Russian What-Is-It?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on July 8th, 2010
Could the following images be a clever hoax? A discarded body part? A species unknown to most? Or an unknown species?
What are your best guesses?
The description with it:
Olesja encountered this on a meadow path near a pond in Bashkiria, Russia. It was about 5 cm long, and had no discernible eyes, legs, or head. It moved in a jerky, almost caterpillar-like motion. She thought it might be a severed lizard tail, but it stopped moving when she touched it, and it resumed moving in the same direction about a minute later. The underside is smoother and darker than the topside.
Thanks to JGodsey.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Didn’t Khan use that on Chekov in the second Star Trek film? Other than that, unless I see it actually move (as proof of life since it looks like a fixed statue) I got nothin’.
Uh, a worm that evolved with armor? 😀
Well, it certainly plays right into the hands of the Death Worm (or Olgoi-Khorkhoi) cryptid of Mongolia.
Looks like a huge pill bug.
Well, there’s no reason offhand, given the reasonable size reported, that I’d instantly reject it as a new invertebrate.
Venusian Death Rattler Worm visiting Earth on vacation.
Looks to me like it was placed there. I don’t see any signs of any sort of trail, like it had moved there under it’s own power. I guess the ground could be harder than it looks, but I would expect a slither line or teeny-tiny footprints.
My own notion would be ‘hoax’.
First impression is that it’s not a lizard’s tail, as both don’t show any signs of tearing of tissues. The one end that would appear to be the severed end, seems to taper uniformly. The body segments also seem too large for lizard scales, and reminds me more of a crustacean or arthropod then reptilian.
is the possible candidate a subspecies of this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinorhyncha
description is no legs or cilia, 11 segments not including the head. If you count the segments in the photo, minus the first “head” one, there are 11 segments. The observer reported no discernible eyes, legs, or head. Is it possible that the head simply does not appear as such, or is partially retracted?
Noting the lack of legs, the segmentation, and possibly mouthparts at the anterior end . . . this is some kind of insect larva. The long tail sort of suggests that it may actually be aquatic, in my view. Or an ectoparasite which has become dislodged from its (ambulatory) host.
The number of segments looks about right for an insect – and the size seems that way, too.
I don’t know what it’s called, but those worms, or something similar, live in the sewer/drainage ditches in Louisiana. Certainly not a new invertebrate. I’ve seen worms like that all my life.
I have no idea what this could be.
I’m putting my guess in the hoax category, but am putting my hopes in the new species category.
Let the spice flow.
That’s a good point on it not leaving a trail. If this is a live animal, though, could have been picked up or flipped with a stick to get it in a spot where the light was better for the picture. The trail impression to the to one side of the thing might indicate just that.
The connection to the “mud dragons” suggested above does not work: the environment+size difference is too great.
I am trying to think of an inanimate object that might look like this, maybe part of some toy creature.
As you can guess, I am basically stumped.
I think I have seen something similar somwhere in a book. I suppose it is a larvae of some kind.
I don’t think it is even 5 cm in length. That piece of broken glass next to it is very small, in my opinion. I’ve seen something that looks exactly like that growing up in Iowa and it was a tiny creature about 2 cm long.
perhaps you have seen Lampyridae larvae, fireflies
Stickbug Larva… thats my guess, or perhaps an injured FLYING ROD, I like the death worm idea also. It’s post like this that make the site worth making my homepage!
The 5cm sounds about right. I’ve been counting shards of glass like that for the past several weeks, so I’m confident in my eyeball measurement of about 2-3cm for the long edge of the glass, and the worm-thing looks longer than that side.
I’m going to have to agree with lightning bug larva.
Image source
I dunno what it could be, but I am not the kind of person to pick something like that up. I know mother nature enough to not think something is safe to pick up just because there’s no discernible head, legs or tail. Many other creatures that look totally harmless usually excrete chemicals that can harm anyone or anything that touches it.
I think that thing is a hoax. There’s no blur to suggest movement. The whole thing looks rigid, therefore no amount of movement in any manor would allow it to move. Without a mouth it would starve to death, and there would be no other logical way for it to “dig” if any kind of worm. There might be “tracks” left in the dirt, but this thing would be going sideways. This person is lucky (if it isn’t a hoax) that it doesn’t become parasitic to people (kinda the Xfiles idea).
at 5 centimeters, it’s not going to have much weight and may pick its way over a surface instead of leaving big impressions in the earth. And as for legs, it could be like a millipede and they could be underneath…protecting the body.
Who knows…I’ll wait for more info before throwing it into the hoax category–Mother Nature has cooked up weirder things.
Loren A friend on youtube said that
it might be an tail of an armadillo buried in the sand.
His name on youtube is Bagatronic.
I’ve heard a story like this a while ago while surfing the
web on my cell phone. A women found a worm or came across
one in a garbage dump and it scared the wits out of her!!
Anyway great story thanks for bringing it to us and our attention.
p.s. Loren maybe it is something
like a US or Russian military spy robot or something along
those lines.
It definitely is a larva of a soldier fly. These can be aquatic or terrestrial.
For a picture see here.
I have a video of one of these. It was crawling (waddling) through our warehouse a couple of weeks ago.
It’s a soldier fly larva!! I’m no expert but google it.