A fisherman working off the coast of the Indian state of Maharashtra accidentally snagged a rare two-headed baby shark, a finding which has stunned scientists, reports the Hindustan Times.
The fisherman who goes by the name, Nitin Patil, from the town of Palghar, took out of the sea a small shark about 6 inches long last Friday, with a two-headed abnormality. The man snapped a picture of the animal before returning it to the water.
“We don’t eat such small fish, much less sharks, so I thought it was weird, but decided to throw it out anyway,” Patil commented.
He and his fishing colleagues, who were also amazed by the discovery, agreed to share the images with researchers and marine biologists in Bombay. The scientists substantiated that it was a “rare” incident, and that it could be the first time that a two-headed specimen has been found on those shores.
Specialist Akhilesh KV reported that the small creature could be a spadenose shark or a sharp-nosed shark that was born with the mutation know as bicephaly.
two-headed #shark (dicephalic) recorded first time from #Maharashtra marine water. fisherman nitin patil from palghar, satpati found dicephalic Spadenose shark.
report – https://t.co/pq8zB94HPS@vidyathreya @SharkAdvocates @TheSharkStanley @akhileshkv7 @IUCNShark @anishandheria pic.twitter.com/fCIDXPd802— Akshay Mandavkar🌿 (@akshay_journo) October 12, 2020
A follower of @akshay_journo pointed out:
This is probably happens more often than thought. The specimen here is from the University of the West Indies Zoology Museum and has been there since the early 80s pic.twitter.com/VpIEC9Lf2n
— Stephen Smith (@salipenter) October 15, 2020
