Sandworms are the beginning of all evil, at least in the science fiction saga “Dune”. The US author Frank Herbert achieved cult status with his cycle of novels from 1965 onwards. The books were filmed in 1984 and a new version has just been successfully released in cinemas. In “Dune”, monstrous worms live in subterranean tunnel systems, absorbing all liquid from the planet Arrakis for their survival. The literal devastation of the planet is thus unstoppable. On top of that, the critters eat everything that comes their way – people or machines, as long as they have fuel. Lured by the rhythmic vibrations that people cause with their steps, the animals shoot out of the dunes and suck everything up.
Now, sci-fi monsters are often more fiction than science, but there may be animals living in the dunes of the Mongolian Gobi that look remarkably like the sandworms from the desert planet, at least according to a small, tight-knit community of researchers. The world’s leading, because almost the only, expert in the field of monster worms was the Czech cryptozoologist Ivan Mackerle (1942-2013), who invested all his money in finding a specific species: the “Allghoi Khorkhoi”.
Like its relatives on the desert planet, the Mongolian worm kills humans
The Allghoi Khorkhoi, Mackerle translated the term less gallantly as “intestinal worm”, is said to be up to one meter long and as thick as an arm. Most reports agree that this worm is blood red, sometimes with dark spots. However, nomads also report scaly skin and prickly teeth on both ends of the animal – the head and rump are indistinguishable from each other. He is said to live in the dunes of the Gobi desert, or rather underneath, because he is said to spend most of his time in underground passages. He only comes to the surface when it has rained and the ground is soaked. A monstrous earthworm, then? Not quite, because the animal has hunting season in June and July. Like its relatives on the desert planet, the Allghoi Khorkhoi is carnivorous and also preys on humans. It is therefore also known as the Mongolian death worm.
According to Mackerle’s descriptions, the animal is particularly dangerous because it has two killing mechanisms at its disposal: poison and electric shocks – although the rumored eyewitness reports do not entirely agree on whether it can squirt the poison or secrete it through the skin and thus the slightest touch leads to death. The worm is said to be so dangerous that an encounter with it usually ends fatally, which is why there are almost no eyewitnesses. How, then, could word of his existence get around?
The animal was first mentioned in research reports by paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews. In the 1920s, he led groundbreaking expeditions to Central Asia, where he assumed the cradle of humanity. That’s why he looked for the oldest traces of human life there. He didn’t find this, but he became the prototype of the daredevil adventurer, who was to find his pop-cultural ideal type in the figure of Indiana Jones. He was the first to come across fossil dinosaur eggs and the remains of a giant hornless rhinoceros.
Is it really a stranded electric eel or maybe a venomous snake?
As a result of his travels, more than 50 articles with research results were published. Andrews enriched his reports with cultural-historical and often quite amusingly formulated observations. One of those extras: recurring descriptions of the Allghoi Khorkhoi, which he immortalized in “On the Trail of Ancient Man” (1926) and “The New Conquest of Central Asia” (1932). During a visit to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, Prime Minister Damdinbazar asked him to catch and bring a specimen of this rare animal to him. Both the Premier and his followers knew of people who had survived encounters with the deathworm and could describe them in all their grisly detail – a shaky source, but enough to give the animal a place in the research report.
Taxonomy of the deathworm is tricky: is it an annelid, a stranded electric eel, or maybe a venomous snake? The latter would probably have better chances of surviving in the desert. If you put the sources together, things are not looking good for the Allghoi Khorkhoi: no one has ever seen it with their own eyes. There are neither photos nor reliable documents about its existence, let alone a specimen. Andrews was also unsuccessful, although he promised the Premier that he would catch one if he saw one. Why would scientists voluntarily search for an animal that has never been sighted because it is so poisonous it will kill anyone who so much as touches it? Andrews, at least, had their promise across the country open to everyone. That may explain his short-term enthusiasm.
So wishful thinking, hearsay and a healthy dose of opportunism kept the worm alive for so long. Mackerle compiled Mongolian sources and Russian science fiction stories in the 1990s and traveled the Gobi several times. Inspired by “Dune” he even developed a so-called “Thumper”, a machine with which he wanted to generate rhythmic pounding and lure the worms out of the sand – unfortunately in vain. His indefatigable reports have had a permanent place in cryptozoological treatises ever since. Where science ends and fiction begins? Mackerle probably walked exactly this fine line. After all, the worm lives on in the hearts of cryptozoologists to this day.