Snake with claw stuns scientists?

A friend of mine in another forum just brought the following to my attention:

An elderly Chinese woman who discovered a snake with a clawed hand protruding from its body was so scared she beat it to death, according to reports.

Xiu Qiong Duan, 68, told the SINA Beijing news agency she woke up in the middle of the night to find the snake clinging to the wall of her bedroom.

"I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound ... at first I thought it was thieves" she said.

"I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw."

Ms Duan, from Suining in southwest China, said she then grabbed a shoe and beat the snake to death.

She reportedly preserved its body in a bottle of alcohol which she gave to the Life Sciences Department at China's West Normal University in Nanchang.

Snake expert Long Shuai said the discovery of the creature, which is 40cm long and the thickness of a little finger, was "truly shocking".

"We won't know the cause until we've conducted an autopsy," she said.

My friend didn't mention the source of this story, but I've asked him to provide a link. It'd be interesting if this turns out to be real, but to my mind, the story has too many elements in common with this one:

Four Inch Alien Killed by Pakistani Children

And this one:

Alien caught in rat trap

And this one:

Kids find strange creature and beat it to death

No wonder we don't see more aliens and cryptids: They're all getting beat to death by backwoods imbeciles!

[edit on 16-9-2009 by flightsuit]

Found one place where the story appears:

Telegraph UK

waoh :0

a real Chinese dragon! if it had a few more arms lol

i wanna hear what the experts have to say about this, good find.

[edit on 16-9-2009 by phi1618]

Here's another news thread carrying the story and an image

news.ninemsn.com.au...

Definently is bizzare....im just wondering how a snake would be able to obtain a human looking hand...weeeeeeeird

To me what is bizzare is that not only does it have the deformity (mutation?) but it seems to be using it as well. As the old lady says, it was using the hand to crawl across the roof.. So it doesnt really sound like a defect per se..

It would appear that the snake swallowed some lizard to me. The arm sticking out seems fake. I'm guessing Chinese tabloid journalism. I'll read more, although doubtful as real to me anyway.

Not that the Chinese wouldn't play Dr. Moreau anyway. I don't know how much DNA the lizard and snake have in common already, but this looks attached.

edit to add: Lizard snake

www.honoluluzoo.org...

[edit on 16-9-2009 by aleon1018]

Even if that is a real photo of an actual snake with a real genetic anomaly, that doesn't mean all of the story is true. If that snake really does have such a deformity, I very much doubt that it would have been a useful appendage.

It would be much likely to be some type of abnormal deformity that simply has the outward appearance of an arm with a hand and fingers, but not the underlying skeletal and muscular structure, nor the functionality that would come with it.

Think about it: This isn't like a person or a frog being born with extra limbs. People and frogs already have limbs, so it's not that much of a stretch for a birth defect to result in extras.

Snakes, on the other hand, do not have limbs. Nor do they have shoulders or any other type of body structure that a working limb would have to be attached to. For a birth defect to result in a snake with a limb, that would require its DNA to still retain a tremendous amount of information left over from the snake's prehistoric, limbed ancestor, and there'd have to be a way for that trait to suddenly re-assert itself in this one random mutation.

I don't know if that's even possible, but it sure isn't likely.

looks like the snake has recently had a big meal. maybe a lizard. and the "foot or claw" is actually not the snakes at all.

Originally posted by flightsuit Nor do they have shoulders or any other type of body structure that a working limb would have to be attached to. For a birth defect to result in a snake with a limb, that would require its DNA to still retain a tremendous amount of information left over from the snake's prehistoric, limbed ancestor, and there'd have to be a way for that trait to suddenly re-assert itself in this one random mutation.

"Batari" from the AtariAge.com message board has pointed out the following, which sort of weakens my argument a little:

All snakes have vestigial pelvic bones and some even have vestigial leg bones. If it's an actual limb growing there, it would most likely be from that part of the snake, and I'm pretty sure a snake's pelvis is close to the tail end and not in the middle of the snake as shown.

I still think this story is a load o' hooey, but I do bow to his superior knowledge of snake anatomy.

probably just a throwback, allegedly snakes used to have limbs but over time their legs became redundant.

found an article that implies through the course of history snakes may have regained and lost limbs many times through their evolution.
Snake Legs

if you have ever looked at a real life snake closely you will see these little protuberance where their legs once did exist.

"Krazy Kaiju" at the previously mentioned AtariAge message board has reported seeing something similar to this, in which a snake devours its prey and then it its stomach bursts.

That sure does look like what's going on here, especially since the leg is on backwards or facing the wrong direction.

The only thing that would argue against this theory is the fact that the coloration on the leg's skin appears to match that of the snake. It's hard to be sure of that, however, because this is such a small, low-quality photo.

And the leg's color pattern could, of course, have been photoshopped to match the snake's skin.

Originally posted by Naeem82
To me what is bizzare is that not only does it have the deformity (mutation?) but it seems to be using it as well. As the old lady says, it was using the hand to crawl across the roof.. So it doesnt really sound like a defect per se..

Since she was an old scared lady, I'm pretty sure what she saw should be taken with a grain of salt. If the snake was wigling on the roof, the 'leg' should of course be moving. It was probably jumping up and down, making it seem like controlled movement.

Originally posted by aleon1018
It would appear that the snake swallowed some lizard to me. The arm sticking out seems fake. I'm guessing Chinese tabloid journalism. I'll read more, although doubtful as real to me anyway.

Not that the Chinese wouldn't play Dr. Moreau anyway. I don't know how much DNA the lizard and snake have in common already, but this looks attached.

I'm guessing that it ate a lizard too, and that the animal probably kicked a soft spot inside its belly or something.

It is also a common misconseption that animels can suddenly 'turn on latent genes and out pops [Insert-large-random-anomaly-here]'. It has definately not grown a leg, thats for sure. Also, most vertebrates grow using a bi-polar axis, so if it has grown one leg, it would definately also have grown a second one on the other side!


It is either a fake, or the leg belongs to something that was supposed to stay in the stomach.

There are a species of land tortoise in the Gulf of Isthmas ,Thailand, that have six limbs, four regular legs and two protruding clawed limbs that protrude from the back of the shell. It is not a deformity as all examples I have seen are fully developed. They use the clawed protrusions to right themselves if they roll onto their shells accidently when climbing mountains. I don't know if a species exists elsewhere in the world with these claws however I was completely gobsmacked as I thought the person who showed us these creatures was simply pulling our legs.
They are quite large and I find no reference thus far on the web about six legged land tortoises.
Even so I have seen many, so I know they exist.
Does anyone elso know of the name of this species?
I will fing a photo and post if anyone is interested.


[edit on 16/9/2009 by serpentine]

To those saying that this snake had just had a meal can someone point out exactly where this snakes head is please?

It doesn't have a head.

All I see is what looks like a plunger on one end and a standard tail on the other.

reply to post by george_gaz


It does. I think it just has it's mouth open in attack-mode and at the angle the photo was taken, it looks like it has no head.

Example:



It appears that is the position, jaw-wise, the snake is in but due to the camera angle and poor image quality, it looks like its head was cut off although we're looking down its throat.

?

ThI heard about a story like thisi mexico about a year ago, google failed me when I tried to find it just now.

omg this snake is a real stunner, it stunned that poor lady (omg imagine what she felt lol), it stunned scientists...and it stunned me


i hope it will not be difficult for us to follow this up...im awaiting its autopsy more than the late MJ (sorry dude but we knew immediately your autopsy would be kept secret)...any 1 living in the area ???

This reminded me of another incident where a python in the Florida's Everglades had a alligator bursting from its guts. Several theories as to how that happened. One, if I can remember from a documentary, hypothesised that the python was involved in a previous altercation where it suffered a tear in its body. So when it tried to swallow the alligator, its body burst open.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2dc928eff232.jpg[/atsimg]

Likewise, it is apparent that the snake in China swallowed something big, head first. Probably a monitor lizard, as the shape is elongated, and it managed to tear a hole out with its front left leg. IMHO.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bcea2ce916a7.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by A Conscience


I'm not so familiar with dead snakes or even live ones that look like this one, but it somehow makes me believe this one's been stuffed. Or at least half of it anyway.

Originally posted by A Conscience
This reminded me of another incident where a python in the Florida's Everglades had a alligator bursting from its guts. Several theories as to how that happened. One, if I can remember from a documentary, hypothesised that the python was involved in a previous altercation where it suffered a tear in its body. So when it tried to swallow the alligator, its body burst open.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2dc928eff232.jpg[/atsimg]

Likewise, it is apparent that the snake in China swallowed something big, head first. Probably a monitor lizard, as the shape is elongated, and it managed to tear a hole out with its front left leg. IMHO.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/bcea2ce916a7.jpg[/atsimg]

I agree with the lizard eating.