The Minhocão entered the written record in the 19th century through the journals of naturalists exploring Brazil’s interior, where reports of a gigantic, earthworm-like creature emerged from rural communities and Indigenous groups living along the continent’s deep river valleys. The name, derived from Portuguese terms for “earthworm”, was applied to something far larger and stranger than any known annelid. Witnesses described a massive, subterranean animal that churned soil, toppled trees, and left deep trenches across forest floors during heavy rains. Though no physical specimen was ever recovered, the consistency of early accounts gave rise to a persistent South American legend: a burrowing creature so large that it shaped landscapes as it moved.
The earliest widely circulated descriptions came from the French naturalist Augustin Saint-Hilaire, who traveled through Brazil in the early 1800s. He recorded conversations with locals who insisted that a creature “thick as a tree trunk” lived beneath wetlands and riverbanks in the provinces of Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul. They claimed it left behind trenches broad enough to swallow cattle and that its movements caused the ground to vibrate. Some described seeing enormous tracks leading into flooded areas, while others spoke of hearing rumbling, subterranean noises after heavy storms. Saint-Hilaire never claimed to witness the creature himself, but he noted that the testimony came from multiple independent informants who offered similar details.
A few decades later, the German zoologist Fritz Müller documented additional stories during his time in Santa Catarina. Müller’s correspondents described a creature with dark, armored skin, sometimes compared to the hide of an alligator or the segmented plates of an armadillo. Several accounts referenced a pair of horn-like protrusions near the animal’s head, features that later writers speculated might serve as digging structures. One farmer recounted losing an ox when the ground beneath it collapsed suddenly into a tunnel that had not existed hours earlier. Such stories centered on swampy terrain where soil stability already posed challenges, blurring the line between geologic activity and animal behavior.
Some of the most dramatic accounts involve sightings in which witnesses claimed to observe the creature directly. One oft-cited story from the late 1800s describes a “black, cylindrical animal” more than twenty meters long rising partially out of a flooded marsh before submerging again with enough force to send ripples across the surface. Another report from Rio Grande do Sul told of a creature so large that when it crossed beneath the roots of a fallen tree, it lifted the trunk several inches before disappearing underground. While none of these stories were corroborated by physical evidence, they contributed to a growing body of folklore that portrayed the Minhocão as a powerful, elusive, and almost geological presence.
Naturalists attempting to explain the legend proposed several possibilities. One theory suggested that the creature was a species of giant lungfish or eel, capable of burrowing through mud and appearing worm-like in shape. Another pointed to the armored glyptodonts of prehistoric South America, noting that fossil traditions sometimes mix ancient remains with living memory. Some researchers speculated that the reports were misinterpretations of land slippage caused by heavy rains, where collapsing soil could resemble the path of a burrowing creature. Yet these explanations did not fully account for descriptions of armor plating, rumbling movement, or sightings made far from major waterways.
The most enduring scientific hypothesis links the Minhocão to the earthworms of the family Glossoscolecidae, which are known to reach impressive sizes in Brazil, some stretching to more than a meter in length. Exaggeration, enhanced by fear or surprise, could easily transform a large worm into something monstrous in retelling. But even the largest confirmed worms fall far short of the multi-meter giants described in 19th-century testimonies. The gap between biological reality and folkloric scale remains substantial, leaving room for speculation about what early witnesses might have encountered.
Today, the Minhocão persists as one of South America’s most intriguing folkloric creatures, an intersection of Indigenous environmental knowledge, rural storytelling, and early scientific curiosity. Its legend reflects the scale of the continent’s wetlands and forests, where unseen forces beneath the soil can feel alive and unpredictable. Whether inspired by real animals, natural phenomena, or a mixture of both, the Minhocão remains an enduring symbol of the mysteries that lurk underground, deep in the shifting earth of Brazil’s interior.
Sources & Further Reading:
– Augustin Saint-Hilaire, travel journals and natural history notes on Brazil, early 1800s
– Fritz Müller, zoological correspondence from Santa Catarina
– Brazilian regional folklore archives on subterranean creature traditions
– Geological surveys of Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul floodplains
– Studies on giant Glossoscolecidae earthworms in South America
(One of many stories shared by Headcount Coffee — where mystery, history, and late-night reading meet.)
