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A rare two-headed snake pup was found a few weeks ago by two herpetologists in nearby New Jersen.
Researchers Dave Schneider and Dave Burkett found the pup just a few weeks old while surveying the Pine Barrens in nearby New Jersey.
Bicephalic animals
Bicephalic animals rarely reach maturity in the wild, as simple decisions like whether to swipe left or right, or which head eats first, suddenly become surprising battles of will, leaving bicephalic animals especially confused and vulnerable to predators.
The rescued animal
Keeping in mind the low chances of animals surviving in the environment, the two Herpetologists decided to take the young snake to their office, where they fed it and named it Double Dave, due to its condition and the fact that both researchers were named Dave.
"It seems like the head on the right side is the most dominant," Schneider told ABC News, "but every once in a while, the other head wants to go a different direction."
Double Davi looks very healthy, although Schneider and his colleagues hope to X-ray the little one soon to find out if she has a fully formed digestive system.
Two headed animals are more common than you think
Bi-headed animals found alive - like the rattlesnake found by researchers - are extremely rare. But the birth of two-headed creatures are more common than you might think. As is the case of the mutant turtle was discovered on an island in South Carolina, United States, last week, or a two-headed deer was found dead in the backlands ofMinnesota.
This type of malformation is not a current problem
In 2007, an unusual fossil was found, a very small reptile skeleton, about 90 mm long and an approximate age of 131 to 120 million years, but what was striking about the tiny fetus was its two heads and two sets of cervical vertebrae, which appears to be the oldest record of such a developmental malformation in vertebrates.
SOURCE / ABC News
A version of this story was previously published on September 16, 2018.
