Rangers on the Arnhem Highway near Humpty Doo just outside Darwin, Australia came across a weird and wonderful discovery of a truly unusual kind: a three-eyed snake.
The rangers of the Darwin area believe this is a warning of a dry season to come and on further inspection it was found that the creature in fact had two separate heads that were forged together.
X-rays revealed that the snake had an additional eye socket and three fully functioning eyes. The slithery reptile was approximately 40cm in length.
‘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,’ said the rangers of the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife.
The snake is reportedly a carpet python. These can grow to between two and four metres and are commonly found in Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
This particular specimen was still young – believed to be no older than three months.
