The minhocão is a legendary creature from Brazilian folklore. It is described as a subterranean serpentine creature with scales and horns. It causes significant destruction through its tunneling. People have claimed that it grows up to 80 m long.

The name “minhocão” means giant earthworm in Brazilian Portuguese. The creature calls the forests of South America its home. It supposedly moves by burrowing through the earth. Many people were said to spot it throughout the 19th century, as it stole livestock and smashed trees. Sitings are no longer reported by those in the area.

That leaves the question: What inspired the myth of the minhocão?

It has been thought that the Minhocão is a fictional creature invented to explain otherwise-mysterious earthquake damage. Charles Darwin suggested the appearance was inspired by the discoveries of fossilized bones such as the Titanoboa. However, other naturalists of the time state that the sitings could not be explained.

Scientist Auguste de Saint Hilaire theorized it could be a giant species of Lepidosiren. This lungfish is an elongated animal resembling an eel or worm. It has slender pectoral fins that could possibly be misconstrued as horns. It has teeth adapted for seizing and tearing at prey. The muscles of their jaw are strong.

While known species of the South American lungfish typically grow only to around 1.5 m, a more extensive form could exist. Researchers are reportedly discovering new species every two days across South America, including 93 new fish species in 2017. A more robust lungfish could account for reports of livestock being dragged away.

Another thing that connects the Lepidosiren to the Minhocão is the lungfish’s ability to cocoon itself during the dry season. it buries itself in the mud at the bottom of rivers and waits until it rains again. This would account for the trenches of the minhocão.

Other researchers believe that the Caecilian is responsible for the myth’s origin. Karl Shuker proposed the theory that a large species of caecilian had evolved in South America and led the people there to come up with the idea of the minhocão.

Caecilians are segmented, legless amphibians. They look superficially like earthworms but have visible mouths and some have a pair of sensory tentacles on their head that resemble horns. These animals inhabit rivers and lakes in South America. Terrestrial species are known to emerge from their burrows after heavy rainstorms and most have a habit of grabbing their prey from below.

While most caecilians today only grow to around 1.5 m, it is possible one had grown larger and went extinct. This would account for the lack of sitings later in the 19th century.

The Minhocão has appeared in the Final Fantasy games and Zoo Tycoon 2. It is possibly even an inspiration for the sandworms in Dune. This legend has endured no matter how it started.

Sources:

Evans, Susan E.; Sigogneau-Russell, Denise (2001). “A stem-group caecilian (Lissamphibia: Gymnophiona) from the Lower Cretaceous of North Africa”. Palaeontology. 44 (2): 259–273.

Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2014). “Lepidosiren paradoxa” in FishBase. April 2014 version.

Minhocão. Encyclopaedia of Cryptozoology. (n.d.). Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Minhoc%C3%A3o

Trimble, M. (2017, August 31). Nearly 400 new species discovered in the Amazon rainforest | best … U.S. News. Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2017-08-31/nearly-400-new-species-discovered-in-the-amazon-rainforest