Two Headed Tortoise born in Dorset, England

It seems a two headed tortoise has been born in Dorset, England. The owner has described that it appears to be in good health, it has favourite foods, and the heads seem to work independently of each other..

Reported on the BBC with pictures:

Two Headed Tortoise

Interesting.... so is this actually two headed rather than just some sort of conjoined twin thing? Do they have seperate digestive systems? If not, how do they join? How do they control moving together? Oh, the questions are endless!

Who knows? I just came across it on my regular trawl of the BBC. I think it is conjoined, but the share the body, so to speak... The only way to see would be to have a poke around...but I am sure the Tortoise(s) would complain somewhat.

Originally posted by stumason
It seems a two headed tortoise has been born in Dorset, England. [...][/url]

What is it with the Westcountry ?

There was that three headed frog a few months ago up in Weston-Super-Mare,

news.bbc.co.uk...

... and now this fellow.

Maybe an X-ray or CAT scan would be a better plan than taking it apart, lol.

[edit on 13/11/2004 by Slashpepper]

I saw this on the news, it is a congenital(?) defect. For some reasons on the report thta I saw, they went to great lengths to say that incubation hadn't caused it. Don't ask me why.

This is very interesting to me, which brain would have control over the body functions of this lil fella? Or do both brains work in tandem to control the body and its nervous system. for example, if it was hurt.....which brain would the nervous system send signals of pain to? would it send them to just the 1 brain or both?

Ive worked in the animal industry for years and a two headed turtle ( tortoise ) is not real uncommon, a freind of mine that is a turtle breeder has a collection of over 12 different species of two headed turltes. The are twins that are born wihin the same shell either that or they are conjoined twins.

For the turtles to live i would have to say that both brains would function even thought they are together and the turtles are independent as stated so my best guess would be 2 brains not one

[edit on 16-11-2004 by ShadowMan]

Meh, conjoined twins are far less exciting...