Whale with two heads - level 3
Mexican scientists have described it as unprecedented. A pair of apparently conjoined whale calves has been found dead in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon.
The whales. which washed up on January 5th, weighed about half a ton, measured four meters long and were linked at the midsection. Marine biologists say conjoined whales or Siamese whales have never been logged before in Mexico.
“It was an organism that seems to have died recently and it was composed of two whale calves joined around the abdominal region. It had two heads, double fins, two tales. In order words, it was a typical conjoined organism during the process of division in the embryonic phase, the separation was incomplete and the twins remained together. This made it difficult for both of them to survive and both died.”
The scientists who found the whales said the creature was female but don’t yet know whether the twins shared internal organs because it hasn’t been opened up for examination. Tissue samples have been taken for further investigation and the carcass has been buried at a beach close to the lagoon where it was found. Experts will now wait for the carcass to decompose in order to recover the skeleton for further scientific studies.
Difficult words: unprecedented (never having happened before), calf (young animal), log (to make an official records of something), organism (living animal or plant), abdominal (middle of the body), division (separating), tissue (material forming animal or plant cells), carcass (body of a dead animal), decompose (to rot into only bones).