Is a Three-Headed Snake a Rare Genetic Mutation or Revered as a Hindu God?

[Hyperspace2]

Here I took the pic of three headed snake. is this rare or common one? I assume it the genetic mutation. People here regard it as god(hindu).

 

[arildno]

Presuming you're not photoshopping us, you have been lucky to see such an extreme rarity.
Many-headed (or polycephalic) animals are occasionally reported, but I have only seen reports of two-headed snakes before.

Three-headed snakes should be even rarer than those.

 

[Hyperspace2]

yes, i was lucky to see it. It's amazing thing I got to see when I travelled. My freinds also
assume it to be photoshoped when I gave them this picture.

 

[Moonbear]

I always wonder how they decide where to go or what to do. Does one control the body, or do all three each have partial control? Unless people are helping feed it, it must be coordinating actions with all three heads in some way to survive to adulthood, unless two heads are just along for the ride.

 

[Insanity]

Where and when was this photo taken?

 

[DaveC426913]

Well, here's an original:

http://zuvvu.com/images/content/3-headed-Snake-found-on-Indian-Road-.jpg
So: busted.

 

[arildno]

I always wonder how they decide where to go or what to do. Does one control the body, or do all three each have partial control? Unless people are helping feed it, it must be coordinating actions with all three heads in some way to survive to adulthood, unless two heads are just along for the ride.

Yes. It ought to be a tremendous COST to maintain and coordinate extra, functional heads, rather than just one.
That is, possibly an additional reason why most polycephalics tend to die very soon after birth*, rather than they are suffering from additional mutations.

*At least, that was the impression I got from Wiki

 

[arildno]

Well, here's an original:

http://zuvvu.com/images/content/3-headed-Snake-found-on-Indian-Road-.jpg
So: busted.

How busted, Dave?
When did Hyperspace SAY he hadn't given others his picture? And, a local news news outlet would eagerly take it, and it would spread locally, as it already has done on the Net

I can't see that we can pull the fraud card on him yet, he might well be the originator of the photo.

Perhaps he also showed it to us was that we are a physics(and-biology).forum, and hyperspace was just excited and wondered if we could tell him how rare this critter was?

Both two-headed, and three-headed animals have been CONFIRMED being able to live to adulthood, if the Wiki article on polycephaly is to go by.

 

[Insanity]

I saw the same photo elsewhere, which is why I had asked when and where it was taken.

Wouldn't be the first multi-headed snake hoax photo.

 

[Hyperspace2]

Yes folks I am the person who took this photograph, therefore I am very lucky

 

[Insanity]

Yes folks I am the person who took this photograph, therefore I am very lucky

Great, when and where did you take the photo by chance?

 

[Gokul43201]

Some of us are interested when and where this photo was taken. Also, either you got real close to the snake (everyone in the background seems to be standing some distance away) or you had a nice optical zoom on your camera. What camera did you shoot this picture with? The image quality is pretty good.

 

[lisab]

I always wonder how they decide where to go or what to do. Does one control the body, or do all three each have partial control? Unless people are helping feed it, it must be coordinating actions with all three heads in some way to survive to adulthood, unless two heads are just along for the ride.

I had the same thought. So in this pic, each of the three heads decided to go into "flare mode" or whatever it's called? Seems...possible but not probable, I think.

But who knows, perhaps this species goes into that mode very readily.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

There appears to be many sightings of muti headed snakes after a google search. It wouldn't surprise me if the rare event is the inspiration behind the mythical Hydra.

 

[Insanity]

Photoshopped, each head has a yellowish spot above the mouthline in the same relative position to the eye and the nostril.

 

[DaveC426913]

Photoshopped, each head has a yellowish spot above the mouthline in the same relative position to the eye and the nostril.

No. Since they're identical genes, they'll have identical markings. I thought of that.

Arildno is correct. This is not conclusively fake, nor is Hyper's claim of being the original photographer conclusively ruled out.

It's circumstantially highly suspect, but that's not conclusive.

 

[DaveC426913]

Hyper, if you took this, you have the original. Care to upload it?

 

[Hyperspace2]

I promise this isn't photoshoped, i have no knowledge about it.

 

[DaveC426913]

I promise this isn't photoshoped, i have no knowledge about it.

Well, you have definitely edited it, since you've cropped and reduced it from the original.

Let's see the original.

 

[Hyperspace2]

Hyper, if you took this, you have the original. Care to upload it?

high megabyte photo, slower internet connection in my country, so I reduced it's size.

 

[DaveC426913]

high megabyte photo, slower internet connection in my country, so I reduced it's size.

It's been cropped. The reduced one is almost square. The original is portrait format.

I'm not saying that means it's fake, I'm simply pointing out that when you say "it wasn't PhotoShopped", that not entirely true. The original image has been digitally manipulated in a photo editing program.

Where and when was it taken?

 

[Hyperspace2]

Well people I was just trying to share my excitement and rare opportunity. I have no interest in claiming and trying hard to give proofs it to be original( it doesn't interest me). I was just trying to get scientifc thoughts of you people.

 

[DaveC426913]

Well people I was just trying to share my excitement and rare opportunity. I have no interest in claiming and trying hard to give proofs it to be original( it doesn't interest me).

Why post it in the Skepticism and debunking forum? If you wanted us to merely admire your photo you should have posted it in GD.

I was just trying to get scientifc thoughts of you people.

So, you asked for skepticism and debunking. Unless you can give us something more to go on, we have only your word that a] you took it and b] it isn't edited.

We can't offer any scientific thoughts without accurate data.

But yes, three-headed snakes exist. No question there.

 

[Insanity]

In his defense Dave, he had posted it in GD originally, it has been moved here though since then.

 

[DaveC426913]

In his defense Dave, he had posted it in GD originally, it has been moved here though since then.

I did not know that.

In that case Hyper, I owe you an apology.

 

[Insanity]

Well people I was just trying to share my excitement and rare opportunity. I have no interest in claiming and trying hard to give proofs it to be original( it doesn't interest me). I was just trying to get scientifc thoughts of you people.

Is providing the original photo that hard to do?

 

[CaptFirePanda]

Looking at it a little closer:

There appears to be some definite "smudging" where the heads would join and some smudging in the background around the same area. Also, the heads are all facing in a manner that they would be facing if one head was simply rotated slightly clockwise and counterclockwise. Admittedly, they probably don't have much range of motion, but I doubt the heads would just coincidentally end up in positions like this.

I'm no shooping expert, but I won't be investing in any 3-headed cobra farms.

 

[DaveC426913]

There appears to be some definite "smudging" where the heads would join and some smudging in the background around the same area.

I noted that too.

Also, the heads are all facing in a manner that they would be facing if one head was simply rotated slightly clockwise and counterclockwise.

Yep. I suspected the same thing.


My analysis suggests that the left head is a clone of the center head. But the right head is unique. Meaning that this is a photo of a two-headed snake, 'shopped to look like a three headed snake.

The evidence required to demo this would take a while to produce, so for now, I'm talking through my hat. But if you take the middle head and map it onto the left head and rotate 17 degrees, there are an astonishing number of consistencies not explainable by surface markings.

The most damning cue is attached. There is a marking on the cowl A behind head B. The marking is identical on two heads. That's not all that surprising, since we expect markings to be identical - but what is surprising is that it shows that the relationship position/angle between the heads - between left-middle and middle-right is identical. That is a coincidence.

 

[Mech_Engineer]

Providing the original picture is quite easy, he's not providing it because he doesn't have it (in other words it isn't his picture). It's impossible to be conclusive based on the resolution of the pictures provided, but that's by design! It would be quite easy to tell the picture had been faked in a high-resolution format.

Based on what we're provided we can still deduce it's probably faked for a couple of reasons:

• The heads look very similar if not identical, all point in the same direction and have the same general angle w.r.t. the camera.
• The hoods seamlessly trasition into the body, are all flattened by the same amount, and have the same coloring patterns.
• The picture has an icon in the lower right, apparently an eye with a magnifying glass in front of it. Logo denoting this came from a modified picture website?
• The scales on the "chin" of each head are sharply distinguished, and the scales on the body are sharply distinguished, but in the region where the heads meet, they are blurred.

Unless this picture can be provided in raw form from the camera, it's undoubtedly a fake. Just do a search for "3 headed snake" on google and you'll find hundreds of pictures all made in this same fashion (and all fake).

 

[DaveC426913]

Providing the original picture is quite easy, he's not providing it because he doesn't have it (in other words it isn't his picture).

We're giving him the benefit of the doubt.