Encyclopaedia of Cryptozoology
Holadeira
Category Mystery cetacean
Proposed scientific names
Other names Razorback dolphin, sawtooth dolphin
Country reported Brazil
First reported 1995
Prominent investigators Jeremy Wade

The holadeira (Portuguese: "saws") or sawtooth dolphin was a cryptid cetacean reported from an unknown lake in the Brazilian Amazon Basin by Jeremy Wade in 1993 and 1994.[1][2]

Wade first saw the animal about 100' away from his boat while fishing. When he asked some locals about it, they told him they had never heard of such an animal, and implied he had been drinking. He returned to the area the following year and met with a man who claimed to have see the animal several weeks before, and who referred to it as the holadeira. Wade again saw the animal on this expedition, and after glimpsing its head and photographing it, could confirm that it was a dolphin.[3]

It has been suggested that the animal was an Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) which had been accidentally injured by a fishing net or propellor blades, but Wade said the notches appeared to be evenly spaced.[1] In light of the spacing of the notches, Wade believes the dolphin had been deliberately mutilated by an aggrieved fisherman.[3]

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Eberhart, George M. (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, ABC-CLIO, Inc., ISBN 1576072835
  2. Shuker, Karl P. N. "A Supplement to Dr Bernard Heuvelmans' Checklist of Cryptozoological Animals," Fortean Studies, Vol. 5 (1998)
  3. 3.0 3.1 "The Most Bizarre". River Monsters: Special Episode