Professors are the high priests of our technology driven society, but as you will see, sometimes the letters behind their names serve to disguise corrupt and highly unscientific hidden agendas.


Last week I led a documentary crew to a highly-secured property in the mountains north of Bogota, Colombia. I had been invited to interview Professor Jamie Gutierrez-Lega, Colombia’s leading Architectural and Industrial Designer and owner of the Gutierrez Collection, the world’s most controversial Pre-Colombian artefact collection.

After the interview he led me to an environmentally controlled safe-room and showed me a 130 million year old fossil. Upon seeing it, a psychosomatic effect warped my sense of time and caused my body to stiffen. I was looking at pair of human hands!

From time to time archeologists and palaeontologists discover objects in seemingly impossible contexts that don’t fit their models of how they think things happened to get us here. These are often categorised as OOPArts (Out-of-place Artefacts). The term “out-of-place artefact” is used infrequently by scientists and more often by cryptozoologists, ancient astronaut theorists, Young Earth creationists and those interested in the paranormal.

Archeologists and scientists argue that almost all of the OOPArts, which are not hoaxes, are simply misinterpreted. But to supporters, they are hard evidence that mainstream science is covering up the truth, either deliberately or through ignorance.

The London Hammer.

OOPArt proponents present a range of incredible artefacts like an iron hammer with a wooden handle which was discovered in London, Texas in 1936, in rock allegedly dated to 130 million years old. With extraordinary claims, the burden of proof is on those making the claims, not on those questioning them. Despite creationist assertions that the hammer is a dramatic pre-Flood relic, no clear evidence linking the hammer to any ancient formation has been presented. The hammer was more probably dropped within the last few hundred years, after which dissolved sediment hardened into a concretion around it.

But to many, these fascinating objects challenge conventional history and are used to support notions of vanished ancient civilisations with knowledge and technology more advanced than that of modern times. Over the last 20 years I have interviewed the owners and keepers of some of the world’s most famous OOPArts. With experience, I have developed an simple yet highly effective method for examining “history-challenging” artefacts.

Considering 90% of them have been proved as elaborate hoaxes or misinterpretations I approach OOPArts wearing full-body sceptic armour. Before asking the owners any questions I sit back and look at the artefacts, drawing no conclusions, I familiarise myself with the form, texture, shape and colour.

After this brief period of contemplation I begin gathering data by asking simple questions; when, what, how,  who, why and when? After correlating the basic facts and figures about the artefacts, I venture outwards and question the circumstances and people surrounding the moment of discovery.


Ashley interviewing Professor Jamie Gutierrez-Lega.

All afternoon the professor presented me with Pre-Colombian artefacts and unheard of OOPArts, all of which could be used to support the idea that mankind reached its current state of evolutionary development hundreds of millions of years ago. My examination of each of these artefacts will be presented in my new documentary series next year.

After filming the interview I asked the professor if there is anything else he wanted me to see. It turns out he had kept the best for last! He led me to a hidden safe-room located in the bowels of his sprawling mountain top property to show me something that “really challenges history.

I walked into a large, dark and very dry room. Before my eyes adjusted to the darkness the professor flicked on a table light. I was standing in a kaleidoscope of Pre-Colombian artefacts; gods, heroes, warriors, burial urns, charms, jewellery, tools and clay pottery. Located at the centre of the room stood a wooden table with an object covered with a black velvet cloth.

Dr. Gutierrez urged me to sit down. He is 84 years old, yet he pulled up a chair like a teenager, with a flaming passion blazing in his eyes. He tugged away the cloth and I gazed upon a large, charcoal grey fossil. My eyes flirted with the object for a few seconds. I noted an ancient spiral seashells and a matrix of long slim bones.

Don’t you see it?”  asked the professor as he pointed to the gaps between the bones. “They’re knuckles Ashley, finger joints.” Was I was looking at two human hands dated to 130 million years old?

Even having to ask myself that question was a huge problem for me. As a sceptic, I held onto the thought that a fundamental piece of data must be missing, or was being held back. I was being asked to consider that human beings were at an advanced stage of evolution 130 millions years ago. As much as the fanciful aspect of my personality wishes this were the case, the concept challenges everything I understand about the history of mankind. I was both intrigued and pissed off at the same time. Was the professor making a fool of me? Were the camera guys rolling in secret?

The professor explained that I was examining was a high-quality replica of a fossil which he dug up in 1999 near Bogota, Columbia in Cretaceous rock dated to around 130 million years old. After an frustrating hour questioning the professor about the fossil the predictable chink in the story manifested when I asked him which university confirmed the fossils were human hand bones. He replied:

“When I announced the discovery in 1999, two professors, Dr. Hovind and Dr. Baugh from Texas appealed to date the stone. They came to Colombia and I signed the fossil out to them. They still have it.”

This was an utterly terrible situation. I had come across these two scientists while researching other OOPArts. Was I to be the one to break the professors heart?

Kent Hovind lives in Alabama, US where he is an Evangelist, Christian theme park operator. This scientist, and advocate of Young Earth creationism, was recently convicted of tax-related crimes and was sentenced to10 years imprisonment. Carl Baugh is a Baptist minister who claims to be an archeologist with a Ph.D. from the California Graduate School of Theology in Los Angeles. Baugh is a tirless proponent of the claim that human footprints appear alongside dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy Riverbed of Glen Rose, Texas. He is the founder and Director of the Creation Evidence Museum of Texas in Glen Rose where he exhibits famous OOPArts, such as the London Hammer, as evidence that evolutionary theory is wrong.

These two scientists are Biblical creationists who believe that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time because God, said that He created man and land animals on Day 6 (Genesis 1:24-31). Dinosaurs are land animals, so logically they were created on Day 6. In contrast, those who do not believe the plain reading of Genesis believe the rock and fossil layers on earth represent millions of years of earth history and that man and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.

Exhibit at the Creation Museum, Petersburg, Kentucky showing dinosaurs and humans living together.

Since 2002, these two strict Young Earth creationists have maintained Professor Gutierrez’s fossil is a pair of human hands and they present it as further indisputable proof that dinosaurs and humans lived together. It was late in the day and I decided to keep my knowledge of these two scientists to myself, for the meantime, and asked my assistant to cover the bones with her hands. Of course, they fitted perfectly.

The internet is awash with Young Earth creationist, cryptozoologists and Ancient Alien theory websites which present the same OOPArts, interpreted differently, to support their conflicting ideas. However, they all believe this fossil is hard proof that evolutionary theory is wrong and that mankind’s legacy on planet Earth is not as we are led to believe.

Based on aesthetic values alone one could be forgiven for believing this fossil is a pair of human hand bones. Unfortunately this sentiment is as far as many people get, and with no further questioning they blindly accept that this fossil is human. To a casual observer with little knowledge of evolutionary theory or the animal kingdom, the fossil can only be human hand bones. But to someone versed in these subjects the bones have a compelling alternative interpretation.

Chelonioidea sea turtle.

The primary reason OOOPArts exist is because Young Earth creationists, cryptozoologists and ancient alien theorists don’t read scientific papers and update their belief systems according to the latest research. In this case, proponents of the “human hand” theory haven’t accounted for the conflicting interpretations of three  biologists and palaeontologists.

In 2007, Glen J. Kuban (biologist) sharpened his sceptic-spear and set out to directly challenge the “human hands” theorists. He first identified three scientists whom he believed could solve the mystery:

  • Dr. Peter Prichard: Herpetologist and author of the Enclyclopedia of Turtles.
  • Dr. Peter Meylan: Marine reptile researcher at Eckerd College in Florida.
  • Dr. Walter Joyce: Turtle fossil expert at the Yale Peabody Museum division of Vertebrate Palaeontology.


The published works and observations of these three scientists clearly demonstrate six rudimentary differences between the fossilised bones and human digits, and they positively identified them as fossilised sea turtle bones.

Glen J. Kuban reported that the three scientists accepted that the flipper of a sea turtle resembles that of a human hand and noted that they both have the digital formula (2-3-3-3-3), that is, the thumb has two phalanges and the four digits have three. In addition, both humans and sea turtles have two rows of four carpal bones and the thumb of both sea turtles and humans are shorter than the other digits.

However, I’m sure these tid-bits are poisoned pills, because soon after offering his understanding to those who see human hands Dr. Walter Joyce was not only so sure that the bones belonged to a sea turtle, but he went so far as to define that it belonged to the superfamily Chelonioidea, which includes green turtles, loggerheads, and hawksbills

The following observations distinguish human hand bones from sea turtles flippers:


2. The carpals of humans cluster together towards the arm to allow maximal movement, and they are small, whereas the carpals of sea turtles are more flattened and angular and only allow a slight bending movement

3. Human thumbs point outwards and the other digits are notably straight and almost equal in length. In most sea turtles the first two digits are claw bearing and point outwards, and are both much shorter than the rest




The principal observation underpinning the sea turtle hypothesis is that the pisiforms on sea turtles are circular and protrude, whereas on humans pisiforms are oblong and don’t protrude. The following three photographs highlight this primary difference between human hands and sea turtle flippers. The following examples taken from Kuban’s report are not likely from the same genus or species as the fossil bones, but illustrate the same structural features.

The pisiforms on the fossil are circular and protrude

The pisiforms on the fossil are circular and protrude

Protostega giga (cretaceous turtle) pisiforms are circular and protrude.

Protostega giga (cretaceous turtle) pisiforms are circular and protrude.

Human pisiforms are far smaller than that of a sea turtle, and don't protrude.

Human pisiforms are far smaller than that of a sea turtle, and don’t protrude.

In light of these very clear scientific observations the “human hands” advocates must now provide detailed descriptions of the fossilised bones detailing the individual shapes and sizes of each of the ten digits. This data set must then be compared to both human hands and various Cretaceous sea turtle flippers. This is the only acceptable way in which a rational thinking human will, or should, accept the assertions of the “human hands” proponents.

I must quickly advise readers not to hold breath for this study as it is virtually impossible to achieve.

Before drawing conclusions, at the end of every investigation I retreat into my study with the hard data and apply the principle known as Occam’s razor. I cut out all the features of the theory that cannot be observed. This foolhardy principle dictated that Professor Gutierrez’s 130’000’000 year old fossilised human hands are actually sea turtle flippers.

I have since informed the professor of my findings and he was not that surprised. I must make it clear that he doesn’t agree with the creationists interpretation. No. The professors theory is something else altogether! My complete interview with Professor Gutierrez and his OOPArts will be aired in a documentary series next year.