Two-Headed Reptile Fossil of the Jurrasic Age Found!
posted in Amazing Facts |
Palaeontologists have recently found a small dinosaur-era reptile with two heads. This is the first time this extremely rare developmental anomaly has been found in a fossil. This 120-million-year-old specimen, mesures just 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) long, and is considered as a hatchling of a species of Choristoder, an extinct aquatic reptiles that resembles the modern day crocodiles or lizards This fossil has been found in China, and has two perfectly formed heads and necks.
According to experts, two headed reptiles are very rare to find and thus the chances of them getting fossiled is bleak. The developmental factors that cause these animals to occasionally form two heads is called axial bifurcation.This is actually an abnormality that is caused when the embryo gets damaged in the womb.
A lesion could have been formed, making some parts of the animal to develop in duplicate. This phenomenon is quite rare but has been seen in some reptiles like the lizards, snakes, turtles and tortoises. This hatchling that has been found, belongs to a long-necked fish-eating species known either as Sinohydrosaurus or Hyphalosaurus that grew up to 3 feet (1 meter) long.
Many other one-headed specimens that resembled the fossil were found around the hatchling.This unusual nature of the fossil aroused some suspicion among the people. In the case of the two-headed Choristodere, however, the slab having the fossil is untouched and shows no signs of tampering, so experts have confirmed that this specimen is genuine.