In Turkey, the body of a two-headed dolphin was recently discovered on the beach. Yes, a real two-headed dolphin.
Twenty-nine year old sports teacher Turgul Metin was shocked when he saw the body wash up on the beach.
“It was an unbelievable sight,” said Metin, who also noticed that one of the dolphin’s eyes was not completely developed. And the craziest part? This odd dolphin was 3.2 feet long and about 12 months old, which means this mutation did not cause immediate death.
Even while on vacation, Metin was concerned enough to call the police so that they could take the dolphin from the beach.
This extra special dolphin will be studied by concerned marine biologists like Mehmet Gokoglu, from Akdeniz University, who say that two-headed dolphins like the one found on the beach in Turkey are not at all common.
This is not first time sea creatures with rare mutations have been discovered.
In 2011, a two-headed bull shark was discovered by a fisherman in the Florida Keys. Marine biologists at the University of Michigan, who studied the shark after it was given to the scientific community, confirmed that the shark was indeed the first two-headed shark discovered. Because both the two-headed shark and dolphin had two heads coming from one normal body, scientists proved that the mutations were not cases of conjoined twins.
Scientists have not yet found the cause for these odd mutations but we hope they do soon.
While rare mutations often occur as a result of strange genetic deviations, it is important to examine the effects of human environmental pollution to make sure we are not contributing to the problem.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11025319/Two-headed-dolphin-washes-up-on-beach-in-Turkey.html