Snake with foot found in China

[Christa]

Not how I want to be awakened:

Dean Qiongxiu, 66, said she discovered the reptile clinging to the wall of her bedroom with its talons in the middle of the night.

"I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw," said Mrs Duan of Suining, southwest China.

Mrs Duan said she was so scared she grabbed a shoe and beat the snake to death before preserving its body in a bottle of alcohol.

The snake – 16 inches long and the thickness of a little finger – is now being studied at the Life Sciences Department at China's West Normal University in Nanchang.

Snake expert Long Shuai said: "It is truly shocking but we won't know the cause until we've conducted an autopsy."

A more common mutation among snakes is the growth of a second head, which occurs in a similar way to the formation of Siamese twins in humans.

Such animals are often caught and preserved as lucky tokens but have very little chance of surviving in the wild anyway, especially as the heads have a tendency to attack each other.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6187320/Snake-with-foot-found-in-China.html

[cliffordu]

1. Terrible for a photoshop job.

[Kahuna]

2. Eww. nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Looks like evolution to me...

:scared:

[Turbineguy]

4. Probably

some repub prevert sex going on.

[thereismore]

5. I'd say the cause of death was blunt trauma from a shoe. nt

[HeresyLives]

6. Looks more like the snake ate a lizard

and that's a foot sticking out.

[unpossibles]

9. it's belly does seem to be a bit full.... nt

[mzteris]

7. Vestigial legs in snakes are a fact -

it's not surprising that occasionally the "vestigial" part is circumvented.

[skoalyman]

8. looks like a dragons foot jk

Its the first time I've ever seen that before,could we have mini dragons in the far future:tinfoilhat:

[sakabatou]

10. I'd love to have a mini-dragon!

:D

[frogmarch]

11. The leg looks fully formed, which

is odd for a vestigial limb, isn't it? I always thought vestigial legs found in snakes appeared as mere buds, not fully formed appendages.

My initial reaction to the photo was "Wow, a one-legged amphibian!"

It'll be interesting to find out what the truth is regarding the one-legged animal.