In search of the Mongolian Death Worm

next thing you know we'll find legends of a sandworm and fremen riding them. Sounds a bit too much like "arrakis' to me ;-) This said, this threat should be in the Crypto section and not here.

Mongols drink so-called "kumys", which is a specially fermented horse or camel milk. After this thing they tend to tell the stories, of which one made its way to Soviet science fiction of 1940s, so the novel by Efremov appeared, called Olgoi-Khorhoi, describing precisely the personal encounter with this death worm. Already in the 60s mad enthusiasts were going to Gobi to catch the beast, but were catching nothing on top of a nice desert tan or bad cold. Efremov was translated in a couple of dozen languages(even in Mongolian), so the disease became spread worldwide, and now every Mongol knows t... [More]

i wont say it does exist but, i think it is so possible that there is a red poisonous worm that we haven seen much. it could have migrated, maybe died out, poss never lived. but its a fricken worm, how hard is that to believe possible. maybe its not a worm but snake that was different somehow. compared to a lot of the other things i read about on this site the worm i would give a good chance... possible Gravoid sighting

wow, a worm that we cant prove is alive. i think its a darn good chance its somewhere out there along with some other crazy cool things. keep looking, youl find something. lol Man, that guy is 62 years old. Anything 'crypto-' has to with some kind of external sign. Well, he has a couple. Take some water. Speaking of water, do you think the Gobi desert was once the ocean? Go to the bottom of the ocean miles down and you'll probably find some of those worms. That is if they haven't drowned yet.

Here is another article on the same subject: The Truth Behind the Mongolian Death Worm It has much more detail than the OP, plus more photographs from an expedition -- plus -- a possible explanation as to what exactly this worm may be. Link to story http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featu...eath-worm/13543 Anyway, it's an enjoyable read, Karlis

Seriously,the Mongolian Death Worm, name that makes you expect a fierce creature and it gets killed by some guy who throws a rock at it? You're sure the name is correctly translated from Mongolian? Sounds to me like it should be 'Mongolian death by rock worm" rather. “There was the friend of park ranger who had seen the Death Worm three times: the first in 1965 when he saw its head poking out of a hole in the sand; the second the next year when he saw one eating a mouse. The third time was in 1972, when he actually killed a worm by throwing a rock at it, but this time some Russian scientists... [More]

Seriously,the Mongolian Death Worm, name that makes you expect a fierce creature and it gets killed by some guy who throws a rock at it? You're sure the name is correctly translated from Mongolian? Sounds to me like it should be 'Mongolian death by rock worm" rather. I thought they were called Graboids!

I Wonder..

Hmm.. firstly, it's nieve to say this thing doesn't exist just because it hasn't been properly catalogued. When you blink does the whole world disappear for a second? secondly, we already have creatures catalogued that can produce an electrical shock powerful enough to kill an adult human - eg the electric eel or knifefish. Some beetles have acidic defences such as this one is described to have. keep in mind im not saying it DOES or DOES NOT exist, rather it COULD exist.

Heh, death worms, sounds like Frank Herbert was actually a Prophet, instead of a historian/writer, this makes Eurepodes(I think this is who said it), 'that Historians are Prophets in reverse.', then it would make even more sense, that instead of seeing the future he saw our ancient past......Hmmm, I feel Orion Von Koch returning. Then it would mean Dune was our past, not our future. EA