15 Animals Born With The Most Bizarre Mutations You'll Ever See
Nature is one powerfully weird force. This fact can be readily exemplified by observing genetic mutations. While color mutations such as albinism are a far more mild sampling of this realm, sometimes nature can produce some truly bizarre genetic mutations. These mutations often make for crazy scary animals - and if not completely scary, they're at least astonishing.
If you're interested in a variety of animals with unbelievable genetic mutations, definitely continue reading.
Some See-Through Frogs
If a three-headed frog isn't solid enough proof of the effects of environmental pollution, maybe these transparent frogs are. Russian scientists blame environmental pollution for the mutant transparency of several frogs captured in central Russia. Their organs, skeletons, and even their beating hearts are blatantly visible through their skin. Some of them even have extra growths or limbs.
Vladimir Vershinin, head of zoology at the Ural Federal District University's Institute of Natural Sciences, added about the situation: "Frog eggs do not have their own membrane to protect them from a polluted environment."
A Two-Faced Cat
Meet Frank and Louie, the longest living Janus cat on record. "Janus" refers to the Roman God depicted with two faces, and the condition contributed to the formation of two faces is known as diprosopia. This condition caused Frank and Louie to have three eyes, two noses, two mouths, and one brain.
Typically, Janus cats die shortly after birth. However, Frank and Louie lived to be 15 years old and even procured their own Guinness World Record in 2006.
A Duck Born With Four Legs
Stumpy was born at the Warrawee Duck Farm in the United Kingdom. He seemed to absolutely "stump" his owner Nicky Janaway, so much so after his birth she had to keep recounting his four legs. Initially, Stumpy ran around on two of his legs while the extra ones dangled behind.
Over time, one of Stumpy's legs got stuck in a fence and had to be removed. His last extra leg eventually turned black and fell off - leaving him with tiny stumps behind his two functioning, normal legs.
A One-Footed Snake
This one-footed snake was found scaling the wall of a woman's bedroom in Southwest China. Dean Qiongxiu, 66, claims the reptile was "working its way along the wall using his claw." She then beat the snake to death with a shoe before putting the body in a bottle of alcohol to preserve it. The 16-inch long snake was studied at China's West Normal University.
The most common snake mutation is the growth of a second head, but they tend to have little change of surviving in the wild, since the heads usually attack each other.
A Two-Headed Pig
Rudy, the two-headed pig, was born on a farm in Iowa in 1997. While most two-headed pigs are stillborn or die soon after birth, Rudy was sold to "Pigs Without Partners" once he was about nine-months-old. The Los Angeles animal rescue bought Rudy for $5,000 and renamed him "Ditto." Ditto wore a helmet to protect his head, as a neurological disorder caused him to continuously fall over.
A few months after his relocation, Ditto died in his sleep. His remains were used to aid in the research of facial deformities in children.
A Three-Headed Frog
Froggy, a six-legged, three-headed frog, was found in the garden of the Green Umbrella nursery. It was named by the three- and four-year-olds of the nursery. The staff managed to place it in a tank, but by the time the news got around, Froggy had escaped.
Tim Halliday, a biology professor at Open University, says that the mutation could be contributed to genetic defect or parasites. He even goes as far as to speculate the effects of pollution on the frog's horomones.