A dicephalous baby green sea turtle has been discovered in Kuala Dungun, Terengganu.
This means that the adorable little flappy-flap has 2 heads!
The Lang Tengah Turtle Watch group took to their Instagram page to showcase the super cute little guy (guys?).
They wrote, “Miracle found in a nest. This two-headed green sea turtle hatchling was found during a post-emergence inspection at our Tanjong Jara Resort project site.”
Dicephalism is the condition of having 2 heads.
“Dicephalism is a rare occurrence in sea turtles, thus, genetic factors may have played a significant role for this little one.”
They went on to share the observations made by their team, in regards to dicephalism of the turtle:
- The 2 heads share a similar morphology and they responded differently to external stimuli,
- Although the turtle’s coordination of voluntary movements was distorted, the right head was evidently dominant,
- The facial scales on each head are different, meaning they could be identified as different individuals via photo identification techniques.
“Often, such rare findings were mostly non-viable ones. Nearly all recorded two-headed animals live for shorter periods than normal individuals,” they wrote.
“This miracle hatchling is now under the care of DoF’s Turtle Conservation and Information Centre (TCIC) in Rantau Abang, where they conduct monitoring and rehabilitation of sea turtles with special needs.”
“As TCIC is only 15 minutes away from our project site, we are keeping our eyes close on the hatchling’s development for as long as it lives,” they added.
We genuinely hope that this adorable baby turtle lives a long and healthy life.
Have you seen anything cuter?Ā
Also read: Meet Kevin, The Lucky One-Eyed Cyclops Puppy Named After a Minion From Despicable Me
