A baby turtle with two heads was discovered in Virginia.
A rare two-headed baby turtle has been discovered in the US state of Virginia. After being found in the wild by a member of public, the two-headed turtle was handed over to The Virginia Living Museum, who shared a video of their new arrival on Facebook.
Polycephaly is the scientific term for the condition of having two heads, the Virginia Living Museum explained on Facebook. While it is extremely rare in mammals, it occurs occasionally in turtles and other reptiles. "In some cases, turtles are found with two heads side-by-side. In others, turtles may have two heads protruding from opposite ends of the body," the museum wrote.
The museum showed the turtle with two heads on their live-stream series called "QuaranStream" last Friday. Footage of the turtle has been viewed thousands of times since. Take a look at it below:
While both heads are eating food, experts say that the two-headed turtle would have to face great odds to reach adulthood.
"Even with the best of care there are many health hurdles for an animal with this condition," said herpetology curator Travis Long, according to Daily Mail.
"Sometimes it's not even something that can be detected until the animal gets older, and even then it might be too late to do anything about it - such as weakly developed internal organs."
Mr Long also said that with both heads controlling movement, simple actions like walking and swimming could become dangerous for the two-headed turtle.
"The control of the legs, for instance, appears to be split in half - with the left head seeming to control the left legs, and the right head controlling the right legs," he explained. "As the heads develop, if they don't figure out how to work together, something as simple as swimming could be potentially dangerous."
Despite these hurdles, the museum says it will do everything to give the baby turtle a chance of living a full life.
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