NARRATOR: Houston, Texas, 2010. Doctors at the Texas
Heart Institute examine a 59-year-old man
complaining of chest pains and make an
astounding discovery. The patient has a
three-chambered heart, similar to that of a reptile. Researchers attributed
the rare condition to an evolutionary
phenomenon called atavism, when a lost trait of
a distant ancestor reemerges in a modern organism. GAGE CRUMP: So the idea is if
you look at where we evolved from, we were first fish. Fish have a two-chambered heart. And then we came on land. We're more like a reptile. That has a
three-chambered heart. And then, eventually, we have
a four-chambered heart as we became mammals and then humans. So interestingly,
during development, that same sequence of evolution
is played out again as embryos. So if there's any sort of defect
in the embryo along the way, it could get stalled out
at that earlier state. And now this man
has a heart that's more typical of our distant
ancestors, the reptiles. NARRATOR: While the discovery of
a human with a reptilian heart is incredibly rare,
other genetic conditions have been found that suggest
a link with reptiles. Since the 1800s, over
100 cases of human tails have been reported
in medical journals. People with the
disease ichthyosis have dry, scaly skin. And people with
the diseases called syndactyly and
ectrodactyly have fused fingers and claw-like hands. But if such anatomical
irregularities are a link to our
ancient ancestors, as some scientists
suggest, could it be that they are not the
remnants of a reptilian stage in human development
but, instead, reveal that humans
once commingled with reptilian aliens? Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes and believe that further clues
can be found in the stories of China's first emperor, Fuxi. Fuxi is one of the
mythical rulers of China. And he is considered to be the
original or prototypical man. He was created along
with his sister, Nuwa. They were humanoid
in form in the sense that their upper bodies
were that of humans, but their lower bodies
were that of snakes. And they're often
represented with snake tails intertwined together. NARRATOR: Similar stories
of reptilian humanoid beings exist in cultures around
the ancient world, including Japan, Greece,
and South America. DAVID CHILDRESS: We
even have good drawings and reliefs of many of
these fantastic creatures. And so is it possible that
some of these creatures really are aliens
that look like that? And it seems like in some cases
that is probably the case. NARRATOR: Other
unusual anomalies also appear to mirror the
descriptions of divine beings from ancient texts. Millions of infants are born
with blue patches of skin called Mongolian spots,
evoking the blue-skin gods common to India and Egypt. There have also been
many cases of gigantism throughout history, bringing
to mind biblical stories of the Nephilim,
giants that were said to be the hybrid
offspring of humans and divine beings
called "the watchers." Within us is the whole
evolutionary development of humankind, as well
as the other species that humans developed from-- reptiles, fish, and so forth. Extrapolating this idea, if
extraterrestrials had a hand in retooling our DNA, then do we
also carry their genetic makeup within us, as we would? JASON MARTELL: We know
today that our DNA contains a lot of junk DNA
that we still don't understand. So when we see these
genetic anomalies surface in physical form in children, it
could be that it's not anomaly. It's actually a lost
extraterrestrial gene, a marker that's now
resurfacing at the right time.
