You've probably seen a photo of a Cyclops sheep on social networks and you probably thought that this was just another attempt by jokers to master Photoshop. But such a sheep really existed - it was sick with a rather rare, but very frightening ailment, cyclopia. The roots of the disease should be looked for even in Ancient Greece, but it also manifests itself in the modern world.
The origin of the cyclops
Where did such strange creatures like the cyclops come from in culture? The ancient Greeks had no idea about the extinct ancient animal species. When they stumbled upon bones that did not correspond to existing animals, their fantasy was turned on to the fullest. This was the case with Deinotherium giganteum, whose remains horrified the Greeks. And so the legend of the strange one-eyed giant was born.
One eyed sheep
A Cyclops sheep was born on May 10, 2017 in the village of Assam, India, according to National Geographic. This happens due to a rare disease of cyclopia, in which the brain is not divided into two hemispheres - accordingly, one orbit for the eye is formed.
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Cyclops kitten
In 2006, an adorable one-eyed kitten was born in Oregon. The poor man suffered from holoproencephaly and lived only a day, having managed to gather crowds of fans on social networks.
One eyed shark
In 2011, a fisherman in the Gulf of California pulled a pregnant blue shark from his nets. Opening it, he found as many as nine embryos, one of which turned out to be a Cyclops. The strange creature was sent to the Interdisciplinary Center for Marine Sciences in La Paz, where it is displayed today.
Cyclopia in humans
Fortunately, only one in 13,000 babies is born with cyclopia. Such babies do not live long, due to the complete destruction of internal organs. Only recently have doctors been able to figure out the possible causes of cyclopia: most likely, it is a matter of toxins that are used to treat agricultural land.