Reptile & Amphibian Forums

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

Looks like it ate a lizard, and the lizard managed to pierce the snake's side with a leg before it died.
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Kent

When I first looked at it I thought it was some kind of genetic oddity, but now I think you're on to something. I found a slightly larger photo here, and it does indeed look like the leg is part of something the snake ate. Most small lizards have pretty weak legs, flimsy toes, and short claws, so I don't think it clawed its way through the snake's side. What is more likely, in my opinion, is that something happened similar to the python that "exploded" in Florida - the snake ate a large meal, and then not being able to move quickly enough to cover, got attacked by a predator that punctured a hole in the snake's side, causing part of the prey to protrude. In this case, I think it might have been some kind of raptor that grabbed the snake but then dropped it due to its weight.

Although it's unfortunate that the woman beat it to death with a shoe, it probably wouldn't have lived too much longer anyway.
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- Natalie
(San Francisco Bay Area)

Yes, that's about exactly what happened. Too bad for the snake though for sure.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I'm not sure that it's fake yet. Wouldn't the shocked snake scientist have noticed something so obvious if it just ate something and a leg exploded out?

Yeah, sort of hard to disregard the HUGE lump of lizard right where the leg is poking out!..LOL!

Makes for great very typical sensationalistic news!..hahaha!

just as most snake stories regarding the general public and snakes are concerned.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

It's currently with scientists in China. You'd think they'd be able to see if it was food pretty fast?

I see a food lump, sure. I also see what could be a hugely deformed animal due to pollution in the area, which has happened numerous times before.

All of what you said is certainly very true.

I am also quite sure the "scientist's" noticed what actually happened the second they saw it. It is the MEDIA who runs with this "ball" and scrambles everything out of text just to get the eyebrows lifted from the public. This happens all the time on a daily basis.

The scientists are no doubt laughing their butts off about this at the water cooler as to the way this actually went down to the news audience though. This is a perfect "National Inguirer" comedy episode for sure.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I dunno, don't remember ever seeing more than one cruddy photo of the four finned dolphin, back in that time. And it took the 'big news' a little while to pick it up because obviously they don't wanna be caught claiming a hoax is true.

I'm not saying it's NOT a hoax, I'm just not saying it is, either.

I can certainly believe a dolphin having four fins, stuff like that happens all the time, but a snake with a very obvious lizard leg poking out of it's side is a little different..LOL!

Major difference in my opinion.

Sort of like the "Jackalope" thing..LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

LOL, once equals 'all the time'?

I agree that it's a fully formed leg not on a place where one would think a snake's leg would sprout. Buuuuuut it's also in an area where mutation-from-pollution is rampant.

Again though, I can certainly attest to polution causing MANY birth defects and disfigurements in all sorts of wildlife and humans alike, but my common sense tells me that lizard leg belongs to the HUGE lump in the snake's stomach...LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I don't claim to be an expert on deformities, mutations, etc, but I've never seen a true case of an animal (or human) having a body part that doesn't normally exist on that animal (or human). That would be the equivalent of a calf being born with a human arm sticking out it's side. It just ain't gonna happen.

Common sense goes a long way. While reading the article on the snake/lizard leg, my common sense told me, "China has some awfully good opium".

How many humans have been born with wings?
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

Mike,....you are one sharp hillbilly, buddy!..hahaha!

great analogies, that was too dang funny!..LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Ha! Ha! I hope hogbilly didn't take offense to what I said. I didn't mean to come across as being a smart aleck towards him (or anyone else), just being a bit humorous & informative.

HH wrote; "How many humans have been born with wings?"

I have to recant. My wife is an angel. Or, so she thinks.

Later!
Mike
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

.
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I'm not aware of any example in which chemical pollution has directly caused extra limbs in any species. Chemicals kill tissue, not make extra limbs grow. Nuclear radiation is a little different but all things considered, I don't think nuclear pollution is a serious problem in china -- the vast majority of their power comes from coal (80%) and hydro dams (15%). Aside from Chernobyl I can't think of any cases where nuclear pollution might have caused genetic mutations in wildlife -- most of which should have been cancerous. I guess the a-bombs in WWII are examples of that too... Anyway, I digress. Pollutants caused from coal and the burning of other fossil fuels are a good example of things that kill tissue.

Parasites can cause extra limbs to grow where there should only be one but not in animals where there aren't supposed to be any any limbs to start with (I've seen LOTS of frogs with extra limbs or feet caused by parasites burrowing into developing limb buds and causing the limb to sprout in both directions around the parasite).

Ignoring the fact that this is obviously the leg of a prey item sticking out the side of this snake, the only way I can think of a leg forming on a snake is if the genetic information that codes for legs in snakes was not removed but simply deactivated (a mutation of the start codon could do this). Without a start codon the leg genes would become non-coding "junk" DNA and would be subject to random mutation without natural selection pressures. If the start codon is re-mutated then you could get a funny looking limb like that one BUT you would expect it to be at the vent where their legs used to be. I think this is how the dolphins mentioned in this thread can be explained.

On the point of limbs growing on things they shouldn't, aren't chickens sometimes born with long tails? The point is that the long tail is a relic of the tails that non-avian dinosaurs had and a mutation in the bird's DNA allowed those genes to be expressed instead of stifled like they usually would be in a normal chicken.
The genes for the tail haven't disappeared, they are just not expressed in today's birds.

Since snakes once had legs, couldn't this be the same type of thing? I don't really know that much about snake genetics and whatnot though, so I could be wrong. Either way, I can't exactly tell if that's what happened to that snake.

C'mon man!,...nevermind all the prehistoric scientific talk about limb remnants, what "happened" to the snake is, it got smashed by the ladies shoe and the snake's lizard meal blew out of it's SIDE!

SIMPLE AS THAT!, no mystery at all to anyone with common sense.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I think if this really was the snake's leg, scientists would release the information quickly and its picture would be plastered on more than a couple obscure websites... It would be all over the BBC and CNN and whatnot, like that one a few years ago (also from China) that had strange growths where its back legs would have been.
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- Natalie
(San Francisco Bay Area)

You mean the 49 foot Reticulated python from Indonesia wasn't genuine either??..LOL!(sarcasm)

Yes, it was a FAR cry from the actual 23 feet.

I told everyone that bought into that nonsense that this was impossible, and that it was more like 20 something feet long. This was even way before the actual 23 foot length was actually revealed to the public.

Like you said, if that lizard leg thing was genuine, it would send the scientific community on it's ear, and make concussion waves around the world, just like the mouse wearing the human ear on it's back.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

"It would be all over the BBC and CNN and whatnot,..."

Actually, I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find out that CNN and NBC have ran multiple stories on this being true. (Sorry, couldn't resist saying that.)
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

Well,...there is no doubt that "NBC" would serve that up on a silver platter very quickly..LOL!, the other's maybe not quite as fast though..heheheh!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

I can't believe we are having this discussion.

This is not a fake, it is a real, un-retouched photo of a snake that ate a lizard, was beaten to death with a shoe which tore a hole in the snake's body allowing the lizard leg to come out.

I've seen this happen in roadkills before more than once.
Where's the mystery?

The reason there isn't any scientific "outcry" is simple. Naysayers aren't newsworthy, even if they are obviously right.

It is the same reason that the majority of scientists who called "bull" after the Life on Mars discovery was released weren't quoted. "Life on Mars" is a great headline. "Oops, no life on Mars" isn't.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

n/p
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Kent