Monsters from underground. Strange creatures and where they live Underground monsters

Almost two percent of the Earth's surface is covered fresh water. It is not surprising that much of what the lakes hide began to be covered with a layer of mystery, from which legends and myths were born. Now we can easily remember, perhaps, only Nessie - the famous Loch Ness monster. But folklore has preserved stories about much more scary creatures from lakes. And this collection contains only a few of them.

A terrible beast from the myths of the Mayans and Aztecs. It looks like a cross between a small dog and an otter. The auistol has two stripes on its head, small ears, and a very long, strong tail that ends in a human hand. According to legends, the ahuizotl hunts from ambush: he lies in wait for his prey, plunging into a lake or stream, and at the sight of a person begins to moan and cry pitifully like to a small child or a frightened girl. A passerby hears the screams and immediately rushes to the aid of the “victim.” When approaching the water, the hand on the ahuizotl’s tail strangles the “savior,” and he himself tears out the victim’s eyes, nails and teeth and eats them. Then he throws the lifeless body ashore and waits for the next traveler.

Mishipishu

In the mythology of the Indians of many of the Great Lakes and the northeastern Woodlands, the Mishipishu is one of the most important aquatic creatures. Mishipeshu translates to "great lynx". It has the head and paws of a giant cat and is covered in scales and spines on its back and tail. More detailed sources describe it as having the head of a mountain lion or lynx with the antlers of a deer or bison; its spine to the tip of its tail is covered with scales, spines and sometimes bird feathers. Being a spirit, mishipishu can enter the human body and control it. He can be both a protector and an avenger who will not stop until he achieves his goal. As a rule, Mishipishu kills its victims by biting them in the throat. The behavior of the Mishipishu in general resembles that of a cat: it licks its hands and laps up water with its tongue.

Emela-ntouka

In the Lingala language, the name of this creature is translated as “killer of elephants.” According to legend, the emela-ntouka lives in shallow swamps and lakes of the Congo River basin, especially in the Likouala swamps and possibly Cameroon. Also presumably inhabits Lakes Bangweulu in Zambia. They say that Emel-ntouka has a bay or gray color, the dimensions of a large elephant, a tail like a crocodile and one, but powerful horn on his nose. The tracks of the strange beast resemble those of an elephant. Emel-ntouki has three thick, clawed toes on each paw. The “elephant killer” lives in a swamp, can breathe underwater and has the habit of gutting any forest elephant that, willingly or unwillingly, crosses the borders of the territory “staken out” by a strange bloodthirsty creature. At the same time, the main food product of Emel-ntouki is malombo fruits and leaves of various plants. The archives of periodicals mention the only case of a man’s victory over Emel-ntouka, but then, in 1934, the shot animal was not studied by scientists and ingloriously rotted in the forest.

El Cuero

In Spanish, "el cuero" translates to "cow's skin." This is a Chilean mythical monster that lives in the mountain lake Lacar in the Andes. They say it looks like the skin of an animal without a backbone. Such a legend most likely could have arisen from observations of large freshwater electric stingrays, although, unlike stingrays, El Cuero has eyes located on “horns” and has claws. In the middle of El Cuero's body there is a face with a retractable mouth, with which the monster sucks out the blood of its victims - to the last drop.

Dobharchu

A certain semi-aquatic predator that supposedly lives in the rivers and lakes of Ireland. It is described as a large creature, similar to half-wolf and half-fish. Translated from the Gaelic language, Dobhar-chu means “water dog”. The old people talked about a beast living in the lake, and that a certain daredevil with his wolfhound once met such a beast; and after a long struggle he ran away from the man and his dog; and then he was found dead and decomposing in a rocky cave when the water in the lake subsided. Some researchers suggest that dobhar-chu is a distorted description of the giant river otter. And although otters do not attack people, they can grow to considerable sizes, why does a person A person watching a fast-swimming otter may misjudge its size and mistake it for a dog-like creature.

Faun

Reports of sightings in some American states tell of a strange hominid, which is most often observed in Louisiana, Maryland and Texas. It is described as a hybrid creature that has the lower body of a goat and the upper body of a human, with ram's horns growing from its head. Some claim he is related to the evil chupacabra of New Orleans. Urban legends about them often say that the monsters kill young couples in parked cars on a whim or kill pets in the neighborhood. They are also said to break into people's homes and usually rape their victims. They usually live in forests with large lakes.

Grutslang

The Grutslang, or "huge snake", is a mysterious aquatic monster supposedly living in the flooded caves of the Richtersveld, a mountainous desert region in the northwestern part of the world. South Africa. In local mythology, Grutslang was a creature with the head and half of the body of an elephant and the other half of the body and tail of a huge snake. According to legend, Grutslang had such strength and cunning that the gods - the creators of the Earth - decided to divide him into two individual species- an elephant and a snake. But some grutslang survived the transformation and hid in the deepest caves, where they have survived to this day. Reliable evidence of the existence of Grutslang has not yet been found. Although, according to the natives, the monster reaches 20 meters in length. It is also believed that the cave in which Grutslang lives is full of diamonds, but no one can get close to them, since the monster guards them day and night.

Shell rock

The original English name for this creature is Shellycoat, literally translated as “thin coat.” In the Russian version, it is more often called shell rock. This is a nasty water bogle from the Lowcountry that lives in streams and running water. He got his name due to the fact that he often appears in a torn cloak, hung with shells, which rattle with his every movement. There is a well-known story that tells how, late one night, two people heard drawn-out plaintive cries in the distance: “I’m lost! Help!" - They walked for a long time towards the voice along the banks of the Ettrick River. And only at dawn they realized who was calling them: a shell man jumped out of the stream and galloped away along the hillside, bursting with laughter. “Skinny Coat” loves nothing more than to tease, deceive and amaze people without causing them real harm, and then laughs loudly at his own jokes.

Divers

This is the name given to these creatures, which were first spotted in 1955 in Loveland, Ohio. There were three of them, and they looked like small (1 meter in height) humanoid humanoids. Their skin was similar to that of frogs or lizards, and they had webbed hands and feet. The creatures lived in rivers and other small bodies of water, but they also moved well on land. Many eyewitnesses said that most likely they were aliens.

The Beast of Busco

The mysterious giant snapping turtle from Indiana. The first mention of this cryptid dates back to 1898, when farmer Oscar Falk said that a giant turtle lived in a lake not far from his farm. Half a century later, in 1948, two fishermen on Fulk Lake in the area reported seeing a huge turtle, 4.5 meters long and weighing more than 200 kg. According to legend, after this turtle destroyed almost all the livestock on neighboring farms, it was finally caught. True, as soon as the police turned away, the turtle broke the chains and disappeared in an unknown direction at an incredible speed.

For several hundred years in a row, the Mongols have been passing on from mouth to mouth the legend of the “Olgoi-Khorkhoi” - a mysterious creature that lives in the lifeless sands of the Gobi Desert. This underground monster, which looks like a giant worm, is supposedly capable of unexpectedly crawling out of cracks in the ground and killing its unexpected victim from a distance with lightning speed.

The sand killer would remain a property folklore, if it had not attracted the attention of numerous scientific expeditions.

Despite the fact that not a single monster ever fell into the hands of researchers, a lot of evidence has emerged that a species unknown to science actually exists even today, and not only in the sands of Mongolia...

“Olgoy-Khorkhoi” - the horror of the Mongolian deserts

Due to the fact that Mongolia has always been a country relatively isolated from the outside world, its fauna could present scientists with many surprises. One of these surprises was the “olgoi-khorkhoi” (in Mongolian - “intestinal worm”) - a half-meter underground creature that looks like the dark burgundy insides of animals.

According to eyewitnesses, the strange worm is very insidious: it can suddenly crawl out from under your feet and “shoot” with deadly poison, and when you try to grab it, a person falls, as if struck by lightning!

According to the assumptions of local researcher Dondogizhin Tsevegmid, there are several varieties of these underground creatures, among which there are very aggressive creatures with a yellow coloration, capable of chasing their prey.

In 1926, the American scientist Roy Chapman Andrews said that the Mongolian prime minister asked geologists to catch a monster called “allergokhai-khohai,” whose poison killed his relative. According to some scientists, the worm kills with a poison that is similar in composition and action to hydrocyanic acid: the quite common nodding centipede also uses a similar weapon. According to another, completely incredible hypothesis, an unusual worm has the properties of a generator of small ball lightning.

The search for the mysterious monster began in the middle of the last century, when the famous writer and scientist Ivan Efremov colorfully described the bloodthirsty Mongolian worms in one of his science fiction stories, based on his own adventures during expeditions to the Gobi Desert in 1946-1949. According to old-time Mongolians, sand monsters live about 130 km southeast of the Aimak region. In the hottest months of the year, worms quite often catch the eye of local residents, spending the rest of the time in hibernation.

In 1954, an expedition headed by the American A. Nisbet headed to the sands of Central Asia, but at the first attempt to search the desert in search of the mysterious “Olgoi-Khorkhoi”, the scientists simply... disappeared. A few months later, in the inaccessible Gobi region, members of the rescue team discovered both American cars, and not far from them, the decayed corpses of six unlucky travelers, the cause of death of which could not be established.

Already in the 90s, the search for the unprecedented “beast” was continued by Czech researchers Ivan Markale and Jaroslav Prokopets, who found many “traces” of the existence of underground killers and filmed unique video material. According to the Czechs, the mysterious worms are more reminiscent of reptiles that have lost limbs during evolution, but how they generate electricity is still not clear.

Creeping Riddle

Meanwhile, the Mongolian monsters are not alone: ​​similar creatures were seen in North Vietnam, and they are also credited with the disappearance of an entire regiment of French soldiers without a trace in 1953. And during the French intervention in Indochina, General Jean de Lattre de Tassini was more than once interested in certain “ingots” - mysterious blue-eyed worms with silvery bodies covered with fluff. However, later American researchers also searched for “ingots,” but to no avail.

And many years later, the trail of mysterious worms led scientists to... Ukraine. So, in 1988 in Lugansk, one of the diggers was hospitalized with a very unusual burn: despite the complete absence of underground electrical cables in the area, a snake-like mark on the worker’s hand indicated an electric shock!

Two months later, a first-grader died from an “underground” electrical discharge, and in 1989-1990 several more cases of electric shock were recorded during excavation work. At the same time, one of the victims even heard “sobping” sounds coming from underground. The source of the strange sounds turned out to be... a thick half-meter lilac worm caught by builders while digging a heating main. Biologists who studied the strange creature in laboratory conditions considered it a mutant of unknown origin.

And in the village of Podosinki, near Chernobyl nuclear power plant, strange things have recently started happening. Thus, rubber boots left to “sleep” on the porch in the morning turned out to be torn to shreds, and the sheets hung out to dry turned into a pile of tattered rags. Bleeding wounds appeared on the bodies of domestic animals as if by themselves, chickens were torn to pieces right in closed chicken coops, and garden beds were full of longitudinal furrows, as if someone was diligently crawling along them.

The terrible solution was not long in coming: one night the local watchman had to fight with... meter-long red-eyed white worms covered with mucus! According to the victim, he accidentally discovered a whole flock of ominous creatures in the bushes. The monsters immediately attacked the unwitting witness, and one of them even tore a piece of meat from the watchman’s hand... The wound received in the night battle became covered with blue spots and began to fester, and the veins burst, oozing a strange brown liquid. When the victim was admitted to the hospital, the doctors threw up their hands: the proximity of the ill-fated Chernobyl nuclear power plant made them think about mutant worms.

Scientists are still arguing about the nature of such creatures. Some consider them worms, which, as a result of mutation, acquired strong skin and learned to spray poison, others see them as legless lizards or snakes capable of generating electricity, and some even called them huge helminths... Which of them is right remains a mystery .

Polina Karavaeva
“The Amazing is Nearby”, No. 8/2010

We often hear that now more and more animal species are becoming extinct or on the verge of extinction, and their complete disappearance is only a matter of time. Hunting, destruction of natural habitats, climate change and other factors have led to the fact that the rate of loss of animal species is 1000 times greater than the rate of restoration of the natural background. And although the extinction of animals is always sad, sometimes for us humans, it can even be beneficial.

From 12-metre-long megasnakes to giraffe-sized flying creatures, check out this list of 25 animals you wouldn't want to see next to.

1. Pelagornis Sanders i

With a wingspan of about 7 meters, Pelargonis sandersi was apparently the largest flying bird to ever exist on Earth. She seemed to be able to fly only by pushing off a cliff, and spent most of her life above the ocean, relying on the winds rising off the ocean to keep her afloat. Although compared to pterosaurs, whose wingspan was almost 12 meters, this bird was still quite “moderate” in size.

2. Euphoberia

Similar to modern centipedes in shape and behavior, Euphoberia still had one significant difference - it was more than 90 cm in length! Although scientists aren't entirely sure what exactly it ate, we do know that some modern centipedes feed on birds, snakes, and bats. If a 25-centimeter centipede could hunt birds, imagine what a nearly meter-long one could hunt!

3. Gigantopithecus

Gigantopithecus lived between 9 million and 100,000 years ago in modern Asia. It was the largest species of monkey on Earth. It is believed that this creature, up to 3 meters tall and weighing up to 540 kg, walked on four legs, like gorillas and chimpanzees, but some believe that it could walk on two limbs, like humans. The properties of their teeth and jaws suggest that these animals were able to chew coarse, fibrous food by cutting into it and grinding it.

4. Andrewsarchus

This cutie lived during the Eocene era, about 45-30 million years ago. Andrewsarchus was a huge carnivorous mammal. Given the skull and several bones found, paleontologists suggest that this predator could weigh up to 1800 kg, making it the largest land mammals predator in history. However, the feeding behavior of this animal is not entirely understood, and some theories suggest that Andrewsarchus may have been omnivores or even scavengers.

5. Pulmonoscorpius

The scientific name of this creature translates to “breathing scorpion.” He lived during the Visean era (c. 345-330 million years ago) Carboniferous period. Relying on fossils found in Scotland, scientists believe that this species reached 76 cm in length. It lived on land and probably fed on small arthropods.

6. Megalania

Megalania lived in South Australia. It was a huge lizard that went extinct about 30,000 years ago, which means it may well have been encountered by the first Aborigines of Australia. Scientists disagree on the size of this lizard - it may have reached 7 meters in length, making Megalania the largest land lizard in history.

7. Helicoprion

One of the prehistoric centenarians (310-250 million years ago) - Helicoprion - is a genus of extinct shark-like creatures with an interesting jaw. Reached 4 m in length, but its closest living relatives - the chimaeras - can reach only 1.5 m in length.

8. Entelodons

Unlike their modern relatives, Entelodons were boar-like mammals with a special gourmet taste for meat. Probably one of the most fearsome-looking creatures in history, entelodons walked on four legs and were almost as tall as a man. Some scientists believe that entelodons were even cannibals. Well, if they ate each other, do you think they wouldn't want to eat a human?

9. Anomalocaris

Probably lived in all seas of the Cambrian period. Translated, its name means “abnormal shrimp.” This is a genus of marine animals, close relatives of arthropods. Scientists believe that it hunted solids sea ​​creatures, including trilobites. They had unique eyes with 30,000 lenses - it is believed that these were one of the most “advanced” eyes in the history of the species.

10. Meganeura

Meganeura is a genus of extinct insects from the Carboniferous period. Resembles modern dragonflies (and is related to them). With a wingspan of up to 66 cm, it is one of the largest flying insects in the history of our planet. Meganeura was a predator, and its diet consisted mainly of other insects and small amphibians.

11. Attercopus

Attercopus was a genus of arachnid animal with a scorpion-like tail. For a long time, Attercopus was considered the prehistoric ancestor of modern spiders, but scientists who discovered its traces soon came to a different opinion. It is unlikely that Attercopus spun webs, although it may have been used to wrap eggs, lay frame thread, or build the walls of its burrow.

12. Deinosuchus

Deinosuchus is an extinct relative of modern alligator crocodiles that lived 80-73 million years ago. Although he was larger than any of them modern species, he looked almost the same. It reached 12 meters in length and had sharp large teeth capable of killing and devouring sea ​​turtles, fish and even large dinosaurs.

13. Dunkleosteus

Living at the end of the Devonian period about 380-360 million years ago, Dunkleosteus was a huge super-predatory fish. Due to its terrifying size (up to 10 m in length and weighing almost 4 tons), it was the apex predator of its time. This fish had strong armor, which made it a relatively slow but very powerful swimmer.

14. Spinosaurus

Larger than Tyrannosaurus Rex, Spinosaurus is the largest carnivorous dinosaur of all time. It reached 18 m in length and weighed up to 10 tons. They ate tons of fish, turtles, and even other dinosaurs. If this horror were alive today, we most likely would not be alive.

15. Smilodon

Smilodon lived in North and South America during the Pleistocene era (2.5 million - 10,000 years ago). This best example saber-toothed cat. An excellent predator with particularly well-developed forelimbs and incredibly long, sharp fangs. The largest individual could weigh up to 408 kg.

16. Quetzalcoatlus

The wingspan of these creatures could reach an incredible 12 meters. This pterosaur was the largest creature ever to fly, including modern birds. However, it is very difficult to estimate the size and weight of these huge animals, because... No existing animal has the same body plan, so published results vary widely. One of the characteristic features of these animals was that they all had unusually long and rigid necks.

17. Hallucigenia

The name comes from the idea that these creatures are very strange, almost like a hallucination. These worm-like creatures were 0.5-3 cm in length and lacked some sensory organs on their heads, such as eyes and nose. Instead, Hallucigenia had seven tentacles on each side of its body, as well as three pairs of tentacles behind them. To say that this is a strange creature is an understatement.

18. Arthropleura

Inhabitant of the Upper Carboniferous period (340-280 million years ago). Lived in the territory of modern North America and Scotland. It was the largest species of terrestrial invertebrate in history. Despite their enormous length, up to almost 2.7 meters, Arthropleura were not predators; they fed on rotting forest plants.

19. Short-faced bear

The short-faced bear is an extinct species of bear that lived in North America in the Pleistocene era up to 11,000 years ago, making it the "most recent" extinct creature on our list. However, its size is truly prehistoric. Standing on two hind legs, the bear reached 3.6 m in height and 4.2 meters if he raised his front paw up. It is believed that these giants weighed more than 1360 kg.

20. Megalodon

The name of this toothy monster translates as “big tooth.” This is an extinct species of huge shark that lived about 28-1.5 million years ago. With an incredible length of up to 18 meters, it is considered one of the largest and most powerful predators to ever live on Earth. Lived almost all over the world and looked like a larger and more terrifying version of the modern great white shark.

21. Titanoboa

Living approximately 60-58 million years ago during the Paleocene era, Titanoboa was the largest, longest, and heaviest snake in history. Scientists believe that individual representatives of the species reached 12 meters in length and weighed about 1133 kg. Their diet consisted of giant crocodiles and turtles, with which they shared the territory of modern South America.

22. Fororacoaceae

Also called "terror birds", these prehistoric creatures are an extinct genus of large birds of prey that were the largest species in South America during the Cenozoic period, approximately 60 million years ago. The largest flightless predatory bird that ever roamed the Earth. They reached 3 meters in height, weighed up to half a ton and supposedly could run as fast as a cheetah.

23. Cameroceras

Lived during the Ordovician period 470-460 million years ago. This is the giant ancestor of modern squids and octopuses. Most characteristic feature This mollusk had a huge cone-shaped shell and tentacles with which it caught fish and other sea creatures. It is believed that the size of its shell varied from 6 to 12 meters.

24. Carbonemys

Carbonemys is an extinct genus of huge turtles that lived about 60 million years ago, i.e. they survived the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. Fossils found in Colombia suggest they had a shell that reached almost 1.8 meters. Turtles were carnivores, with huge jaws powerful enough to eat large mammals such as crocodiles.

25. Jaekelopterus

Jaekelopterus, without a doubt, can be called one of the largest arthropods in the world - its length reached 2.5 meters. It is sometimes called the "sea scorpion", but in fact it is more related to the lobsters that live in freshwater lakes and rivers of modern times. Western Europe. This terrible creature lived about 390 million years ago, earlier than most dinosaurs.

They sent us some material, timed to coincide with the release of the new “The Thing” in domestic film distribution. The article itself is quite interesting, so we are publishing it practically without any cuts or any changes, except perhaps adding a little information about the films presented. The material is dedicated to all kinds of aliens and monsters (and alien monsters) lurking in all sorts of secluded places like caves, dungeons or Arctic glaciers.

It is impossible to hide from aliens and monsters. But they themselves, as a rule, like to wait for the right moment in the most hidden corners of our planet. And the following films are the most direct to that confirmation.

Director and screenwriter: James Cameron

Cast: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn, Leo Burmester

A nuclear submarine sinks as a result of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. The rescue team does not yet know how all this will turn out, and what horrors await them on the seabed.

Director: Ron Underwood

Scenario: S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Ron Underwood

Cast: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross

Are you afraid of worms? No, and even dig them for fishing? Now imagine that the length of the creeping reptiles is more than ten meters and they are thirsty for blood! This is exactly what is happening in a small town in Nevada.

Director: David Twohy

Scenario: Lucas Sussman, Darren Aronofsky, David Twohy

Cast: Matthew Davis, Bruce Greenwood, Olivia Williams, Holt McCallany

The height of World War II, an American submarine rushes to the rescue of a British ship torpedoed by the Germans. The crew is trying to wait out the hostilities at depth, but suddenly they realize that the Germans are far from the most important enemy.

Cast: Shauna McDonald, Natalie Jackson Mendoza, Alex Reid

Extreme hobbies have never brought pretty girls any good! Trying to explore untouched caves, the main characters find themselves walled up in a stone trap. This is where danger lurks for them...

Director: Bruce Hunt

Scenario: Michael Steinberg, Tegan West

Cast: Cole Hauser, Eddie Cibrian, Morris Chestnut, Lena Headey, Piper Perabo

Aliens are found not only in America, as numerous films convince us. In the film “The Cave,” the action takes place in Romania, and an alien intelligence has taken a fancy to the ruins of an ancient abbey. So it turns out that only vampires are afraid of churches?

Director: Matthijs van Heinigen Jr.

Scenario: Eric Heisserer, Ronald D. Moore

Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Eric Christian Olsen, Joel Edgerton, Jonathan Walker

A crystal coffin with a mummified creature from an alien world was discovered by speleologists

Strange discoveries that regularly appear in various places on our planet force scientists to reconsider their views on the evolution and origin of life on Earth over and over again. The theory of panspermia, which claims that life was brought to Earth from outer space, is gaining more and more supporters. An absolutely fantastic discovery was recently made by speleologists from Turkey. Underground explorers stumbled upon a crystal coffin. Or rather, an object similar to a coffin, since it contained something clearly not from our world. Mummified creature external signs resembled a person, except for the color of his skin, which was light green, as well as two transparent wings, the same as those of insects. At the same time, the alien had male genitals, and his feet, lips, ears, nose, hands and nails were no different from human ones.

Monsters of the Underworld

But the eyes were huge, colorless, exactly like those of reptiles. After the monster was sent to a scientific laboratory, a shocking conclusion followed. Both doctors and biologists said they were not sure that the monster was dead.

It is likely that it is simply in a state of suspended animation and may soon emerge from it. Upon careful analysis of the crystal coffin, it turned out that the substance from which it was made was not crystal at all, but only similar to it. This is a crystalline material that is unknown to science.

VIDEO: 5 underground monsters caught on camera