Region // 6 files

South America

Impenetrable forests and the memory of vanished megafauna: Amazonia feeds files where zoological hope — a surviving giant sloth? — meets the traditions of forest peoples.

• Case file Nº042 1910

  Nahuelito

  Aquatic / 41.05°S 71.50°W

  A 'plesiosaur' reported in Lake Nahuel Huapi since 1910, hunted by a zoo expedition in 1922, never verifiably photographed.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº081 Folklore ancien

  Mapinguari

  Relict / 9.97°S 67.81°W

  Amazonia's reeking forest giant, argued by one zoologist to be a surviving giant ground sloth — never proven.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº082 1847

  Minhocão

  Relict / 27.82°S 50.33°W

  Brazil's giant burrowing 'worm', blamed for huge trenches in the 1800s — reports stopped entirely after 1880.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº083 1929

  De Loys' Ape

  Hominid / 8.90°N 72.70°W

  The 1920 'American ape' photo: a staged spider monkey, later weaponised by racist anthropology — a demonstrated hoax.

  Class 5

• Case file Nº084 Folklore ancien

  Giant anaconda

  Relict / 9.70°S 65.36°W

  The anaconda is real; only the extraordinary sizes — Fawcett's 19 metres — have never been backed by a shred of proof.

  Class 2

• Case file Nº085 Folklore ancien

  Ucu

  Hominid / 24.79°S 65.41°W

  The hairy wild man of Argentina's Andes, whose Quechua name literally means 'bear' — the spectacled bear fits the file well.

  Class 4