In March of 2014, a hiker in Lithuania stumbled upon a warm spring that was melting the ice on a frozen pond.

It's not unusual to find things like this, but he was curious.

I would be too. The pond was frozen over, but there was a nice window into the still waters beneath.

I have to think any one of us would have leaned in for a closer look.

When he did though, he witnessed something that his mind had trouble processing.

It appeared to be a living creature, but it was unlike anything he had ever seen.

Thankfully, we live in a very connected, very digital age, and he used his phone to take a short video.

I have no idea what the creature was, or if it was even a living thing.

And I'm not going to discuss it today, or tell you more stories about similar sightings,

because there aren't any. It was a one-off, a random occurrence that had never happened before,

and would probably never happen again.

Some stories are like that. Sometimes we bump into something new,

with no history or record of events to lend it pedigree or validity.

Those stories frustrate me.

Other stories though, go deep. Some legends haven't told for centuries.

Some creatures have been cited by hundreds of people over the years,

and each new sighting lends credence to the story.

Even if it's all made up, or just one big misunderstanding,

these layers upon layers of story seem to somehow give life to the creatures they describe.

When we find these deep wells of folklore, our minds are presented with a challenge.

Do the centuries of firsthand accounts serve as proof,

or do they highlight our incredible, cross-cultural, nearly genetic predisposition toward gullibility?

...