Posted by Zak Tenossen. Posted In : News 

 

What's up with the Deft Worm???

February 21, 2009

The Mongolian Death Worm’s Mongolian name is Alloghoi Khorkhoi.  Translated, that means "intestine worm".

 The Mongolian Deathworm can be two to four feet long, with a bright red color. Its body is thick and wormlike. Supposedly, anything it touches becomes yellow.


Mongolians think that mentioning the Death Worm brings bad luck. They say that it can kill humans and animals instantly, just by looking at them from just a few feet away. The Mongolian Death Worm is believed to spray a deadly poison on enemies, or it may transmit highly lethal electric charges.

So here's the quseten what is it ?

If the Mongolian Death Worm is real, it probably isn’t a worm, even though we call it one. It is probably a type of snake. The part about it being able to kill you when it glances in your direction is likely false.

Posted by Zak Tenossen. Posted In : Questions 

 

Humongous Earthworms

May 24, 2009

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Is this real? If you have the stomach, click on the image to head to an image gallery and our very ordinary investigation.

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So, are these photos real? And the answer, amazingly is… probably yes.

Here in Brazil we have our very own Minhocuçu (Rhinodrilus e Glossoscolex spp) which can easily grow beyond half a meter in length an almost an inch in diameter.

And it’s not by far the longest earthworm recorded.

The Microchaetidae family in South Africa is a group where all species can reach over a meter in length. This is no folk tale or cryptozoological rumor: specimens of this size have been duly recorded for over a century already.

And even those are not the champions. The title goes to the Megascolecidae family from Australia. The record: 2,1 meters by 24 millimeters thick.

The worms in the images all look they are up to a meter in length, compatible with the recorded dimensions for the many species of the families we discussed. They are probably real, though exactly from where and what species my ordinary investigation didn’t come up with. Specialists, do enlighten us with further confirmation and identification! The first image of a girl holding up one, for instance, may not be of an earthworm but of a caecilian.

Giant earthworms are harmless, but perhaps because of their plain appearance and our instinctive disgust of them all kinds of legends are associated with them, even in places where we can’t find those “little” couple-meter-earthworms.

The most curious legend is not exactly about an earthworm, but of a worm. A death worm. The Mongolian Death Worm. It can allegedly kill its victims by either spraying a lethal and blinding venom, or sending electrical discharges.

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In Brazil, where we do have our Minhocuçus, there’s also the legend of Minhocão, 25 meters in size. Like the Mongolian Death Worm, its not very plausible such a creature exists.

Earthworms over a couple of meters in length are real and they can more than make up for a mix of disgust and fascination. Not only they can harm nobody and are actually important part of the ecosystem, in Brazil they are in danger as they make really excellent fishing bait. This is no joke (link in Portuguese).

Posted by Zak Tenossen. Posted In : News 

 

Strange creature in northern lake a bryozoan: scientists

May 24, 2009

The bryozoan Pectinatella magnifica recently found at the Rung Lake in the northern province of Vinh Phuc
Scientists are researching the origin of a type of bryozoan that has developed recently in a 70-hectare lake in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, killing the fish and leaving local residents very worried.

Bryozoan are invertebrate animals that reproduce by budding.

The creatures appeared in the Rung Lake in Tu Trung Commune in the province’s Vinh Tuong District last May, but have proliferated on a large scale recently.

The provincial environmental research center, which is also tasked with preventing diseases at fisheries informed the Binh Minh Cooperative, which manages and exploits the lake, that the creatures are a fresh water bryozoan named Pectinatella magnifica.

The tiny colonial creatures generally build mucilaginous (moist and sticky) structures of gelatin with 99 percent water, that look like a flower with a diameter of up to two meters, the center reported.

The structures can stick to underwater plants and move at a speed of 1-1.5 millimeters a day.

The center’s director, Phan Thi Van, said she had instructed local authorities not to drain water out of the lake to prevent the spread of the bryozoan.

Le Thanh Luu, director of the Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 1, said this is the first time the creature has been found in Vietnam.

Phan Thi Xuan, chairman of the Binh Minh Cooperative said the fresh water lake collects rainwater with an average depth of 3.5 meters, with its deepest point at eight meters.

The Rung Lake is the irrigation source for farms in four communes of Vinh Phuc Province’s Vinh Tuong District - Tu Trung, Tam Phuc, Phu Da and Ngu Kien. It also supplies water to some smaller lakes and ponds.

“It’s very important to prevent the spread of the creatures as the lake is a source of water for many places,” Xuan said.

Strange creatures

She said she thought it was an impact of changing weather when fish in the lake started to die in large numbers last October.

Last month, the cooperative started to collect fish in the lake and caught around two tons of the “strange” creature. Most of the fish in the net weakened before dying.

“Not only did the fish die, many people who touched the creatures suffered itchiness and sore eyes,” she said.

“We didn’t know if they were animals or plants and began called them the “strange creature,” Xuan said.

She showed a bucket containing some bryozoans, adding that they had died after being caught a day earlier.

Yen, a worker at the cooperative, said the strange creatures stick themselves to the plants, bags, or the lake floor. He also said some were as small as a finger-tip but others weighed almost a kilogram.

Researchers feel the fish may have died after coming into contact with the bryozoans, causing the mucous substance to stick to their gills.

They have found that the water in the lake is not polluted and is suitable for breeding fish.

Further studies are being carried out to verify the creatures’ possible toxicity as well as their origin, she said.

 

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