Morphology & Ecology

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MINHOCÃO

During the late 19th century, a number of sightings were recorded in numerous parts of South America of a creature resembling a giant earthworm. One account, dating from the 1840s near the Rio dos Papaganaios in the Parana State, described a woman who went to draw water from a well one morning. She saw, a short distance off, an animal that she described as being as large as a house moving along the ground. In the same district, a young man later saw a huge pine suddenly overturn, the surrounding earth begin to move, and an enormous, black worm-like animal appear, about 80 ft long with two horns on its head. A report in the American Journal of Science from the period mentions instances where livestock had been captured by one of these creatures and dragged under the water, suggesting that it was actually a type of water serpent. The name Minhocao comes from the Portuguese word minhocar (earthworm). There is also a similar creature from the folklore of Nicaragua called Sterpe, which was described as being similar to a huge snake. Various suggestions have been put forward by cryptozoologists, including the suggestion that the Minhocao was a surviving Glyptodont (a prehistoric South American animal which resembled an armadillo); while others have suggested a giant Caecilian, a worm-like amphibian native to Mexico and South America. No sightings have been reported since 1870.