, any rustling in the bushes, and if you feel any vibrations or shifts in the ground, let me know.
What's this? LINDSAY: Something is definitely moving.
Look, right there.
See it? Yeah, it's totally there.
What is that? All right, Carter, let's go! Well, there's all this ground around here that looks trampled, looks freshly dug up, bigger than what I would imagine a pig's hooves would do, so let's see if we can find whatever's out here.
What is that? What is that? Where? If there's something around me, tell me.
What's that? Base camp, this is Josh.
Can you read what's coming out of my infrared? What is that? What is that? Where? ERIC: Go back.
Stay there.
You were just pointing at something.
If there's something around me, tell me.
You were pointing at it.
We saw it There it is.
There it is.
That is a dead chicken.
It's the chicken.
It's still warm? It's still warm.
It is a chicken.
There's some broken branches here, so I think something definitely came after this chicken.
I'm going to try and track whatever it was.
Let's take a walk.
Carter, it looks like there's a trail here heading deeper into the jungle.
They're pretty far away at this point.
Every once in a while, I get a little bit of a signal, but not much.
What's that? What's that? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Carter, are you rolling on this? Right there.
What the hell was that? There's something seriously big moving around that tree.
Dude.
Dude, whatever that is, it is big.
And it's moving.
I'm not kidding, dude, there is something huge in that tree.
You hear that? There is something really big in that bush.
Base camp, come in.
Everything okay? Well, there's something seriously big out here with me.
I need you guys to bring the rest of the tracking equipment so we can find whatever's out here.
Okay, well, I'm going to walk down there.
We got it.
Good.
What was it? What did it look like? I honestly tell you, I don't know what it was, but it's big and it's down there in the bushes.
I mean, could it be a villager? No, like big animal moving around in the bushes.
Do you remember the first episode of Lost? Yes.
It's that thing.
It's right behind that fallen tree.
Right up in here.
And it's just all ripped out in here, you know, like something's been through here.
Lots of broken branches and things are just ripped apart in here.
A praying mantis.
Where? Right there.
On that leaf.
Mmm-hmm.
What is it? It's like a little It's a praying mantis.
Unless it is the world's strongest praying mantis, it was not that.
What we're going to do is, we're going to go in and survey this area and we're going to see if we can find any physical evidence of whatever it is that's moving around in here.
We're looking for heat signatures, we're looking for footprints, we're looking for any physical evidence at all, because something big is definitely moving around in these bushes.
What is that? What was that? It was down in there.
I heard it, too.
What do you want to do? It looks as though something might have broken through these trees here.
Let's just follow this along and see where it goes.
All right, we're going to head after this thing, I want everyone on full alert because whether it is a dinosaur or not, whatever it is, it's huge and it went after that chicken, so it's apparently hungry.
So, everyone, be on guard.
This looks like where the trail ends.
All right, guys, this is a no-go at this point.
This is all just turning into swamp, and it's way too thick.
Let's just go back to base camp, look over what we got, and we'll just make a new game plan there.
Did you get anything on tape? Carter, do you have it on tape? The trees moving.
There's something there.
Totally.
Freak me out.
Oh, wow.
JOSH: You see that? What is that? It's an animal.
Something big.
How big a movement was it? It was significant.
Significant.
I mean, it was something of significant size moving around in the bushes here.
The whole right side of the screen was moving around.
There's definitely something big banging around in the bushes out there, rustling big trees.
Definitely did not see the actual animal itself.
I couldn't image anything on the thermal.
No footprints that I could make out.
I just heard it.
No way it was a person, no way it was a bird.
There's something big in there walking around.
Okay, I want you guys to keep monitoring the surveillance cameras, see if whatever's out here decides to show itself.
With any hope of catching up with this nocturnal creature evaporating as the sun rose, I decided to put together a team to retrace our steps from the night encounter.
I think if we got a guy with an M16, we should bring him.
There could be a dinosaur out there.
Right.
Okay.
Excuse me? The gentleman with the M16.
In the light of day, we searched for any tracks, broken branches, or any other possible dino evidence we might have missed from the night before.
This area's really dense.
It's also very difficult to search in here.
It's so thickly wooded, that to do an exhaustive search in this area is incredibly difficult.
Before we came in here, I didn't really realize just how thick and dense and swampy it would be.
The further into the jungle we forged, the more it felt like we were getting closer to something.
Let's go look.
Come on.
But the something we found wasn't like anything I expected to come across in the jungles of Papua New Guinea.
I don't know if they're logging out here or what.
It's weird.
They've got 20 guys with machetes, but our guy's got an M16, so that helps.
What are these men doing? It's not possible for us to look around? We will not disturb anything or touch anything.
Not this area.
These guys seem really serious about us not looking around here.
I've done many crazy things in my life, base jumping, mountain climbing, taking a first date to Showgirls.
So, when faced with a militia of bounty hunters armed with machetes and pistols, I made the executive decision any brave leader would.
Let's go.
They say we can skirt around the boundary of this area they're working in and continue looking.
Limited to the strange imprints, broken branches and, of course , our encounter footage from the night before, we decided to break down camp and head back to Port Moresby in order to send our visual and audio evidence back to the U.
S.
For additional expert analysis to see what explanations they might have for what's out in those jungles.
But instead of twiddling my thumbs while waiting for the results, I decided to make the most of my time and investigate a local legend I kept hearing over and over again as I traveled around Papua New Guinea.
That there is an aquatic animal with features resembling a mermaid living in a reef off the coast of New Ireland.
Plus, there was a fisherman who claimed to have not only seen this Ri Mermaid, but caught it, chopped off its head and buried its bones.
I had to get to the bottom of this, and if there was anywhere to start an investigation into the truth behind these Ri stories, a mermaid graveyard would be it.
You saw a mermaid this morning? Yeah.
Well, let's go to see.
Tell me that's not a mermaid.
The one thing I didn't expect to hear when traveling through Papua New Guinea was that there was a local creature with features resembling a mythical mermaid living off the coast of New Ireland.
If you're like me, the first thing that pops into your mind when someone mentions a mermaid is either Daryl Hannah or a cartoon musical featuring a talking crab with a Jamaican accent.
But there were several reports of fisherman spotting what they call a "Ri" in the waters of Papua New Guinea, which are some of the least catalogued waters in the world.
But the most compelling information I came across in my research was that there was a fisherman who claimed to not only have seen this creature, but caught it, chopped off its head, and buried its bones.
If there was anywhere to start an investigation into the truth behind these Ri stories, a mermaid graveyard would be it.
Unfortunately, Papua New Guinea airport had other plans.
Our flight's supposed to leave at 9:15, and it's now 9:05 and we're still trying to get on a flight.
There are problems with our excess baggage.
Um, and the Papua New Guinea airport is not the most efficient.
We got them.
Ticket finally in hand, we made it through security with some extra friendly patting down and headed toward a small village, Nokon, where the man who claimed to have the Ri Mermaid bones lived, and where several fisherman reported seeing it in the waters of Elizabeth Bay.
We landed in Kavieng and grabbed some vehicles for the long journey to mermaid ground zero.
We're going to a new island.
It's Nokon Village.
It's by Elizabeth Bay.
This is where the mermaids have said to be seen.
Supposedly, there is a gentleman there that has a skeleton of the mermaid, but would not show it to any of the press.
Our security team advised us to stop for supplies at Namatanai because after that, we'd be beyond the civilization barrier.
While I grabbed water and power bars, Neil was checking out the local delicacies.
Why do you keep picking up corned beef? Seriously.
I mean, are you out of your mind? Go ahead.
Get local corned beef.
Enjoy that tonight.
It'd be good.
Just make sure you get an extra six-pack of toilet paper with that.
"Hi-Way Chicken.
" No.
Eric? Yeah.
This guy on the left, this support guy Uh-huh? He's got a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
Is he sitting on the gasoline canisters? Right there.
He's ashing it right down on top of the gas containers.
He's a pro.
After a long and slightly treacherous drive, we finally reached the village of the man who claimed to have the remains of the Ri Mermaid.
That's his house? The little blue house? Yes.
Perfect mermaid spot.
He knows of the story of the mermaid? Yes.
He does? Yeah.
And we heard a story about a mermaid that was found dead, whose head was cut off.
Does he know about this mermaid? Yes, sure.
Where did that happen? Just down there.
Uh, coconut tree.
They buried the mermaid under a coconut tree? Yeah.
Just down there.
And he can show me that spot? He can take me to the spot where the mermaid was buried? Um, yes.
Let's go.
Okay.
This spot right here? How deep did they bury? The mermaid was caught on the net, the fishing net up there, and then it was pulled It was brought in here? Brought in here, and that is where it was buried.
Okay.
Oh, shovel.
Can I have the shovel? Thank you very much.
He dug the hole.
Oh, he dug a hole? Yeah.
That's the fellow.
You dug the mermaid hole? Himself, together with other boys.
How deep? About a meter? Waist-high.
Yeah.
Or a little more? Yeah.
Is this the only shovel we have? That's the only one.
That's the only shovel we have? Yes.
Yes.
I'm looking for a mermaid underground.
This already seems extremely dubious.
Well, we're way past a meter.
I mean, it's all roots down here.
I just don't I don't know if they could dig any deeper than this, and I feel like if something was in this If something was in-between these two trees, I would have found it by now.
There's other villages, though, down a ways with people to talk to, right? Let's go find a mermaid.
Finding nothing but sand and roots at the mermaid graveyard, I decided to travel further down the shore to meet the fisherman who claimed to have seen the Ri Mermaid in Elizabeth Bay.
JB? I'm Josh.
Nice to meet you.
Is this your boat? Yeah.
You've seen her? Yeah.
When did you see her? Uh, this morning.
You saw one this morning? Yeah.
You saw a mermaid this morning? You sure? Yeah.
Well, let's go to see.
Tell me that's not a mermaid.
Are you guys getting anything? What's that? Is this your boat? Yeah.
You've seen her? Yeah.
When did you see her? This morning.
You saw a mermaid this morning? You sure? Yeah.
Well, let's go to see.
We grabbed a boat and headed to the tiny island reef where our fisherman had claimed to have seen a Ri Mermaid earlier that day.
The team would split in two, with myself, Neil, and Marc searching underwater for the creature, while the rest of the crew monitored our surveillance equipment which included a PiranhaMAX fishfinder sonar unit, which would detect anything large, like a shark or a mermaid, for that matter , swimming in the water.
And a DolphinEAR hydrophone underwater listening device hooked up to our laptop to record any abnormal sound which could be the Ri Mermaid.
If you were to hear a mermaid, what do you think it would sound like? Well It sounds like a whale call.
Yeah.
It sounds like a whale call? I think it would sound more like a dolphin.
How do you tell that it's not a whale then, if it sounds like a whale call? There you go.
Little Mermaid, right? Boys II Men? Hank! The dive team and myself got ready to explore some caves along the underwater reef where the Ri Mermaid is supposed to hide.
Tell me that's not a mermaid.
I think it's a log.
You may think it's a log.
But I know, as an expert, that that is a mermaid.
How many mermaids have you seen in your life? None.
Well, you've just seen one because that is a mermaid.
I've seen a tail flipper.
Well, keep looking.
There had been numerous sightings here, suggesting the Ri would be the size of a human with the tail of a fish and would be hiding in the caves along this reef.
Luckily, we'd brought a sonar unit to scan inside the dark crevices.
This is a handheld sonar unit.
Um, we'll make kind of low sweeps with it in the water.
It'll detect objects by bouncing sonar waves off of the back of the unit.
It's a great way of detecting moving things in dark places.
Carter, this is like Apollo era.
I'm going to be Buzz Aldrin in this thing.
This just takes the cool factor right out.
I mean, this is ridiculous.
There's a wall out here that goes straight down.
It's almost a straight vertical drop.
And that goes down to over 100 meters, so what we'll do is, we'll descend down the wall.
There's a series of caves and caverns underneath the island here.
We'll take a look in those and, um, explore those as best we can, and, uh, probably bottom out at around 20 or 30 meters.
This is the island where supposedly the mermaids came from according to the witnesses we talked to.
So, I mean, if we're going to find a mermaid, it will probably be down there.
I'm seeing a little bit of activity here.
It looks like something's approaching them on the sonar.
I'm hearing something strange.
Do you want to check this out? I hear something.
What's that? I hear something that sounds like bubbles, and I hear something that sounds like scratching.
I'm hearing all kinds of bubbles now.
Check it.
It doesn't sound like the divers.
What are you seeing on the fishfinder? It looks like it's about eight-and-a-half for every two meters.
What is this, though? All right.
So, what do you think that blob would be? Tough to say.
I really don't know.
I've been looking at this for hours, I haven't see anything like that.
Are you guys getting anything? I don't know what it is, but it's headed for that sunken boat.
We'll see if we can amplify whatever that scratching noise is.
You picking any of that up at all? It's gone.
Where'd it go? Is that it? I see bubbles.
I don't know what it is, but it's headed for that sunken boat.
Where did it go? I don't know, but it's not there anymore.
So we just wait.
All right, I see bubbles.
I think they're coming up.
Shut it down.
All right.
Lots of fish, lots of coral, big sunken boat, no mermaid.
Not finding a mermaid or Long John Silver's treasure in the sunken ship, I decided to take another swing at our native eyewitnesses as I had a few more questions about what exactly it was they were seeing out there in the sea.
What did she look like? What is her appearance? She look like a woman.
And her hair's black? Her hair's black? A pig.
A pig? She looks like a pig? Her hair is like a pig? The head looks like a dugong? Well, then how do you know it's not a dugong? The tail is different.
The tail is different? Yeah.
So the head is like a dugong, but the tail is like a fish? Yes.
You sure? JB said he was sure, but I was pretty sure I'd heard something like this before in regards to the European mermaid myth, which gained popularity after sailors spotted manatees in the tropics.
Armed with this new information, I decided to regroup the team and go over our findings.
I think more than anything, what we've got here is just people passing down a story and passing down a myth, and also people visually seeing a dugong.
It does have a head that's kind of human-ish.
And I think that that's probably what this is.
So unless that log in the water actually turns out to be a petrified mermaid, I'm pretty confident in saying that the mermaid sightings in Papua New Guinea are dugongs.
Unless somebody wants to argue with me, I think that we can say with a pretty high degree of certainty that there are no mermaids here.
What I still wasn't positive about, though, was whether or not the giant animal I came across in the jungles outside of Tinganavudu was an Iguanodon dinosaur or not.
So, I headed back to the States to meet with a zoologist, who had lived and studied in Papua New Guinea, to go over our night-encounter footage and the pictures of the mysterious giant bones.
I mean, it's safe to say that whatever we're looking at here is enormous, yeah? Yeah.
It's a big animal.
Yeah.
This is bigger than an Iguanodon.
Yeah.
It's got vertebrae the size of a tire.
Yeah.
So, it's definitely a really, really large animal.
The thing about these vertebrae that are compelling to me is these little markings here.
So this makes me think that they look like maybe the tail section of maybe some kind of a cetacean.
What would be a cetacean that's large enough to Well, the one that comes to mind is sperm whale.
It is a large whale that occurs periodically in New Guinea's waters.
And sometimes whole pods, a whole group of them will beach, which can account for the numbers of bones that you see here.
We definitely came across something at night.
So we have some footage of that, which we'd like you to look at.
Okay.
So, this is footage we shot in Papua New Guinea, and obviously it's late at night, it's dark.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
See, this extends way out, too.
I mean, we're talking about maybe 15 feet of tree really moving.
Is there anything in your experience that you think lines up with what's catalogued and what's known to live in Papua New Guinea? The one animal that can occur in these areas is the saltwater crocodile.
How large do these saltwater crocodiles get? Twenty, 22, 24 feet in length.
That's huge.
A 20-foot crocodile! Yeah.
So you say this was near an actual swamp? It was near a swamp.
A swamp that was treed or swamp that had just marshy It was a swamp that was treed.
Okay.
You know, maybe they found the swampy area.
There's lots of food.
And they do live in these waters.
They can obviously come on land.
At least a few of the eyewitness reports that would be somewhat consistent with because it seems like some of the descriptions we got were, it's something that was reptilian, but that wasn't necessarily that high off the ground.
Just something very large or lizard-y.
Large and low.
They're big.
If they bumped up against something, you know, a tree And they can move fairly quickly when they need to, yeah? If they need to, they can move quickly.
And you know, it seems like you would see them more often walking around at night.
You know, that would be a time you would think that a large reptile would be out walking.
So, and if it's swampy area, that's the only thing I can think of that would be large enough that could make sounds like that and, you know, be mistaken for something like a large dinosaur.
The doctor's saltwater crocodile theory was the most logical answer that I'd come across for what might really be out there in the jungles of Papua New Guinea.
The only thing he couldn't explain, though, was how a saltwater crocodile could affect trees and break branches that high off the ground.
Look, I can't say with any sort of certainty that we had a run in with a dinosaur out there.
But it is safe to say we had some sort of close encounter with a large animal of some sort out in the forest, possibly something not previously catalogued to live in that region.
Iguanodon? I don't know.
A big, scary creature thrashing trees around very close to me? Yes.
I only know what I experienced first-hand out there in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, and ultimately the rest of the world will have to make up their own minds, because I had a flight booked to another country with other mysteries to investigate.
So, I boarded my plane and kept my fingers crossed that my next search wouldn't involve treacherous boat rides or digging up mermaid bones.