A boa constrictor with two heads, two hearts, and two separate digestive systems was discovered in Florida. Scientists argue that this has not yet been seen, comparing a snake born as a result of a mutation with "two twins in a common skin."
A snake breeder in Florida gave birth to a boa constrictor with an extremely rare genetic defect. The snake has two heads, two hearts and two digestive systems. According to scientists, she looks like two twins united under a common skin. Such animals rarely live to old age, but some manage to live to adulthood.
Scientists at the Center for Exotic Animals in Florida have studied an unusual snake using X-rays and ultrasounds. “I was shocked to see the second heart,” says Dr. Loraine Tyler. "Usually these animals have only one set of internal organs."
The owner of the snake brought her to the veterinarians as soon as he discovered she had two heads. The rest of the discoveries were made already during the research. Two-headed snakes are not rare, but not an isolated case. This disorder is called polycephaly. However, snakes with a double set of internal organs are extremely rare.
According to Dr. Thielen, the double digestive system leaves the snake a good chance of survival. “Typically, two-headed snakes have only one digestive system and one set of kidneys, which makes it impossible to get enough nutrition and completely eliminate waste from the body,” she says. - But this boa constrictor does not have such a problem. However, given the fact that two-headed creatures rarely live to adulthood, we cannot predict the fate of this boa constrictor with certainty and we will closely observe it."
Boas are among the viviparous snakes. According to scientists, the genetic failure occurred, apparently, at the stage of formation of the embryo, which began to divide into two twins, but for some reason the separation was not completed.
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