14 DAY TRIAL // Word has it that, just last week, the lifeless body of a two-headed dolphin showed up in the waters off Turkey's west coast. The corpse eventually washed ashore on a beach in Izmir, and was discovered by a sports teacher.
A photo of the supposed two-headed dolphin is available next to this article. Provided that the image is real and has not in any way been toyed with, it's safe to say that there's still quite a lot we have to learn about marine wildlife.
According to Daily Mail, it was on Monday that the dolphin was found lying on a beach in Izmir by sports teacher Tugrul Metin. It goes without saying that, when stumbling upon the creature, this man had the shock of a lifetime.
“I noticed the dolphin in the sea and watched as it washed on to the beach. I couldn't take it in at first. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me,” Tugrul Metin reportedly told the press in an interview.
“I've never even heard about a dolphin like this one let alone seen one with my own eyes. I was completely shocked,” the 39-year-old sports teacher went on to comment on his one-of-a-kind type of encounter with marine wildlife.
Information shared with the public by local media in Turkey says that, shortly after being discovered by 39-year-old Tugrul Metin, the two-headed dolphin's dead body was removed from the beach where it had washed ashore by police officers.
It is said that, once recovered, the corpse was transported to a local laboratory. Here, it is to be studied by wildlife researchers. It is expected that, following a series of tests and detailed investigations, specialists will know how and why this creature ended up sporting two heads.
Scientists who have had the chance to take one quick glance at the bizarre creature suspect that the two-headed dolphin, whose body measures about 3.2 feet (less than 1 meter) in length, is actually a pair of conjoined twins that died when merely 1 year old.
Of these twins, one is said to have been forced to live with underdeveloped eyes. What's more, word has it that, of the two heads, one had an abnormal blowhole that was not completely open. This has not yet been confirmed, but chances are that the creature struggled with several other health complications during its lifetime.
Talking to the press, Associate Professor Mehmet Gokoglu with the marine-biology department at the Ak Deniz University in Turkey pointed out that this creature was a rare find, and that studying it would surely lead to a better understanding of marine biodiversity. “Such a dolphin is a very rare occurrence – similar to the occurrence of conjoined human twins,” he said.