In a latest study, scientists anatomically analyzed a "two-headed deer" found in the United States and found that its body has two groups of organs, including two hearts. This "two-headed deer" genus was first discovered and is a rare conjoined twin . The study was published in the April 2018 journal The American Midland Naturalist.
In May 2016, a man collected mushrooms in a forest in Minnesota, USA and stumbled upon this extremely unusual thing: a newborn white-tailed deer with two heads died in a bush.
This young deer is actually a pair of conjoined female twins, with a total length of 23 inches (about 60 cm) from beginning to end. The fur of the deer was covered with white spots, and it seemed to have been combed by its mother. But when he discovered it, he did not see his mother.
The discoverer quickly sent the deer to the nearby Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. After the scientists' anatomy and analysis, he found that this was the first record in history that "the 'two-headed' white-tailed deer conjoined twins became pregnant and gave birth to their mother after full term".
"It's amazing, very rare," said Gino D'Angelo, assistant professor of deer ecology and management at the University of Georgia. "We can't even estimate how low the chance of this happening."
In the study, Angelo and his colleagues performed a computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of the conjoined twins, and then performed a complete autopsy.
NMR scan showed that the pair of deer twins shared a spine, which split into two necks in the middle and each connected to a head. During the autopsy, the researchers found that the deer had two hearts and they shared a pericardial cyst. The deer has two esophagus and anterior stomach in her body (the first compartment of the stomach, mainly used for rumination of , where the food will be initially digested), but one digestive tract ends in a closed duct.
CT scan of "two-headed deer" skeleton photos (Part 1) and visceral anatomical photos (Part 2)
"The desolation results show that this deer will never survive," Angelo said. "But judging from the location where they were discovered and the fur of the deer was combed, the doe tried to take care of it after gave birth to . This showed its strong maternal nature."
Angelo said that he suspected that the deer was stillborn during childbirth - but this is just a speculation that it is a scientific fact that they were successfully delivered. According to recent research, most female white-tailed deer give birth to twins, but conjunctiva is extremely rare in scientific literature records. A study published in 2008 showed that back to 1671, only two cases of white-tailed deer conjoined. Moreover, both records show that when the twins are in the uterus, the doe and the fetus have all died.
