What is the minhocao?
The minhocao is an unidentified creature like a giant earthworm, said to live in Brazil and elsewhere in South America. The name means “big earthworm” in Portuguese. It is said to reach tens of meters in length, covered in dark, scale-like skin, with something like horns on its head.
Folklore and records
The minhocao is said to move by burrowing underground or swimming in rivers. Where it passed, deep trenches were left in the ground, trees fell and even the course of rivers changed, it was said. It was also feared for sometimes dragging cattle, horses and other livestock on the riverbank into the water. In the 19th century, a German naturalist working in Brazil recorded sightings of the minhocao.
What is the minhocao really?
Possible explanations include large caecilians (legless amphibians) that really live in South America, eels and giant earthworms. Another theory suggests that a giant relative of the armadillo that once lived in South America survived and dug the trenches. Along with Mongolia’s Mongolian death worm, it is a leading worm-type cryptid.
