The minhocão is a giant earthworm that’s rumored to live in the Amazon jungle. While the word “earthworm” may not exactly be nightmare fuel, “giant” in this case truly means giant—the minhocão is supposed to be somewhere close to 75 feet (23 meters) long, much larger than the deadly carnivorous worms from the Tremors film trilogy. And much like those movie monsters, the minhocão burrows through the earth and attacks from below, leaving giant tunnels in its wake. Reports of collapsed houses have been blamed on the minhocão, along with the mysterious disappearances of cattle.
According to Karl Shuker, a cryptozoologist, the minhocão (if it exists) is more likely a caecilian than an earthworm. Caecilians are amphibians that resemble overgrown worms, except for the fact that they have eyes—and teeth. People who claim to have seen the minhocão say that it has massive teeth, black skin covered in scales, and two tentacles protruding from its head. There haven’t been any minhocão sightings for over a hundred years, so if there was an enormous underground worm lurking under the Amazon at some point, it’s probably dead by now.
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