A group was out looking for mushrooms and ending up finding something more interesting. They discovered two-headed fawns. People thought that it was a hoax at first. However,scientists confirmed that it was real. Gino D’ Angelou works for the University of Georgia. He stated that the discovery was amazing and rare.
Gino stated that he is not sure about how rare this discovery is. There are millions of fawns born in this country each year. There are also a lot of abnormalities that people do not know about. The two-headed fawns were actually conjoined twins. Wild animals are less likely to have conjoined twins. Conjoined twins are more likely to occur in domestic animals.
There have only been two cases reported of white-tail deer having co-joined twins. No one knows exactly what causes conjoined twins. The fawns were discovered for the first time in May 2016. This was shortly after they died. They were taken to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The twins were kept in a freezer until scientists were able to study them in detail.
The scientists did an MRI, CT scan and necropsy on the bodies. They found out that the fawns were female and shared one body. They had two heads and two necks. The scientists placed the lungs in the water. They immediately sank to the bottom. This means that the deer never breathed, which means they were stillborn.
The twins each had their own hearts and digestive tract. The two shared a liver, which had not formed correctly. The twins’ anatomy showed that they were not viable. They were found in their natural position and they looked like they had been groomed, which shows that the doe attempted to take care of them after she gave birth. Deer have a strong maternal
