These Phantom like dogs are also known by other names depending on the region. They are described to be as large as Labradors, with completely black shaggy coats. Their eyes glow red like fire and they often smell like sulphur. Despite their solid appearance they can disappear like ghosts or spirits. It is also said that anyone who touches one will die. The appearance of Black Dogs is very localized as they only appear within certain lanes, yards, along Leys etc. On some cases Black Dogs have been said to escort women walking at night along dark roads until they reach a well lit area, then the dog disappears. However in most case's they don't seem to like humans. The best example occurred in August 1577 at a morning service in Bungay church, Suffolk. A black dog appeared in the aisle and attacked the congregation, killing 2 and burning one. Shortly after one appeared at Blythburgh church, after its attack it made an exit through the door leaving behind burnt scorch marks from its claws, which apparently can still be seen today.

Discovered on a mountaineering trip by Dr John West, these Blue Men are a small community of miners, who live in the Andean Mountains of Chile at an altitude of 20,000 feet above sea level, that’s 2500 feet higher than the previous recorded for long term human survival. Dr West made some studies and soon found an explanation to why these people have blue skin. "The miners blue hue stems from oxygen deficiency at the lofty altitude at which they live, coupled with their active life-style. These two factors collectively induce the miners to produce greater than normal amounts of the oxygen-transporting blood pigment haemoglobin. This is bright red when oxygenated, carrying oxygen from the lungs to the body organs via the arteries; but it is blue when de-oxygenated, travelling from the body organs back to the lungs via the veins. De-oxygenated haemoglobin imparts a blue colouration to the skin when present in the high concentration exhibited by these miners, because its colour is more readily visible through the skin than is the red shade of oxygenated haemoglobin".

This was discovered by Owen Burnham, on 12 June 1938, on a Gambian beach. Found dead on the shore the carcass was 14-15 feet long, it was dark on the top and light at the bottom. It had a long jaw with 80 pointed teeth, it also had nostrils at the upper jaws tip. It also had a long pointed tail, a short neck and two paddle shaped limbs. The creature closely matches the description of a thalattosuchian, something that was extinct long ago (or at least thought to have been extinct). Unfortunately the locals decapitated its head to sell as a souvenir, and buried its remains. I still don't understand how or why people would do such a thing to something that could have had a massive impact on the world.

There is little to be said here as its all in the name really. All I can do is give an example of cases where they have been seen. In 1907 Lt-Col. Percy Fawcett encountered a giant anaconda on the Rio Abuna, at a point near where it joins the Rio Negro, near the southern border of western Brazil. The anaconda that attacked him, surfaced out of the water in an instant, its head appeared first followed by several feet of its body. Fawcett shot the anaconda, killing it, he then went to the shore in order to examine the body. He claimed that 45 feet lay out of the water and another 17 feet in it, giving a total of 62 feet. There have also been several other cases where people have encountered giant anacondas. Although scientists still need to obtain a specimen for research, many people including myself strongly believe in the existence of giant anacondas. Other reports claim that these enormous creatures, have grown up to as much as 80 feet!

There are stories of giants in every culture, and although mostly dismissed as myths or exaggerations, there is (or at least was) some evidence of their existence in reality. In November 1856 people who were ploughing Sheriff Whickham's vineyard in East Wheeling (Now West Virginia) discovered the remains of a human skeleton 10 feet 9 inches tall. This was however discarded as a hoax. The Humboldt Museum in Winnemucca, Nevada contains a 1 foot tall human skull that was found in the Lovelock Cave, 122km NE of Reno, Nevada. Several bones and skulls this size were uncovered by miners of Lovelock Cave, but as no scientists wanted to examine them they were just forgotten about. Giant skeletons have also been found in several other areas, but the bones always seem to be discarded, burnt by locals or taken for research, where they strangely disappear never to be seen or heard of again! One of the most puzzling cases concerns the American Investigating Museum in Philadelphia. In the 1880's some human skulls were found in a burial mound at Sayre, Bradford County, Pennsylvania. What made them strange was that they were very large, and on top of that, they had "horny projections" about two inches above the eyebrows. The skeletons found with them were normal, other than the fact that they were 7 feet tall, its estimated that they were buried around AD. 1200. Now for the really strange bit; some of the bones were sent to the American Investigating Museum in Philadelphia, where nothing more was heard of them, they have just disappeared. My thoughts on this, is that they were confiscated by government officials to cover up some of the past that they don't want us to know about. That, or by some angry scientists who couldn't cope with the idea that something else may have occurred in human evolution.

This account appeared in Strange Magazine in 1992. A seaman named Curtis A. Rowlett reported a conversation that he'd had with another sailor. Who is only referred to as JP This sailor reported that when he was waiting for repairs to be made to his ship in Peru, in Spring 1989, he had a conversation with a local pilot who told him the following story. The pilot claimed that there was a mysterious cave near the Nazca Plain, which housed 5 small mummies that glowed in the dark. He also said that whoever touch them developed strange open sores on their fingers. JP arranged to go and see the mummies with the pilot, however his ship was repaired before he got the chance, a shame really as I would have liked to know more on this.

This isn't the kind of plant that you can go out and buy at your local garden centre to give to your friends (or enemies) so its not surprising if you haven't seen one, and if you do find one then I wouldn't advise taking a closer look. As no proof has been found to confirm their existence, its not surprising that people have dismissed the idea as unrealistic and insane. However people have claimed to have seen these terrifying plants in action, one such person was German explorer, Carle Liche when visiting Madagascar in 1878. Liche claimed to have witnessed locals sacrifice a women to the tree, which he described as; similar to a pineapple, only 8 feet tall with 8 leaves hanging from its apex, which were each about 11-12 feet long. (From here on I don't really understand the description given) "A clear treacly liquid with high intoxicating properties trickled into a pair of concave plates arranged one inside the other. These comprised the apex of the tree, and from beneath the rim of the bottom plate a series of hairy green 2.5 metre(8 foot) long tendrils stretched out in every direction. Above these, six extremely thin tentacle-like feelers, each over 1.5 metres (5-6 feet) long and white in colour, reared up to the sky, twisting and twirling incessantly like sinister serpents". The women was forced to climb up the trees trunk, once at the apex she drunk the viscous fluid. When she tried to jump down the feelers of the tree sprang to life and grabbed her head, the 8 leaves slowly rose up until she was consumed, a trickle of the plants fluids and blood ran down the plant. 10 days later the plants leaves resumed their normal position, leaving a human skull at its base. Stories of other different types of man-eating plants are also told, weather they are true is still to be decided.

Also known as the Allergorai-horhai, this lives below the sands of The Gobi Desert. It is said to look like a large fat worm up to 5 feet long. It has a dark red colour and spiked ends. They spend most of their time below the sand, but when they are seen on the surface they are avoided. The locals say that if approached the Death Worm can spray a stream of poison which will kill almost instantly as it is extremely corrosive and burns through the flesh to the bloodstream of its victim. On an expedition to find the worm led by Ivan Mackerle, his guide told him that when he was young he had accompanied some western geologists who had visited the area. During their stay a boy was poking around in the sand with an iron rod, minutes latter he dropped dead, and a Death Worm appeared from the sand where he was poking. There have also been similar cases. It is said that the only way the boy could have been killed is by electrocution.

All reports of this creature occurred in an area of West Virginia, known as Point Pleasant. All eyewitness accounts give similar descriptions, which describe Mothman as being 6-7 feet tall when standing, it has two human like legs and red eyes, but there is no distinctive head. It has enormous wings, and can fly very fast, as described in the following accounts. The first encounter with Mothman, happened on 1961. Two people were driving on route 2 along the Ohio River. Both driver and passenger saw Mothman standing in the road, but as the car approached it opened its wings which spanned 10 feet and shot up vertically into the air. On 11.30pm, 15 November 1966, Roger Scarberry was driving by an old wartime explosives factory, in the Point Pleasant vicinity. His wife and two other friends were also in the car. It was here they saw Mothman, standing grey in colour with blazing red eyes. Taking the obvious choice, Roger hit the accelerator to get out of there, but even though their car was travelling at 100mph, Mothman flew after them. It emitted eerie high pitched squeaks, and matched the speed of their car without even flapping its wings. Mothman vanished as they got near to Point Pleasant, and when Roger finally arrived at Mason County courthouse, they reported the incident to Deputy Millard Halstead who went to explore the factory, but alas nothing was found. In the following year there were over 100 sightings of Mothman in the Point Pleasant area, but after 1967 reports stopped, and Mothman was never seen again. For further thought John Keel published "The Mothman Prophecies" in 1975, the book contained sightings of Mothman, and showed something interesting. The book made the claim that during the Mothman period, UFO sightings, cattle mutilations and the visits to homes by MIB's all increased in the Point Pleasant area. Whether that’s true I don't know.

Reports of Owlman started in 1976, where several children and teenagers saw Owlman at a church in the small Cornwall village of Mawnan. In most descriptions Owlman is described as a man with feathered wings, pointed black ears and beck with red eyes, its feet are always mentioned as two claw like toes or pincers. Sally Chapman and her friend saw Owlman on 3 July 1976, They were near the church and saw Owlman standing near some pine trees in the woods near the church, it then took flight and flew away. Sally described it as "like a big owl the size of a man, with glowing red eyes, pointed ears and pincer-like feet". There are also various sketches that were drawn, but I cannot include them here. After 1978 there were no more reports of Owlman around Mawnan church. However in the 1980's there was another sitting of Owlman in the woods near Mawnan, this time it was described as "Grey and brown in colour, with glowing eyes, it seemed about 4 feet tall".

Described by witnesses Spring Heeled Jack was a "weird clocked figure with pointed ears, talon-like claws, protruding eyes that glowed like blazing orbs and the ability to spit huge flames from his mouth". No one could catch him because of his ability to leap a great heights and distances, over walls and even houses. In February 1838 someone rung the doorbell of a house occupied by Jane Alsop. Jane answered the door and saw a tall thin figure wearing a black cloak, he asked her to bring a light as he and his colleagues had captured Spring Heeled Jack, assuming he was a policeman she went off to get a light, however when she returned she received a big shock. The Times reported this abstract two days latter; "He threw off his outer garment, and applying the lighted candle to his breast, and presented a most hideous and frightful appearance, and vomited forth a quantity of blue and white flame form his mouth, and his eyes resembled red balls of fire. He wore a large helmet, and his dress, which appeared to fit him very tight, seemed to her to resemble white oil skin". After being almost blinded by the flames, Jane backed off slightly, only to find Jack leap at her with what seemed to be metal like talons. They were so sharp that they ripped her dress, and some flesh from her arms, neck and shoulders. Hearing her cries her two sisters came from the house and dragged her back in. However Jack did not leave until some real policemen came to the scene, at which point Jack made his escape by leaping across a field in a series of large jumps.

This Beast attacked mostly women and children in South-East France, in a place called Gevaudan. It made its attacks between June 1764 and June 1767. The beast was described as a large wolf-creature which killed victims by ripping out their throats, then either eating them or ripping their body apart. In 1765 King Louis XV dispatched hunters to kill the beast, but they had no luck. 7 months later Antonie de Beauterne killed what was thought to be the beast, he had in fact killed a large black wolf. The body weighed about 143lb and was 5 feet long, despite this achievement it proved not to be the beast as the killings continued. The killings finally ended on 19 June 1767, where another large wolf was shot dead on Mount Chauvet by Jean Chastel with a blessed silver bullet. A film named "The Brotherhood of The Wolf" was also based on this legend. This is where I first found out about this beast, and although the film doesn't strictly stick to what really happened (I won't say what has been changed as it would spoil the film for anyone who hasn't seen it), it is still worth watching as Mark Dacascos gives a fine display of his martial art skills, which is nice.

This odd creature was most commonly sighted in the Swiss, Bavarian and Austrian Alps of Central Europe, although it has been seen else ware. During summer 1921, two people were hunting on Hochfilzenalm mountain in southern Austria. They saw what resembled a long gray worm which was 2-3 feet long, one of the hunters raised his rifle at the creature ready to shoot it. Before he could shoot the creature, it leapt at him in an aerial arc, the hunters then noticed that it had two short front legs. The hunters did not stay to see what the creature would do, instead they fled. In 1954 a strange cat headed serpent beast was seen attacking a herd of pigs in Sicily, it also had two front legs. Locals refer to this beast as the Tatzelworm (Clawed Worm) or Strollenworm (Hole-dwelling worm). All the witness's who have seen the Tatzelworm, give similar descriptions, the only thing that they can't agree on is its legs. Some say that it has one front pair of legs, some say two pairs and others say it has no legs.

I found out about this years ago on a TV show, so unfortunately I can't remember the details but I will update this when I find out more. From what I remember this phenomena occurs on a certain road in Dartmoor. As drivers travel along the road, a strange and invisible force seems to push their vehicle towards the edge of the road into the embankment. There is only a few cases of this, and it is thought that it was just a combination of strong winds and light cars. Rather than a "mysterious force". Also as this happened at night it is also thought that the drivers could have just been tired or sleepy and lost control of the vehicle. These explanations are reasonable, as I haven't herd anything about this in recent years, indicating that this stopped happening a long time ago.

Located on the Indonesian island of Seram, which is the second largest island in the Moluccas group, the orang-bati terrifies the locals. Most of the island is covered in unexplored rainforests. The locals describe the orang-bati as having a human form which stands almost 4-5 feet tall. In addition they have black wings, red skin, a long thin tail and emit mournful wails. They are said to inhabit dead volcanoes on the island of Seram. The reason the locals fear them is because at night, the Orang-Bati fly to the coast where they abduct children from Uraur and other villages in the vicinity. The Orang-Bati take the children back to the mountains where they are never seen again. In South Vietnam three US marines were on guard duty near Da Nang, in 1969. It was here they saw what looked like a naked women about 5 feet tall flying slowly towards them. She was covered in black furry skin and had ebony wings, to which her hands and arms were attached. As she flew passed the marines they could her the flapping of her wings. Interestingly although the locals say that the orang-bati inhabit dead volcanoes on the island, no-one has climbed them to find out, guess I'll have to add that on my list of things to do.

Appearing to the public in January 1909 in the American state of New Jersey and the New Jersey - Pennsylvania border area, this strange winged beast was seen by several people, it soon gained its name The Jersey Devil. On 17 January 1909, EW Minster, a postmaster from Bristol in Pennsylvania gave a detailed account of his sighting with the Jersey Devil. At first he thought it was a large crane flying diagonally across the Delaware River, but it glowed like a firefly. "It had a long slender neck that it held outstretched in flight, two pairs of legs (the front pair was shorter than the hind pair) and two long thin wings. Its head had two curly horns. As the Jersey Devil flew it made a cry which Minster described as "a combined squawk and whistle, beginning very high and piercing but ending very low and hoarse".

Ok, strictly speaking there isn't anything paranormal about them, but when living toads appear out of rocks then there is something strange going on. There are lots of cases where people have broken a piece of rock open, only to find a living toad jump out of the centre, most of the time the toad is found in limestone, but its also been found in other materials like coal and solid layers of clay. One example of this phenomenon occurred in 1835, near Coventry, England, when John Bruton noticed a block of sandstone fall from a passing cart. When the block broke it revealed a hole in the middle, from where a toad fell out. Bruton took the toad and displayed it at his office, 10 days later it died. A more recent example occurred in October 1995 at Rhyl High School in North Whales. Pupils at the school were collecting rubbish, and in one drinks can they discovered a live frog, about 2 inches long. The frog must have entered when it was much smaller as the ring pull hole in the can was far smaller than the frog. The frog must have been trapped in the can for over a year, as the cans sell by date was May 1994. Many similar situations have occurred with lizards and other creatures, some of which may have been trapped for hundreds of years.

On a beach in Margate, South Africa on 1 November 1922 a sea battle between an unidentified creature and two whales was witnessed by visitors. The battle continued for three hours, before the creature died, its body was washed ashore that evening. The body measured 47 feet in length, and a 10 foot tail. All over it was covered in 8 inch long white fur, there was also no distinct head on the creature, instead there was a 5 feet long elephant like trunk. Unfortunately and surprisingly the corpse was left on the beach for 10 days before being washed away by the sea, in that time no scientists came to investigate or collect the corpse. But why? Are they afraid to admit that such a creature exists in this world? From what I hear this type of creature was also seen once more off the shores of Australia, but I cannot confirm this yet.