Death Worms: Fact or Fiction? | Monstrum
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2021
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Rumored to roam some of the world’s most desolate places the poisonous, killer death worm can trace its history in folklore back thousands of years. Made more famous and frightening with science fiction series like Dune and Tremors, killer worms are part of our cultural knowledge-but does any creature like them exist in the real world? This episode looks at the possible inspirations behind some of history’s most famous death worms, like the Mongolian death worm of the Gobi Desert, and takes a look at the creatures that wiggle, slither, and creep their way across our planet. #deathworms #mongoliandeathworm #dune #MonstrumPBS
Written and Hosted by: Dr. Emily Zarka
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Stephanie Noone
Illustrator: Samuel Allen
Editor: Ray Lux
Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.
The world is full of monsters, myths, and legends and Monstrum isn’t afraid to take a closer look. The show, hosted by Emily Zarka, Ph.D., takes us on a journey to discover a new monster in each new episode. Monstrum looks at humans' unique drive to create and shape monster mythology through oral storytelling, literature, and film and digs deep into the history of those mythologies.
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Being an ancient Greek geographer must have been so fun. Just being able to sit around and make up stuff about other countries. "Yeah, man, there's a big worm in India that eats horses. Source? C'mon, man, just trust me."
The Alaskan bull worm clearly doesn't get enough credit in the world of death worms.
Fun fact: some Mongolia desert locals were shown a picture of a sand boa and directly referred to it as a death worm. The dude who showed the picture was Russian zoologist Yuri Gorelov
Looks like I picked the wrong day to have leftover spaghetti for lunch.
Fun fact: the earthworms here in Canada are invasive
there's also lampreys/hagfish. While they are technically fish, they do resemble the mythical death worms...complete with toothed, circular mouth. Also, leaches.
Its worth keeping in mind that Europe, where many scholars that told of grand monsters "in the east" came from, does not have any crocodiles. These monsters would be all new, and would be rather terrifying to see.
Today I learned that the word "crocodile" comes from the Greek words that means lizard, but it's homophone with the word that means "Pebbles worm" so it might really be a relationship between crocodiles and river worms.
insert Alaskan Bull Worm joke here
I thought Dune was a desert planet primarily because the Sandtrout (larval sandworms) encapsulate any free water as part of their biological process (which also produces the Spice.)
"How do we make the Death worm more terrifying?"
The crocodiles mistaken for giant worms theory is interesting since THAT'S the etymological meaning of crocodile.
The Mongolian Death Worm seem to be a victim of shounen power creep. Bigger, more poisonous and now it spit lightning.
Lol, I remember that bonkers Animal Planet show "Lost Tapes" had an episode on the Mongolian Death Worm. It mostly mentions the old Mongolian legends, but then half way through the show claims they might be mutated lizards from Chinese nuclear tests, which... if they were created in nuclear tests in the 50s... where did the stories from before that come from? :-P
I love your show! Specially how you manage to tie monsters origins with biology, psychology, history and culture.
Monstrum is my favorite type of videos on this channel. I learn new things about stories and get inspiration for some monsters for the pen and paper sessions:D
"...digests everything but the intestines." So. That's what we're going with. Seems legit. Should have gone with bones, but hey, cool story bro.
I remember reading about mythical giant death worms that live in Mongolia. This book also had a good chapter about the Mothman.
2:50
While reading The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales I learned about Osedax the bone devouring worms that live in the abyss.