The legend of Greek mythology tells that lernaean hydra It was a ferocious water monster, with the body of a snake and a large number of heads, which increased if someone dared to cut off one of them. Okay, it’s not real, of course. But there are snakes with several heads, at least two. These are not ruthless monsters, but reptiles with a malformation known as bicephaly; which unfortunately usually ends with his death in the early stages. The last described two-headed snake was recently collected by a snake rescuer. Nick Evansin South Africa.
it southern brown egg eater (Dasypeltis inornata), which was observed in the courtyard of the house. The owner managed to put the two-headed snake into the bottle. However, he didn’t know what to do with her later, so he asked Evans to pick her up.
The founder of KZN Amphibian & Reptile Conservation was quick to respond to the call and, although he was warned, was very surprised. The two-headed snake seemed very young and, of course, bicephaly played a cruel joke on him. After being released, every head seemed to want to take opposite direction, although sometimes he managed to find a happy medium by putting one head on top of the other. Thus, he has become an easy prey for any predator, so he has already been given into the hands of a professional who will take care of him.
The Tale of the Two-Headed Serpents
If one sticks to the stories of the past, it can be difficult to distinguish between legends and realistic descriptions of two-headed snakes.
However, there are very old scientific studies that already talk about them. One of the first descriptions found in the scientific literature is that of an instance of the species Xendom Merremiadescribed in 1824
But soon reports of such cases began to appear much more often. For example, a letter to the editor of a magazine The sciencewritten in 1899 by an American Roswell Hill Johnsonin which he discusses his research on two-headed snakes.
In 1824, a case of a two-headed snake of this species was described. Xendom Merremia
So, this 22-year-old American scientist set about studying the anatomy of these reptiles. In his letter, he stated that I already had eight copies, from various museums, but could not find the other four previously described. Later, this young scientist will become professor of eugenics, a terrible discipline based on the exclusion of certain individuals in order to improve the genetic quality of the human species. But this is a different song.
More often than it seems
Returning to snakes, a study was published in 2013 that analyzed the prevalence of different types of malformations in these reptiles. Were analyzed South American rattlesnakes (Crotalus durissus) D South American vipers (Botrops hararak). The highest percentage of malformations was found in the former, 11.1% versus 2.3%, although they had more data on vipers (4087) than rattlesnakes (324).
With regard to the specific data of each type of malformation, the most common were dorsaland then fusion of abdominal scales. However, by focusing on vipers, they also found other minor malformations: 3.1% of documented births with deformities were two-headed snakes.
3.1% of the malformed South American vipers studied in a 2013 investigation had two heads.
If they don’t see each other more often, it’s mostly because they have difficulty moving around or eating. make your survival very difficult. Not only because they can starve to death, but also because some predator, like an eagle, can kill them without much effort. Thus, most of them do not reach adulthood. This is a real drama of two-headed snakes. With ten there should be much more. So if the legend were realistic, the Lerna hydra would have to be a poor creature that would have no choice but to live in hiding, praying not to encounter some scale-hungry demigod. But logically, this is not realistic at all. That’s why it’s about mythology.
Source: Hiper Textual
