Lake Mascardi "creature" (I don't think so)

Lake Mascafrdi is U-shaped and is fed by the meltwater from the glaciers of Mount Tronador which enter its NW tip. Its NE tip on the other hand is a wide valley, with a marshy area that marks the continental divide. Just north of the divide is Lake Gutierrez that drains into the Atlantic Ocean through Lake Nahuel Huapi and the Limay and Negro Rivers. Mascardi, on the other hand, drains west through the Lower Manso River on its SW shore, which eventually reaches the Pacific Ocean throught Puelo River.

It is set at an elevation of 750 m (2,460 ft.), and has a surface area of 39,2 km² (15 sq.mi.). It is deep (on average 218 m - 715 ft.), and in the past its waters had a greenish tint due to the glacial sediments from Mt. Tronador.

The map shows Mascardi (bottom-center), the city of Bariloche on Lake Nahuel Huapi (upper right), Mt. Tronador (upper left). The red arrow marks the spot of the sighting.

Lake Mascardi map

The "serpent"

The following video was published in the news on March 14, 2018 as "Two families assure having seen a 'long serpent' in Lake Mascadri? (source)

The video on youtube, is shown below:

Lake Creature?

This is the story published in the media:

Maricel Gómez, who lives in Bariloche, and her family stopped at a service station (ACA Mascardi - see a Google Street view at this spot, red arrow in the map below).

The lake was calm and they saw a "wake", Maricel described the incident as follows:

"The lake was completely calm and suddenly I saw like a large serpent coming in and out of the water. What protruded above the water was a black, large back, and when it went underwater it left a long wake like two meteres, although that is what it seemed like from a distance, the wake was very long, like those left by planes in ths sky... The hump of the back emerged and submerged in the water, it did so like six times. We all saw it. Even, Cinthia [her sister] thought it was the tail of a snake. We couldn't believe it, we imagined it was a fish or a diver, but no. It was crossing the whole lake, but very far from us."

In my opinion, probably a fish, a diving bird like a huala, a special type of wave known as a soliton, or even the wake of a distant boat. Not a "serpent".

I have fished on the lake in a boat, picnicked on its northern tip by Fresco Creek, trekked its shore to lake Llum, and from the Casalata Creek to the Upper Manso River. I have driven along its coast on Ruta 40 and on the Tronador highway (all these spots can be seen on the map). I never saw anything odd. Just a regular Patagonian Lake.

Lake Mascardi
Top: central part, Mt. Bonete. Middle: Heart Island. Bottom: Mt. Tronador seen from the lake.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

Analysis of Tehuelche - Phoenician - Celtic (?) intertwined snakes

 
Strange snakes of alleged Celtic or Phoenician origin found engraved on Patagonian rockss. Native or Semitic - Celtic art?
 
See Index on all my posts on Phoenicians in America.
 

Alleged Tehuelche engraved stone with several intertwined snakes. Source: Internet

Above, is an image of an engraved stone, found in Chubut, Patagonia, which is attributed either to Phoenicians navigators who somehow reached the region or to Celtic mariners who somehow strayed and landed in Patagoina, or, an imitation crafted by local Tehuelche natives, who based their art on originals that the new arrivals (either Celts or Phoenicians) showed them.

Far fetched? Yes indeed. But, the stones exist, and they are either fakes, made in recent times (we will look into this option in a future post), or authentic stone carvings, crafted by some “ancient” people who lived in Chubut, Argentina.

Writhing Celtic snakes

The “Celtic” link is due to the fact that “Celts” represented intertwined snakes in their art. And, this is indeed so, as can be seen in the following examples.

The oldest is from Sutton Hoo, a village in East Anglia, England. Where an Anglo-Saxon king was buried around 625 AD. His burial included several gold jewels, among which is his buckle, shown below:

"Celtic" Buckle with intertwined snakes. Sutton Hoo, England. ca 625 AD. Souce: Internet

Another example is the beautiful cover of the Lindau Gospels (St. Galle Abbey, Switzerland. Circa 875 AD), which depicts snake or lizard-like creatures, intertwined, interlaced; which is shown below:

Lindau Gospel, ca. 875 AD. Intertwined snakes. Source: Internet

Both are beautiful examples of Germanic snakes (in my opinion they are not Celtic).

The "real" Celt examples found on the Internet are usually Irish crosses or symbols related to them. These are interesting images with intricate designs fashioned from knotted ribbons, but I have not been able to find one ribbon that resembles a snake. The Celts and their druid priests worshiped the snake (as a kind of phallic symbol), and they drew on their banners a snake intertwined around a wooden staff.[2] And this, in an island withoug snakes! (the myth surely came from the Celtic homeland in Europe or beyond).

However, none of these images resembles the writhing Patagonian snakes shown in the image that begins this post.

We will have to look at the Phoenician snakes to see if they can offer some clues.

Phoenician snakes (with a touch of Greece and Egypt)

In the ancient Middle East, in Babylon, two intertwined snakes were the symbolic representation of healing, wisdom, and fertility. From its place of origin in Mesopotamia, it migrated west, reaching the Mediterranean, where it was adopted by the Phoenicians. It is depicted in the image below, of the Phoenician Deified Serpent, or Serpent of Fire. [1]:

Phoenician serpent of fire. From [1]

In turn, besides adopting the Phoenician alphabet, The Greeks also took this god from the Phoenician pantheon, as their own god Asclepius or Asklepios.

He was symbolized by a wooden staff with a serpent wrapped around it. And that symbol originated from a Phoenician god, that had an ophidian origin:

"the word apah or epah, (frequently written apa or epa or epe in the Talmud) signifies a viper, a basilisk, a serpent. This word may have been often conjoined with that of Escul". [3]

Then there is also the symbol of the Caduceus which is a wand with two (not one –as was the case of Asclepius), belonging to Hermes, another Greek God. Which is no other than the Roman god Mercury, the god of trade and commerce. [4]

The serpent god is a very ancient myth, and the Phoenician one also has links to its Egyptian counterpart, Thoth:

The Egyptian god Seth, whose name, in Egyptian (and in Hebrew) means, “pillar”, that is, erect, tall, high is a phallic god. Interestingly, the Egyptian Book of the Dead also calls Seth, “Tet” , which is one of the names of the Egyptian god “Thoth”. Furthermore, Tet was the Phoenician god “Taaut, which is the one who originated the ophidian Esculapius.[5]

This "Taaut", according to Eusebius [*] also invented the alphabet!:

Taautus was the first who thought of the invention of letters, and began the writing of records: and he laid the foundation, as it were, of his history, by beginning with him, whom the Egyptians called Thoyth, and the Alexandrians Thoth, translated by the Greeks into Hermes. [7]

[*] The Bishop, Eusebius of Caesarea, (c. AD 263–339), quoted extensively from a previous historian, Philo of Byblos (c. AD 64-141), using material from Philo's Phoenician History.

So, as we can see, Thoth, Tet, Taaut and Esculapius are all the same god.

Regarding this “Egyptian” connection, intertwined snakes also appear in predynastic times in Ancient Egypt. [6] as can be seen in the following images dated to about 3.200 BC:

Predynastic Egyptian intertwined snakes ca. 3200 BC. From [6]

These snakes look more like the Patagonian one, being undulated and rounded, however they are not knotted into a circular mat, instead, they are "parallel" to each other.

Anyway, there is a link between Phoenicia and snakes, so if (a big if) the Patagonian engraved stones are authentic and not the work of some forger, then, they could have a Phoenician origin.

Sources.

[1] From Phoenician Coin. Maurice’s Indian Antiquities, Vol. VI, p. 368. London, 1796.
[2] James Bonwick, (1894). Irish Druids And Old Irish Religions. Forgotten Books. pp 144.
[3] Sir. William Drummond, (1826). Origines: Or, Remarks on the Origin of Several Empires, States and Cities. Baldwin and Co. Vol. 3. Phoenicia, Arabia. pp. 223.
[4] Keith Blayney , (2002). The Caduceus vs the Staff of Asclepius (Asklepian).
[5] Staniland Wake, (1870). Influence of the phallic idea in the religions of Antiquity. Chapter: The Hebrew Identified With Ethnic Religions.
[6] Archae Solenhofen , (2003). The tomb of Sabu and the tri-lobed "schist" bowl. August 25, 2003.
[7] Canaanite Resources. Eusebius of Caesarea: Book 1 - Chapter X. From Eusebius of Caesarea: Praeparatio Evangelica From Book 1. Chapters 9 and 10.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Phoenicians, Tehuelches, Patagonia and cryptozoology - Part 1

 
Phoenician symbols engraved on Patagonian rocks. Native or Semitic art?
 
See Index on all my posts on Phoenicians in America.
 

Fig. 1. Alleged Tehuelche engraved stone with several intertwined snakes. Source: Internet

Fig. 2. Tehuelche, snake and symbols. Engraved stone. Source: Internet

Fig. 3. Ancient Patagonian sculpture. Cross, moon and symbols. Source: Internet

Fig. 4. Ancient Patagonian sculpture. Phoenician symbols or letters and a Berber symbol. Source: Internet

Fig. 5. Berber symbol and letters on ancient Tehuelche engraved rock. Source: Internet

Fig. 6. Native face, sun and moon on Tehuelche engraved rock. Source: Internet

Fig. 7. Tehuelche engraved stone, with an arrow head and, a horse?. Source: Internet

Fig. 8. Boulders engraved by Tehuelches. Above: a strange horse like? creature and symbols. Below: Guanaco, snake, symbols. From [1]

(See my post on this "horse-like cryptid").

Fig. 9. Woman's face, Tehuelche or Phoenician sculpture. Patagonia. "Dama de Comodoro Rivadavia". Source: Internet

And this image, which I already posted before when I mentioned the Phoenician-Patagonian connection for the first time:

Fig. 10. Tehuelche Rock Art with Semitic symbols and weird snake. From [2]

If the title of today's post surprised you, well, that was my intention. I had already mentioned in a previous post that I would delve in this weird subject: Phoenicians or Hebrews in Pre-Hispanic Patagonia.

I posted those images of objects which, are all (except one, the "Dama de Comodoro") actually exhibited at the Museo Salesiano, at Rawson, in the Province of Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina. The "Dama de Comodoro" was at a museum in the town of Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut, and, which apparently has disappered.

Tehuelche engraved rocks and sculptures

I came across those images while looking for Tehuelche sculptures. I have already posted in January 2010, on a Cryptid, strange animal - Tehuelchense art, which I photographed and saw at the Museo Perito Moreno at Bariloche, in Rio Negro, Patagonia, Argentina.

Now, the engraved rocks shown above, don't look at all like anything else produced by the Tehuelche natives. They did "engrave" flat stones, and these are known as "Placas Grabadas", in Spanish (engraved stone plate). But these were just scratches etched on a flat stone, crude drawings. They weren't bas-reliefs like those shown above: see an example and an image of a genuine Tehuelche engraved stone.

They don't resemble either other kinds of Tehuelche stone sculptures, such as the stone snake reported by Deodat [3] in 1942, in Santa Cruz province, Patagonia.

These are more complex and neater. They are actually executed as bas-relief sculptures. A Bas-relief is a sculpture in which figures are carved in a flat surface so that they project only a little from the background.

This, at least in Patagonia is an unknown technique.

After seeing the photographs I thought that they may be fakes, so I got in touch with the Museum at Rawson, and they confirmed that the pieces are real, and event though the Museum is now closed, that these stones are in good shape and stored.

I also found them in Father Molina's book [1]. I had also seen them in another book (dated 1951)[2], so these all facts reassured me of their existence.

The question is, are they genuine or are they forgeries?

If genuine, were they carved by the Tehuelche natives? or by someone else?

We have some clues...

The symbols :Semitic, Phoenician, Punic, Berber or something else?

There are symbols, resembling Semitic letters, that is, Hebrew or Phoenician letters, on the stones. This is highly unusual.

What is more, there is a symbol, which appears in some sculptures (Figs. 1, 4, 5 and 8 bottom), which is shown below:

This symbol is actually a letter belonging to an ancient writing system, the Tifinagh alphabet. It is a "Lybico-berber" character that has been used by Berber speaking people of North Africa and also, the Canary Islands for several hundreds of years between, the third century B.C., and up to around the third century A.D. The arrival of the Muslim Arabs after 600 AD led to its demise.

What is a Berber symbol doing in a native Patagonian sculpted stone?

Carthage, was a Phoenician colony in Tunisia, North Africa, which was later razed by Rome after the Punic wars. The Tifinagh alphabet incorporated several Punic - Phoenician letters. This is a tenuous but clear link between Phoenicia and Patagonia.

From the cryptozoological point of view, the large snakes (Figs. 1, 2, 8 -bottom-, and 10) are interesting (I have posted extensively on Patagonian gigantic snakes), and so are the two animals (Figs. 7 and 8 -above) which resemble horses, as I have also posted on the possible survival of Native Pre-Hispanic horses in Patagonia. I posted on the animal in Fig. 8, a dog or horse-like cryptid.

Yet, from a historical point of view, the idea of Phoenicians having reached Patagonia long before the Spaniards did in the 1500s, is an extremely exciting one.
Furthermore, the Phoenicians or, to put it correctly, "Ancient Mediterranean sailors" who brought Phoenician letters with them to Patagonia, may have also brought their myths and beliefs with them, and shared them with the local natives.

If this happened, could they have been the origin of some of the Patagonian mythical monsters?. For instance, the horned creatures, so cow-like, or, should I say bull-likethat we find in Patagonian native lore, (see my posts on Native Pre-Hispanic cattle in Patagonia and Patagonian devils or cattle?), could have originated in the bull myths of ancient Crete and Greece (Crete-Mycenaean culture), such as the Minotaur of the Minoan labyritnt.

As you can see, this is a long story with many open options. So, I will keep on posting on it over the next few days (weeks?), till, as I did with the "Homo erectus in America" hypothesis, I bore you to tears!.

Sources

[1] Molina, M., (1976). Patagónica: Prehistoria, tradiciones y mitologías. Roma: Ed. LAS. pp.121
[2] Antonio Garcés,(1951). Libro del Cincuentenario de Comodoro Rivadavia, 1901-1951. Aspectos de la Arqueología Patagónica. Chap. 29.
[3] Deodat, Leoncio, S. M., (1942) Un bastón mágico herpetiforme descubierto en Patagonia austral. Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología, III, pp. 99-118.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall © 

Tolten River creature

 

During the last week of January 2003, there were some strange sightings along the Toltén River in Chile. Today we will post about them, and also make Toltén our "Lake (actually River) of the Week".

The river

Toltén is a river, 230 km (143 mi.) long that flows into the Pacific Ocean in a east-west direction, cutting across Chile in the province of Cautín, IX^th Region, Araucania.

At one time it marked the border between the Mapuche (north) and Huilliche (south) people of Precolumbian Chile.

Its sources are at the western tip of Lake Villarica, at 230 m (754 ft.) above sea level.

The sightings

A family that was having a picnic by the side of the river in the Municipality (i.e. County or “comuna”) of Toltén, which is the last stretch of the river before it flows into the sea when:

from the waters a huge serpent emerged –apparently an anaconda- that stared at them from head to toes with the eyes of a murderer and a long fang[1]

This happened on January 26, and as told by one of the family members, Seferino Curihuanca (or Curihuinca), they were at “Toltén Chico” (according to [1]) or by the cemetery of “Toltén Viejo” (according to [2]), (39°11'S, 73°12'W), when they saw:

small waves in the river […] which was not normal and, surprising us, a serpent-like head popped out about forty centimeters [16 in.] out of the water […] it was about three meters long [9.8 ft.] and extremely thick like thirty centimeters diameter [1 ft.] [1]

They threw stones at it and forced it to get out of the river but lost its tracks on the shore after it slithered into the bushes.[1]

Seferino says that he had heard rumors that somebody living in the town of Villarrica (upstream along the Toltén) illegally introduced two anacondas from abroad and both of them escaped. Of course the owner did not tell the police to avoid being fined for his actions.

Mrs. Yolanda Curihuinca (same surname as Seferino, perhaps his wife?) later phoned the Police and described the creature as: “A monster with a big head, whose eyes were prominent, its skin was dark brown and measured 6 meters [19.6 ft.].” [3]

Notice that in Yolanda's version, the snake is twice as long as in Seferino's version.

After the incident, the local police and firemen looked for the snake but did not find any traces of it. The police also admitted that they had heard about the rumor regarding escaped anacondas, but nobody has formally informed them of any incidents.[1]

Though they searched the area, they did not use boats so it was not a very thorough search [2] yet the police said that the whole incident “was a collective psicosis […] more ficticious than real [2].

More sightings

After the Curihuinca sighting, fifteen other witnesses came forward saying that they had seen it too: [2]

• At Frutillar, 2 km from Toltén they saw a giant creature on the river shore that later hid among the rushes close to the cemetery of Toltén Viejo
• At Tenencia, a neighbor told the Police about a snake and that several anglers who were fishing on the river bank ran away because they were afraid it would catch them

During the months of February and March 2003, more "snakes" were seen in the area, but further south, (132 km - 82mi.) from Toltén, on an independent river basin, at Lake Ranco.

Sources.

[1] La Cuarta. Santiago. Chile. 28.01.2003. Anaconda de tres metros dejó helada a familia que paseaba en el río Toltén.
[2] Escobar, P. Diario Austral. Valdivia. Chile. 15.06.2004. El día que Toltén enloqueció
[3] Hallazgos de la criptozoologia

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Lea este post en español

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

More lake creatures at Lake Carrera (Buenos Aires)

 
Regarding Lake Buenos Aires (as it is known in Argentina) or Lake General Carrera (its Chilean name), I have come across some sightings besides the one already mentioned in my post on Lake Carrera creature.

One, by Walter Wellmann who says that is father, who navigated the lake most of his life daily, said that "he had never seen anything [...] except a kind of serpent that appeared on the surface and then was lost from sight".[1]

He too had an experience many years later: "at the Las Llaves sector, something about 5 to 6 meters [long] [15 to 18 ft.] that moved along the surface and was black; it looked like an overturned boat, with the hull upwards. Perhaps the same lake monster. If one tells others about this, they don't believe you".[1]

At a small lake close to Puerto Ibañez, by the lake, known as laguna Sepúlveda, is said to be home to a creature. According to Marisol Obrador, "there was a monster [..] very large and ugly".[1]

Panoramio photograph and map of Sepúlveda lagoon.

Bibliography.

[1] Irles, L. El Faro del Fin del Mundo. El monstruo del Lago General Carrera. 24.08.2009. Comments.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2010 International Year of Biodiversity Copyright 2009-2010 by Austin Whittall © 

Hairy Snake

 

In a previous post on we mentioned hairy snakes, today I will give more details.

calchá filu, the hairy snake

Argentine military Commander Federico Barbará (1828-1893) who lived many years in the mid 1800s on Patagonia’s northern frontier, fighting against the Puelche natives (a Mapuche/Tehuelche group), recorded their vocabulary and wrote a Puelche-Spanish dictionary. In it he included the name of a lake which the Puelche called “Calchá-filu”. The Spanish meaning of these two words is “hairy snake”,[1]

Gradually, during the XVII^th century the northernmost Tehuelche natives expanded out of Patagonia, across the Negro and Colorado rivers and into the Pampas where they replaced the original natives of Buenos Aires province and became known as the “Pampas” or “Puelche” (the latter, in Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche, means “Eastern people”).

The Puelche quickly came into contact with the Mapuche tribes living on the eastern foot-hills of the Andes in what is now Neuquén, and they became “Araucanized”, adopting their very convenient language (Mapudungun). The Puelche and Mapuche interacted through war, trade and cattle rustling until they were overtaken by “Western” civilization in the wars of 1879-1883 during which the Argentine government took control of eastern Patagonia (a similar process happened in Chile at the same time).

This explains why the Puelche used a Mapuche word to name a lake in their territory. Perhaps, just like the Mapuche, they also believed that “hairy snakes” were evil creatures.

Mapuche hairy snake

Mapuche oral tradition also mentions these creatures. “Kalfulemu, El Mapuche sin Sombra” was a story told by Abel Kuruuinca to Argentine folklorist Mrs. Bertha Koessler in 1962. In this tale, a native details his experience at the cave of the “salamanqueros” or witches cave, where orgies and debauchery take place.

In the tale, the native says that they lay him down and a “hairy snake coiled up on my chest and did not want to be removed” it kept an eye on him so that he did not escape.[2]

In another story about “Renpulli, la salamanca del lago Lacar”, Kuruuinca gave more details:

“Then a snake, fat as an arm and full of scales and hairy, pounced on his chest trying to suffocate him […] the creature coiled around his neck and hissed and put its toung in his mouth…”[2]

Chiñi filu

The hairy snake is also named “chiñi filu”, which is the “hairy snake of the seas, lakes and rivers”.[3]

Interestingly, this word chiñi is the common Chilean name for skunk (Mephitis chilensis), also spelt "chingue".

Chingue, stamp. Chile (1948). From [4].

We find the same word, (chiñi) in Quechua language. Quechua is a Native American language which is spoken in the Andean region of South America (Perú, Bolivia, Northern Argentina, Chile and Ecuador). It may have found its way into the Mapuche myths because the Inca invaded their territory in the mid 1400s.

The meaning of chiñi in Quechua is “Bat”.

So wether a bat-snake or a skunk-snake, we have a hairy reptile myth spanning the Puelche and Mapuche cultures. What can it be?

Note: there is a widespread myth in Chile about a Flying snake it is described mostly like a snake - bird, with or without feathers, but sometimes it is described as having tough bristles running along its back and no feathers. Is this Piwichén another representation of the hairy snake? or is the flying snake just a myth about strange birds?

Are hairy snakes real?

A hairy reptile is not as improbable as one may expect.

Hair is made from a protein called keratin. Researches checked reptiles and birds trying to see if they had genes that code this protein. And they found that these genes “are not restricted to mammals” because they also code proteins used to form the skin and claws. These keratin genes appeared in a common ancestor to amniotes about 300 million years ago. Amniotes are four legged vertebrates that include mammals, birds and reptiles.[5]

However only mammals have hair follicles and are able to grow hairs. If a reptile acquired that capability, it would be a hairy reptile. But that would require complex mutations. It is quite improbable.

So, my best guess is that the Patagonian hairy snake is not a reptile but a long, slim, svelte mammal such as a Huillín (Lontra provocax), the Patagonian otter. The following image shows one swimming; notice its snake-like appearance which is enhanced by its long tail.

Huillín (Patagonian River Otter). By Fabián Bugnest. From [6].

Endangered Patagonian otters

Huillín is an endangered species and both Argentina and Chile are taking action to prevent its extinction.

For a summary on the current status of Argentine huillín, click Here (in English).

For similar information regarding Chile, click Here, it is the blog (in Spanish) of CODEFF (Comite Nacional Pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora), a Chilean NGO who is fighting to save the Patagonian Otter.

Lakes and Rivers are not only water, lets save the Huillín (Logo). © CODEFF.

Bibliography.

[1] Barbará, F., (2000). Manual de la lengua pampa. B. Aires: Emece. pp. 124.
[3] Fernández, C.,(1995). Cuentan Los Mapuches. B. Aires: Ed.Nuevo Siglo. pp. 53 and 38
[3] Bárcena, R., [Ed]. (1990). Culturas indígenas de la Patagonia. Turner. pp.236
[4] Chilean stamp (1948) - Sociedad Filatélica de Chile.
[5] The Evolutionary Origin of Mammals’ Hair Is Found in Reptile Claws. Discover.
[6] Huillín (Patagonian River Otter). SIB.


Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

More on "Big" Patagonian snakes - Piri Reis map

 

Piri Reis 1513 World Map, Detail.

In our post on Unicorns, (Here), we mentioned Turkish Admiral Piri Reis' 1513 map. We also mentioned it regarding Dog headed people (Here).

Today we will look at another strange creature that is depicted on that map: a giant snake.

The map, in its lower left area (see it Here it is inside the red line) shows a thick coiled snake. The image above enlarges that area of the map.

The corresponding note (Note X) by Piri Reis on the map reads:

This land is uninhabited. Everything is in ruin (barren?) and it is said that large snakes are found here. For this reason the Portuguese infidels did not land on these shores and these are also said to be very hot.[1]

If the latitude is correct (there are several interpretations as to what part of America is shown on the map[2]), the area where the snakes live could be a part of Patagonia. Clearly the "very hot" land is not a good description for Tierra del Fuego or Antarctica. Yet it could be a part of northern Patagonia, which in summer can get to be quite hot (nearly 40°C - 104°F).

Maybe this indicates that, at least until the 1500s, there were large snakes in Patagonia. (Read more about giant Patagonian snakes in my post Here).

Bibliogaphy.

[2] Dutch, S., (1997). The Piri Reis Map. 10.04.2007. Online, Here.
[1] Afetinan, (1954). The Oldest Map of America Drawn by Piri Reis. Ankara: Harita Umum Múdürlïigfj Press.


Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Giant Patagonian Snakes - a bit of science

 

My previous post on the snake-like “lampalagua” and “culebrón” (also see my post on the "Flying Snake") led me to wonder if there were any large snakes in Patagonia. I have never seen snakes there, so I checked it out:

Yes, there are snakes, the snub nosed Yarará viper (Bothrops ammodytoides “Víbora-Yarará ñata") which extends from northern Argentina into the Province of Neuquén and the Province of Rio Negro on the northern tip of Patagonia. As well as nearly all of the Province of Chubut and the north eastern tip of the Province of Santa Cruz. This is the snake that lives furthest south in the whole world. It prefers the steppe and does not live in the Andean forests.[1]

From a "pseudo scientific" point of view, there is a very big snake shown on Admiral Piri Reis' 1513 map (see my post on this Here).

Giant snakes of yore

At one time, however there were gigantic snakes in Patagonia. Adriana Albino wrote in 1991 that there was a large snake from the The Eocene epoch ( a part of the Tertiary Period in the Cenozoic Era, that lasted from about 54.8 to 33.7 million years ago [MA]).

It was a young specimen that must have measured between 5 and 7 m (15 – 22 ft.) long. And during adulthood some 10 to 12 m (20 – 36 ft.). The animal was later named Chubutophis in Albino (1993).[2]

Below is another South American "giant" snake, the Titanoboa, its remains were discovered in Colombia and it was really big, roughly the same size or even slightly smaller than the Patagonian giants.

Titanoboa (extinct Colombian snake) comparative size. From: [3]

She also mentioned another snake which had a head roughly 70 cm long (27 in.) and a length of 15 to 20 m (45 – 60 ft.). It is of unknown age. It was known only from an incomplete vertebra. According to Albino :

stratigraphic age and locality are unknown, although I could established that it is from early Tertiary levels in south Chubut province, Patagonia. Because the remain is extremely bad preserved, I cannot determine it as a boid or a madtsoiid snake.[2]

For us the laymen, a boid is a members of the Boidae family, the boas, which kill prey by constriction. The madtsoiids are an extinct group of snakes that lived in the supercontinent of Gondwana (South America, India, Africa, Australia and even soutern Europe) from the early Cenomian period (during the Upper Cretaceous 95 MA) until the Pleistocene period (2.5 MA to 12,000 years ago). They seem to have n been very primitve and, like boas, killed their prey by constriction.

Another article on giant Patagonian snakes (Simpson, G.G. 1933. A new fossil snake from the Notostylops Beds of Patagonia. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 67: 1-22)[4] mentions the Madtsoia bai whose name was created using three Tehuelche words mad and tsoi the name of the place where the remains were found (Cow Valley) and bai (grandmother); i.e. the "grandmother of Cow Valley".

Gaylord Simpson, an American fossil hunter of the 1930’s (was he an Indiana Jones archetype?) estimated its length as 9 m (27 ft.). It was between 49 and 55 MA and is now at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

The cryptozoological questions

Did any of these giant snakes manage to survive until human beings arrived in America?

If so, did they manage to survive in the Patagonian steppe? (I doubt it, too dry and it lacks enough food for such a massive body - unless they specialized in eating megafaunal creatures).

Or in the Patagonian forests? (no snakes live there now, why wold these giants do so?)

Having survived, could they be the inpiration for myths referred to giant snakes?

Could the theory of the Mapuche having a non-Chilean origin (some have suggested that they came from the Amazon - see my post on this subject Here) imply that the proto-Mapuche came into contact with giant (i.e. Anaconda) snakes in the Amazon and brought their myths with them from the jungles to their new home in Chile?

Another option is that the snake myths originated in the Amazon, were taken up by the Andean people (Inca and pre-Inca cultures) and as part of their myths and beliefs, introduced into Chile during the Inca conquest (1430-1520). See my post on the possible Inca origin of the Mapuche snake myths.

Questions that, until now, remain unanswered.

Further reading:

Albino, A. M., 1991. Las serpientes del Santacrucense y Friasense de Argentina. Ameghiniana 28 (3-4), 402.
- 1993. Snakes from the Paleocene and Eocene of Patagonia (Argentina): paleoecology and coevolution with mammals. Historical Biology 7, 51-69.
- 2000. New record of snakes from the Cretaceous of Patagonia (Argentina). Geodiversitas 22, 247-253.
- 1991. Serpientes gigantes en la Patagonia. Ciencia Hoy, 3(14): 58-63. Read a fragment (in Spanish) Here.

Bibliography.

[1] Sistema de Información de Biodiversidad. Argentine National Parks Administration. Online Here.
[2] Naish, Darren. Tetrapod Zoology. Stupidly large snakes, the story so far. 31.05.2007
[3] Los Angeles Times. Fossil of 43-foot super snake Titanoboa found in Colombia. 05.02.2009.
[4] American Museum of Natural History, online Here.

Sistema de Información de Biodiversidad. Argentine National Parks Administration..
Cool informative website on Argentina's living species, biodiversity and National Parks.

Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

Giant snakes. Patagonia’s mythical reptiles

 

In our previous post we mentioned Maripill and the Llaima volcano monster, both seem reptilian in their appearance. Today we will look into some more mythical reptiles:

Culebrón.

Read the full long version on Culebrón with all the information Here
Click for the full report on the "flying snake"

The “Culebrón” (from the Spanish word for “big snake” or “dragon”), which the native Mapuche called “Futa Filu” (big snake) had differing appearances depending on the tribe and region.

However most agreed that it was a fat stout snake with a mane of stiff hairs along its back –notice how the rigid spiky hairs are a repeating motif among the Mapuche mythical animals. It had large cat-like eyes and a short stunted tail. Its appearance changed as it grew older, it evolved humps on its front and rear extremity, which mutated into clawed legs. Wings may or may not sprout on its head. It is a night animal and lives in caves.

In some Mapuche areas the elders told girls not to get close to certain ponds because an ugly and large Culebrón that owned it would turn into a gigantic, horrible and hairy man and trap them if they stayed to long close to the water.[1] Hairy man-like creatures are reminiscent of “wild men” and may be hominids not lake monsters.

XIX^th Argentine military Commander Barbará mentioned a lake named by the Puelche “Calchá-filu” or “hairy snake”, a clear indication that the Culebrón myth extended across Patagonia.[2] More on hairy snakes Here.

But what kind of creature can be assimilated to a gigantic hairy snake? Snakes are reptiles and as such, lack hairs. The mere existence of hairs means mammal; Culebrón , if hairy is some kind of mammal.

Lampalagua

Culebrón in its reptilian facet is similar to another mythical reptile, “Lampalagua”; described as a formidable reptile with strong claws that devours all that it finds in its path. It drinks up streams and rivers and crawls across their dry beds. It eats children, men, animals and anything that it comes across. It destroys the crops and trees that lie in its path.[3]

It digs shallow underground tunnels where it lies concealed. It can also be found in lakes and streams.

Chilean folklorist, Mrs. Sperata de Saunière transcribed a tale told to her by a native woman; Eudocia Catricheo de Loncoche in the early 1900s about a mysterious animal that was eating a rich man’s sheep.

He hired an Indian to kill it and it turned out to be a “very big serpent with the head of a cat and a very sharp tongue that had a nail on its tip”. This and not the fangs held the snake’s venom.[4]

The brave Indian ambushed it cloaked in a sheep skin and grabbing it by its neck, pulled the nail out; “the snake writhed and jumped but the little Indian held its tongue and the serpent died”.[4]

The myth may be based on the real lampalagua, which though not found in Chile or in Patagonia, inhabits central and northern Argentina. It is also known as “boa de las vizcacheras” (Boa constrictor occidentalis) and can measure up to 3 m (9 ft.) in length and weigh 15 kg (33 lbs).

It feeds by seizing its prey (mice and vizcacha) in its jaws and wrapping several coils around the victim, constricting it until it has suffocated to death. This boa however is not aquatic so it cannot be the same animal as the Patagonian Lampalagua, which is more similar to South America’s anaconda –a very large aquatic constrictor snake.

Furthermore snakes lack a “clawed tongue” and Lampalagua with clawed paws is more like a reptile than a snake.

Dragon-like appearance of “Epunamun”

“Epunamun” was represented by some Mapuche. groups as an evil hairy elf, yet others depicted it differently: Father Ovalle mentions it in his Histórica Relación: “their Epunamon [sic] appeared to them in the form of a terrible dragon, casting fire out of his mouth, and his tail curled up”.[5]

Its tail evokes that of the Culebrón and is similar to the Llaima volcano monster and Maripill that we have mentioned in our previous post.

In our next post we will look into the Culebrón at Lake Nonthue.

For some hard science facts on fossil remains of giant Patagonian snakes, see our post Here.

Bibliography.

[1] Picasso, F., and Núñez O., L., (2004). Gigantescos Ofidios Sudamericanos. Online.
[2] Barbará, F. Op. Cit. pp. 124.
[3] Vicuña Cifuentes, J., (1915). Op. Cit. pp. 75+
[4] de Sauniere, S., (1975). Cuentos populares araucanos y chilenos: recogidos de la tradición oral. Santiago: Ed. Nascimento. pp. 163+
[5] de Ovalle, A. Op. Cit. pp. 200.




Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters