10. Rods
A popular paranormal fad in the late 1990s mid 2000s, Rods as they came to be known, were allegedly some sort of unknown animal, usually speculated to be of extraterrestrial origin. Supposedly invisible to the naked eye, Rods were usually described as being long, cylindrical creatures with a soft, squid-like membrane running along both sides. They were also capable of flight (or at least hovering), leading some to call them skyfish. They could not be seen or touched, but were frequently captured on camera from 1994 2005. UFOlogist Jose Escamilla was the first to notice these creatures in 1994 as he was hanging around in Roswell, New Mexico, trying to film UFOs (all true). After his discovery, television documentaries were made, articles were written and various nutters worried that we were all about to be conquered by an army of unseen alien assailants. Until 2005, that is, when a team of Chinese scientists filmed a television documentary that handily demonstrated that all these rods ever had been were camera-based optical illusions born from the wingbeats of small insects. A large number of these rods were seen flying into nets in the film, but when those nets were examined, nothing other than a large number of moths were discovered inside. Despite this case being well and truly closed nearly a decade ago, there are still people out there that believe in the existence of rods.