The Mongolian Death Worm

In the deserts of Mongolia, there is said to be a huge wurm which feeds off those who it comes across walking in the desert. Anyone seen Tremors? Impossible? Because it hasnt been seen, does it make it not true. It would be extremely hard to find, under the sand and all. Would it have tunnels? It would eat the odd camel every now again. I have only read a few stories and reports on this cryptid.

a creature that has not been seen is unlikely to exist. It could, but if there is nothing but story, and no sightings, it is probably just folklore.

The "Allghoi Khorkhoi" or intestine worm. It's possible for creatures to exist for hundreds of years without many people knowing about them. The fact that they have soft tissue and live underground leads to the fact that no remains have been found. Nothing to remain, and hidden away underground if it dies.

Good link here.

[Edited on 11-9-2003 by darklanser]

I am very interested in the mongolian death wurm. however i have only seen a few stories and reports of this creature and all of them were very short. It would be amazing to see one of these creatures.

Hopefully i would see it on tape

A cuticle covered, segmented worm? Sounds unlikely. How big are these worms, the site didn't say anything about the size

Very unlikely.

Biologically speaking, worms can only grow to be a certain size above water. It's one thing to move a body around that has a skeletal structure (like snakes and lizards and humans and mammals) and quite another to try and move a sack of water and organs around.

Woms don't have skeletons, and their lungs and o ther organs would simply collapse under the weight of their own bodies.

I wonder if I can get one at Pet Supplies Plus.

Seriously,
Something large enough to eat a camal, that has eaten camals, would more than likely left behind some solid evidence. It is just a story.

Originally posted by Estragon
Hi, Mad-S,
I must say that is a superb title for a topic.
It is a creature of legend (Outer Mongolia - not the Chinese part) and spits corrosive venom and is particularly annoyed by yellow things.
It's highly unlikely to be a worm (i.e. annelidae) -not well suited to deserts.
Maybe a snake or some kind of lizard?
Cyberchums who want a quick guide to beasties and monsters might find this link useful:
theshadowlands.net...

Annoyed by yellow whats?

Originally posted by Monk

Originally posted by Estragon
It is a creature of legend (Outer Mongolia - not the Chinese part) and spits corrosive venom and is particularly annoyed by yellow things.

Annoyed by yellow whats?

Traffic lights? Stop signs? Rain gear?

...at this point the concept got WAY too silly.

The first reference in English to this remarkable beast appears in Professor Roy Chapman Andrews� 1926 book On the Trail of Ancient Man, although the American pal�ontologist (apparently the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character) was not entirely convinced by the tales of the monster he heard at a gathering of Mongolian officials: �None of those present ever had seen the creature, but they all firmly believed in its existence and described it minutely.�

So was the Death Worm simply a myth, or could there be a real creature out there, awaiting discovery?

On the Internet I came across plenty of stories to the effect that the Mongolians were so afraid of this terrible beast that they simply clammed up and refused to talk about it; that it lived in the most hostile terrain, where other, less fearsome beasts would surely perish; and that it could kill just by looking at people, shooting lightning from its eyes! This last bit, in particular, set alarm bells ringing; to say I was sceptical would be an understatement, as this wasn�t the first cryptid with such a �magical power� that I�d pursued. A few years before, I�d travelled to the Congo in pursuit of the mokele m�bembe, a �living dinosaur� which, the pygmies claimed, possessed a similar control over deadly lightning (see FT145:30).

www.forteantimes.com...

the occasional sighting of a Sober aussie.

Now THAT would be a cryptid!

Seriously, are there any other prehistoric large worms that existed? Just curious....not my bag really...

Originally posted by Gazrok

the occasional sighting of a Sober aussie.

Now THAT would be a cryptid!

Seriously, are there any other prehistoric large worms that existed? Just curious....not my bag really...

It wouldn't surprise me at all. But, as they have no skeletons it would make it very hard to identify fossil remains. Undoubtedly the flesh would have rotted away before becoming fosilised

Search function is your friend!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Jonna
Search function is your friend!

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Ahem, I don't mean to burst your bubble, but this thread is the original thread, long before the other one was posted. As you say, the search function is your friend

Open mouth, insert foot! Funny thing is that I always use the search function and this did not come up. Strange.

It surfaces during rains and basks in the sun. This means it is cold blooded and gets its oxygen through osmosis. If you believe these accounts then it is a worm and not a snake. Either way, doesn't matter. I call BS and here is why.

1. Osmosis requires a membrane (skin) to remain moist for oxygen exchange. This is a desert. Not gonna work. If it's a snake then it has lungs and needs to breath very routinely...we'd see it often as it surfaced.

2. Osmosis only works for animals with a high surface area/volume ratio. Otherwise you need lungs/gills. A several foot long worm doesn't work (ok tapeworms can be meeters long but it is because they are so flat...this is not the case here). Again if its something other than osmosis we'd see it surface to breath.

3. Burrowing. It has already been mentioned here. An animal of this proportion could not burrow through the sand. A worm burrows based on the nature that is small relative to the dirt particles it is displacing. Wouldn't work with a large creature.

4. Evolution. Mechanisms such as electric discharge and corrosive venom are not trivial evolutionarrily. You would expect to see some other closely related species with similar characteristics. Most cryptids are a variation on a well know animal, think unicorn. Not hard to imagine. A gaint burrowing worm that shoots lightning and spits acid...now that's an evolutionary stretch. Another evolutionary stretch, worms aren't carnivores.

5. Electric discharge. Doesn't work. The amount of energy needed to generate an electric current that would leap through the air (ie lightning) to a target and hit with enough force to kill is absurd. The energy requirement alone would not be worth the caloric payback from the meal it killed. Some species manage electrical discharges, electric eels for example. But remember 1. this is in the water, which conducts electricity 2. It is radiated as a pulse not as a targeted bolt. 3. It stuns smaller prey, not outright kills larger prey

6. Corrosive venom. So we aren't talking about a toxin here, we are talking acid. Spitting toxins that damage the eyes, ie spitting cobra, is well known. Corrosive acid spray, can't thjink of any other biological support for this. Would be very tough to produce something this alkaline or acidic without damaging the creature itself. Think about the stomach...tons of special protection required internally just maintain that acidic of conitions. At the same time, stomach acid wouldn't do any serious damage, especially death, if you got hit with it.

Is it possible it exists?....you can explain anything away if you try though you will be stretching in this case. Is it likely?...hell no.