2 headed snake, one head in front other head where tail should be!

pitbulllady

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I've see close-ups of this so-called "two-headed snake", BMK, and it no more has two heads than you do. This is another indicator of how ignorant people are of snakes, especially here in South Carolina. The snake has lost much of its tail due to some mishap or another, and like many adult wild snakes I find myself, has a stub for tail. There are no eyes, no mouth and no tongue on the extra "head", just some scar tissue(again, a very ordinary find). Most people don't realize how common it is for snakes to be missing their normally pointy tails. Well over half of the adult Water and Garter Snakes I find are stub-tailed, just like this little Smooth Earth Snake. The snake's movement in the bucket is not due to the extra "head" trying to crawl in an opposite direction from the real head, but due to the snake trying to cope with an unfamiliar surface, the smooth plastic, on which it can't get a good traction grip with its scales. Put a snake on a slick floor and it will do the same thing because it's slipping and sliding around. This whole story is right there in the same file as the one from last summer about the 20-foot long Rat Snake photographed in SC, also. People are just so willing to believe the most ludicrous things about snakes and it's a waste of time for a knowledgeable and experienced person to try to set them straight.

pitbulllady
 

The Snark

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We had a two headed snake in the news a couple of months ago. I think it was a tree viper. One head beside the other. One was non functional. It managed to live a couple of weeks I believe. I suspect it was never able to eat.
 

bugmankeith

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I was suspicious about it and thought between the blurry photographs and some zoo or museum not trying to buy it off this family that Perhaps it was just a stubby tail. I never saw the forked tongue come out the other end so that was the key.

I wonder though could this ever happen or is it impossible?
 

The Snark

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I was suspicious about it and thought between the blurry photographs and some zoo or museum not trying to buy it off this family that Perhaps it was just a stubby tail. I never saw the forked tongue come out the other end so that was the key.

I wonder though could this ever happen or is it impossible?
Nifty question and the answer is yes, it could happen, going by the basic rules of mutation. Going entirely by bio-science however, the probability of such a creature being viable is somewhat less likely than Curiosity topping a rise in it's Martian meanderings and taking shots of a group of 12 foot protozoans engaged in a baseball game.
 

bugmankeith

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Parts of the world are never explored and new species are still being found, so if there is a chance we just might see it one day.
 

pitbulllady

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Parts of the world are never explored and new species are still being found, so if there is a chance we just might see it one day.
Not on THIS planet, we won't. You have to understand that such an animal-a vertebrate-with a head at each end would lack a rectum or cloaca, and probably a digestive system as well. Like The Snark said, we'd be more likely to discover, via the Curiosity Rover, a football game being played on Mars by 12-foot tall protozoans. People who actually believe that a snake can have a head at each end also believe that snakes do not have to eliminate waste, or that they do so through their mouths, along with giving birth/laying eggs through their mouths. If you live down South, you will hear some of the most outrageously stupid things about snakes, and people actually do believe those things! The level of ignorance about this group of animals is nothing short of astounding.

pitbulllady
 

lizardminion

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Not on THIS planet, we won't. You have to understand that such an animal-a vertebrate-with a head at each end would lack a rectum or cloaca, and probably a digestive system as well. Like The Snark said, we'd be more likely to discover, via the Curiosity Rover, a football game being played on Mars by 12-foot tall protozoans. People who actually believe that a snake can have a head at each end also believe that snakes do not have to eliminate waste, or that they do so through their mouths, along with giving birth/laying eggs through their mouths. If you live down South, you will hear some of the most outrageously stupid things about snakes, and people actually do believe those things! The level of ignorance about this group of animals is nothing short of astounding.

pitbulllady
Comparable to going over to Europe and people believing dragons are real. It is mythology, nonetheless. It is quite dumb that people never think to learn about our fellow vertebrates. No love for the snakes or lizards. One day, we'll live in a world of iguanas with stingers and "poisonous" snakes with the anatomy of a planarian. Oh, but we'll still have cute, painted turtles, and tie-dye frogs, right?
 
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