Three-headed frog spawns mystery

13 April 2012

Wildlife experts have been stunned by the apparent discovery of a three-headed frog hopping around the garden of a children's nursery.

Children could not believe their eyes when they saw the strange, multi-faced creature, which also has six legs.

Staff at the Green Umbrella nursery in Weston-super-Mare believed the mutant amphibian was three frogs huddled together at first.

But they soon realised it was just one animal with three croaking heads.
Animal experts were today trying to capture the frog to carry out further tests to investigate its biological make-up.

Mike Dilger, a wildlife biologist from the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, said: "I have never seen anything like this before and as far as I am aware it is unprecedented.

"Frogs have a very primitive embryology - so the occasional extra toe is not that unusual. But this is something different."

He added that the reason for the three-headed frog's development could have been damage to the embryo, a spontaneous mutation such as that of conjoined human twins or factors in the environment, including pollution and changing climate.

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