Snake with three eyes

Australian Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife service rangers found this 40cm snake with three functional eyes near the small town of, um, Humpty Doo which is about 40 km from, um, Darwin. The Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife posted on Facebook:


The snake is peculiar as an x-ray revealed it was not two separate heads forged together, rather it appeared to be one skull with an additional eye socket and three functioning eyes.


It was generally agreed that the eye likely developed very early during the embryonic stage of development. It is extremely unlikely that this is from environmental factors and is almost certainly a natural occurrence as malformed reptiles are relatively common.

(via Daily Grail)