Snake found with clawed hand growing out of it.

[The_Absolute]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/863766/snake-born-with-hand-shocks-scientists

Some kind of genetic mutation perhaps?

[Greg Bernhardt]

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

Video would have been amazing. I would have been freaked too!

[Ivan Seeking]

Eh, I don't believe it. Probably a hoax.

The news coming out of China lately is pretty tabloidish, so reader beware.

[Researcher X]

Can't mutations cause any outgrowth potentially? Like, you could find something that looked like a human head growing out of a donkey's backside, but it would just be really really really really really really really really really unlikely for mutations of DNA to be that widespread and specific to give that result. More than likely, if you zap a donkey fetus with radiation it will just develop tumors and die.

[Kronos5253]

Looks like it just ate something to me.. You can see the lump.

[Insanity]

perhaps a case of a vestigial limb mutation? Snake genomes do supposedly contain the instructions for growing a limb.

[Borek]

After dead snake was found, officials said

"We won't know the cause until we've conducted an autopsy"

Well, it was enough to interrogate the murderer:

she then grabbed a shoe and beat the snake to death

[Blenton]

Its just a lizard.

[Dadface]

That particular snake likes to eat little people for his dinner but one of them objected and started to claw his way out.

[arithmetix]

A retrovirus could be involved.
In Australia there are a lot of weird creatures which, seemingly unrelated, are marsupial. In the same country are many variant insects which have wings, unlike their otherwise similar counterparts in New Zealand.

[jim mcnamara]

Snakes have a common lizard ancestor. Some extant snake species have vestigial legs - boas and pythons for example.

Having a "leg" grow is not all that weird considering the ancestry of snakes.

[Moonbear]

Snakes have a common lizard ancestor. Some extant snake species have vestigial legs - boas and pythons for example.

Having a "leg" grow is not all that weird considering the ancestry of snakes.

I was thinking the same. It wouldn't take much of a genetic mutation for a limb to grow. It may be more surprising that it doesn't happen more often.

[arithmetix]

but if I may harp on about the retrovirus idea...
... this is a more credible mechanism for evolution than any other I've heard of.

[hypatia]

I was thinking the same. It wouldn't take much of a genetic mutation for a limb to grow. It may be more surprising that it doesn't happen more often.
But yet something inside me just wants to scream and run.

[Phrak]

Notice to all mutants: Beware or easily frightened normals.

[BigFairy]

well its a reputable news website.. is there any follow up? thx

[Peopleunit]

What, no shadow of the supposed limb?

Obvious fake.

[the_awesome]

I think it's a bit obvious that the snake had ate something beforehand.
"THE ELDERLY WOMAN WAS THAT SCARED SHE BEAT IT TO DEATH!"
That is why this snake looks so deformed!

Any hope of referring to evolution is a complete fail. According to evolution lizards evolved into snakes, so this would be devolution. Not to mention the fact that a whole leg wouldn't form. So its obvious that it's the snakes guts coming out - perhaps it had eaten a lizard?

[rimblock]

Give that woman a hand ... and she will glue it onto a snake. Seriously though, that is the work of devil if ever i saw it.

[VooDooX]

retrovirus's are thought to transfer dna between species

[bobquantum]

Snakes used to have limbs, but then they got less important or something and then the theory of evolutin killed them off (perhaps no natural predators). NOw that snakes are getting destroyed by humns, maybe apossible re-awakening of genetic genomes to grow limbs?

[chrisalviola]

we have snakes like these here in the philippines, its called "banakon" i think, its hands is not like the one in the picture but smaller. snakes like these dont use much use their hand for anything.
some images

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2645/3817603092_c04a1de10a.jpg

http://bisayangkikay.i.ph/photo/d/244-1/Banakon.jpg

[Mentallic]

What, no shadow of the supposed limb?

Obvious fake.

So you're claiming the limb is photoshopped or an illusion? The angle the light is shining at the wrong angle to give the limb a shadow on the ground next to the snake with the rest of its body.

[Chronos]

Affirmation that one should not bite the hand that feeds you.

[Lok]

perhaps a case of a vestigial limb mutation? Snake genomes do supposedly contain the instructions for growing a limb.

No need for supposedly, those genes are just suppressed. Like most of our ancient genes, which shape the fetus in all it's stages (fish,amphibian,bird,mammal). Everyone of you had a tail while growing inside the womb.

So the poor snake just has a simple malformation. Might not even be passed through reproduction. But we will never know as it is dead.

[CEL]

Here is an interesting analysis of the phenomenon
http://depletedcranium.com/an-example-of-why-understanding-evolution-matters/