Nature & Environment
Conjoined bat twins discovered in rainforest
By
T.K. RandallJuly 28, 2017 ·
2 comments
The extremely rare find is one of only a few examples of conjoined twins ever seen outside of humans.
Discovered in 2001 underneath a mango tree in southeastern Brazil, the bizarre specimen, which was donated to a university in Rio de Janeiro, is only the third example of conjoined bat twins ever found.
"We believe the mother of these twins was roosting in this tree when she gave birth," wrote Marcelo Nogueira from the State University of Northern Rio de Janeiro.
Conjoined twins are very rare in general, effecting only one in every 200,000 births in the US.
In the animal kingdom, low survival rates make such discoveries even rarer still.
"It is our hope that cases like this will encourage more studies on bat embryology, an open and fascinating field of research that can largely benefit from material already available in scientific collections," Nogueira wrote.
Source:
National Geograhpic |
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Tags:
Conjoined, Twins, Bats
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