Scientists discover freakish two-headed shark embryo  | Daily Star

Scientists discover freakish two-headed shark embryo 

THIS is the stuff of nightmares.


NIGHTMARE: Scientists discover two-headed shark embryo

Biologists have discovered a terrifying shark embryo with two heads.

Scientists at the University of Malaga discovered the creature growing in a translucent egg as they trawled through hundreds of Atlantic sawtail catshark embryos.

They wrote in the Journal of Fish Biology: "Each head had a mouth, two eyes, a brain, a notochord [like a spinal cord] and five gill openings on each side."

Shark Journal of Fish Biology

SCIENCE: Experts say this find is extremely rare

“Each head had a mouth, two eyes, a brain”

Journal of Fish Biology

They added that in each body there “were two hearts, two oesophaguses, two stomachs, two livers.”

Very few two-headed sharks have been found in nature, and it is uncertain if this shark will ever survive in the wild.

But the embryo will never see the light of day outside the laboratory.

Michelle Heupel, a researcher at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, explained that it might be hard for the sharks to survive.


BIRTH: Scientists say it is unusual for animals to be born with two heads

“Survival after birth may occur, but would likely be very brief.

“It is unclear whether the two heads will preclude swimming and prey capture, and whether joined internal organs will function adequately.”

It is the first time a two-headed conjoined twin has ever been recorded in a egg-laying shark, the report states.


CONJOINED: Survival after birth is doubtful

But the report does state that some animals have been known to survive as conjoined twins.

Mysteries of the ocean threw up another

And Hurricane Matthew blew a .