Turtle Thursday: Turtles in the news

From:

http://www.nbc10.com/news/14211546/detail.html?dl=headlineclick

Two-Headed Turtle Comes Out Of Its Shell

POSTED: 3:36 pm EDT September 26, 2007
UPDATED: 8:07 pm
EDT September 26, 2007
An extremely rare reptile arrived over the weekend at an East Norriton aquarium.

A two-headed red slider turtle was at Big Al's Aquarium Supercenter.

With all of the oddities inside the store, the turtle could almost fit into a sideshow department, NBC 10's Doug Shimell reported.

The yet-to-be-named turtle has two heads on opposite sides of its shell, four front legs, two back legs and a combined tail.

Big Al's told NBC 10 they got the turtle from a collector in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., over
the weekend.

He said it's not some kind of genetic experiment or reptile that grew up downstream from a nuclear power plant. It's just one of those rare, one-in-a-million freaks of nature, Shimell reported.

"The two heads seem to have their own thoughts, operating independently. But sometimes they seem to put their two heads together and move in the same direction, feed together, walk together," said Jay Jacobi, the store's exotic reptile manager.

Store management said they have no plans to sell the turtle. Rather, they will just use it for promotions to get people into the store, Shimell reported.

Slide show:

http://www.nbc10.com/slideshow/news/14212988/detail.html

From my research I have found that anomalies such as this are a bit more common than you'd think. However, in the wild they would never survive. With so many being born into captivity, this aberrations can be studied. As it happens, each head on multiple headed turtles has control of their side of the body. This poor creature has two front legs for each head but two back legs, likely one controlled by each brain. It would be interesting to see how this grows up. I wish them well!

More here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070928/ap_on_fe_st/two_headed_turtle