• Question: how can animals be born with two heads??x

    Asked by caitlynfarrar to Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 20 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by rebeccas, salman1998.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Weirdly yes! It’s called ‘polycephaly’ (meaning ‘many headed’) and is not just confined to mythology!

      There are cases of it happening in humans but in other animals we have seen it in cats, pigs, sheep, cows, turtles and most commonly, snakes.

      As you may have guessed, they don’t live long as having a second head is a massive disadvantage and has several physical consequences, although one two headed snake is known to have lived 17 years. The most common cause of polycephaly is a problem in cells splitting – so we get incomplete twins almost – this is something which biologists can induce by tinkering with a certain part of an animals embryo.

      So there you have it – a truly weird part of biology that is fact! I was gonna put some links up but I don’t want to be accused of terrifying you guys with weird pictures! 😀

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