The two -headed snake really exists: a rare specimen was born in California seven months ago

The myth of the two -headed snake has its roots in ancient legends of different cultures and has always represented ambiguity. In the Greek myth the Anfisbena was a fantastic creature with two heads, one at each end of the body, which was said to have been generated by the blood of Medusa and had bright eyes like lamps.

But The two -headed snake is not just a myth: it is a natural event that, very rarely it can become reality. Just as happened East Bay Vivarium by Berkeleyin California, where Seven months ago A real white snake was born, not poisonous, with black spots and two heads. The anomaly is due to problems in embryonic developmentsimilar to what happens with the Siamese twins, when two puppies are born together and share a variable number of organs.

The news of the birth of the animal, a specimen of Lampropeltis Getula Californiaewas given six months after birth on Instagram profile of the shop complete with radiographs showing the internal structure of the reptile. The delay because these animals often do not survive but at this point optimism is more than justified and the owners of the Vivarium expect the specimen to live 20-30 years.

The snake, male, was called with two names: Zeke and Angel and it is melted in the backbone. «The two heads share a stomach and a heart but Only one, Angel, feeds regularly«  Explain Johnathan Embertonowner of the East Bay Vivarium in Polular Science.

«The second head is definitely sentient, breathe, look around moves the tongue, retracts and gets angry when you touch it but does not eat. He showed a slight interest in food, but in reality he did not even try to eat, « adds Emberton. The Vivarium team hypothesizes that the non -dominant head does not check any of the organs and that its esophagus ends at the point where the two bodies meet.

It is not so unusual that two -headed animals are born: only the East Bay Vivarium in 35 years were born two -headed turtles in 35 years. The rarity is that animals survive. «As for the Siamese twins there may be two pairs of hearts, two pairs of stomachs, two pairs of lungs that compete with each other. In this case the reptile was lucky to be born with a single main body: if he had two pairs of working organs he would probably have died « 

Also recently in Italy a bicefalo snakea completely unofficial coronnella. The reptile was found in Liguria in August 2023 already with very small vital functions. Also in that case the two heads were completely autonomous.