A SHEEP gave birth to a dead lamb with a human-like face. The lamb was born in a village not far from the city of Izmir, Turkey.
Erhan Elibol, a vet, performed a caesarean on the animal to take the lamb out, but was horrified to see that the features of the lamb's snout bore a striking resemblance to a human face.
“I’ve seen mutations with cows and sheep before. I’ve seen a one-eyed calf, a two-headed calf, a five-legged calf. But when I saw this youngster I could not believe my eyes. His mother could not deliver him so I had to help the animal,” the 29-year-old veterinary said.
The lamb’s head had human features on – the eyes, the nose and the mouth – only the ears were those of a sheep.
Vets said that the rare mutation most likely occurred as a result of improper mutation since the fodder for the lamb’s mother was abundant with vitamin A, CNNTurk.com reports.
A goat from Zimbabwe gave birth to a similar youngster in September 2009. The mutant baby born with a human-like head stayed alive for several hours until the frightened village residents killed him.
The governor of the province where the ugly goat was born said that the little goat was the fruit of unnatural relationship between the female goat and a man.
"This incident is very shocking. It is my first time to see such an evil thing. It is really embarrassing," he reportedly said. "The head belongs to a man while the body is that of a goat. This is evident that an adult human being was responsible. Evil powers caused this person to lose self control. We often hear cases of human beings who commit bestiality but this is the first time for such an act to produce a product with human features," he added. The mutant creature was hairless. Local residents said that even dogs were afraid to approach the bizarre animal.
The locals burnt the body of the little goat, and biologists had no chance to study the rare mutation.
via Sheep gives birth to human-faced lamb | The Daily Telegraph (.au) | Pravda
What is the explanation for this? Hoax | Result of bestiality | Genetic experiment | Rare genetic mutation
1. Hoax?
Why only one photo? Why no video? Notice that the face seems to be a mask with a ridge running around it? This story seems to have come from two different "tabloid style" web sites, Pravda Online and The Daily Telegraph (not that one). Is this an early Russian April fool's day? The .au version of the Daily Telegraph says the image source for it's smaller version of the photo above is the "Daily Telegraph".
Notes on the two sources:
The new Pravda newspaper and Pravda Online are not related in any way, although the journalists of both publications are still in touch with each other. The paper Pravda tends to analyze events from a leftist point of view, while the web-based, tabloid-style newspaper often takes a nationalist and sensationalist approach.
The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales and country NSW, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation. It is named after the British upmarket daily newspaper The Daily Telegraph. - wikipedia
The Pravda site gives a source of CNNTurk.com the the link just goes to the main site, not to the source article. A search on the CNNTurk.com site for "Erhan Elibol" does not return this story. Next, I used a Turkish to English translator to figure out that the Turkish word for lamb is Kuzu and the word for sheep is Koyunlar and I did not find the story, but found other stories about sheep. Also searched for Izmir.... nothing. Then I got it! I used Google and searched for this:
"Erhan Elibol" site:cnnturk.com
Here is the link to the original article on CNNTurk.com: http://www.cnnturk.com/2010/yasam/diger/01/11/izmirde.insan.basli.oglak.dogdu/558834.0/index.html
Here is a word for word translation of the Turkish article:
(Izmir)\'in cotton thread dead while becoming to the human her vet with her face which resembles and turned which sees confused. Tire\'de five the expert at your 29 age which does duty intimidates a vet a physician Erhan Elibol and noon saatlerinde today two pregnant stubborn for birth red to the surgical operation. Dead at the births which are done with the cesarean from the goat kid which exist one her vet turned the face which resembles the human confused. Birth (sonrasinda) Elibol and the mother completed stubborn cure. The Erhan which can not believe Elibol to your eyes \ a goat child's head benziyordu to a human head. Burnu which has not completed her development made her be recalling a human face which (agzi) and eye pits make mention to smile yet. (Oglaklar) and usual are contrary single ungual \ she told. My medicine Elibol which does to your remarks \ disgusting birth (vakalarinda) the scientific name which is seen while becoming very rare \ Malformasyon \ which (bozuklugu) becomes a formation and which confronted with. Approximate one a at the literature event while mixing your books from a operation's back after is lived are not lived the event's reasons \ told. If like vaka this does not become at previous births and a several formation (bozuklugu) a vet whom the expert clarifies that you saw clear Elibol \ which I met more earlier grind at the bosoms. A formation (bozukluklari) a headed double calf and a hand and the single eyed calf whose feet have not become comprised and five footed calves and confronted with. First I am seeing time. This sananen sexual stubborn normal birth time had come, but can not do disgusting birth I gave the cesarean a decision \ diye she talked to. Elibol \ I confronted clear later. Her human turned her head and her face whose villager citizen who becomes the me and the owner recalls goat kid confused. (Kadariyla) which I learned vaka last Zimbabve\'deki Lower Gweru kentinde has been lived. You not can become to the soot whose reason I investigated your reason, at the extreme shape and (bilincsizce) A which becomes used I reached her knowledge which she became they apply the vitamin \ by saying she completed her remarks.
Wow. Seems real. More research would help. Does the village have a name? Who owned the sheep? What was done with the body? Get a tissue sample!
Here also is a link to the "goat with a human head born in central Zimbabwe".
2. Result of bestiality?
No way. Bestiality does happen, but human sperm will not fertilize sheep eggs and there could be no offspring because the number of chromosomes is different. Humans have 46 sheep have 54. Unless the chromosomes in the egg and the sperm match, they won't link together and form a living thing. Not going to happen.
3. Genetic experiment?
Possible, but unlikely. Why would a genetics lab's research end up in a village animal? Regarding mixing human and animal DNA, see this:
Stem cell experiments leading to genetic mixing of species
Sheep that have partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs are shown here at the University of Nevada, in Sparks, Nev., on April 27.
On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs.The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can’t wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into the fetus’ brain about two months ago.
“It’s mice on a large scale,” Chamberlain says with a shrug.
As strange as his work may sound, it falls firmly within the new ethics guidelines the influential National Academies issued this past week for stem cell research.
In fact, the Academies’ report endorses research that co-mingles human and animal tissue as vital to ensuring that experimental drugs and new tissue replacement therapies are safe for people.
Doctors have transplanted pig valves into human hearts for years, and scientists have injected human cells into lab animals for even longer.
Biological mixing of species
But the biological co-mingling of animal and human is now evolving into even more exotic and unsettling mixes of species, evoking the Greek myth of the monstrous chimera, which was part lion, part goat and part serpent.In the past two years, scientists have created pigs with human blood, fused rabbit eggs with human DNA and injected human stem cells to make paralyzed mice walk.
Particularly worrisome to some scientists are the nightmare scenarios that could arise from the mixing of brain cells: What if a human mind somehow got trapped inside a sheep’s head?
The “idea that human neuronal cells might participate in 'higher order' brain functions in a nonhuman animal, however unlikely that may be, raises concerns that need to be considered,” the academies report warned.
Mice with human brains
In January, an informal ethics committee at Stanford University endorsed a proposal to create mice with brains nearly completely made of human brain cells. Stem cell scientist Irving Weissman said his experiment could provide unparalleled insight into how the human brain develops and how degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson’s progress.Stanford law professor Hank Greely, who chaired the ethics committee, said the board was satisfied that the size and shape of the mouse brain would prevent the human cells from creating any traits of humanity. Just in case, Greely said, the committee recommended closely monitoring the mice’s behavior and immediately killing any that display human-like behavior. - msnbc
What the!? Are you kidding me? They kill them if they seem human?!? Mice with almost completely human brain cell is disturbing. How would any researcher know if a little human consciousness gets formed when you do that? Size doesn't always matter when it comes to brain power.
Getting back to the first story... here is the possibility mentioned in the article.
4. Rare genetic mutation?
I do not think there could possibly be only one or two mutations difference between a human face and a sheep face ... more like hundreds, which would pretty much rule this option out, but ...
More data is needed, someone please get a tissue sample from the head of this poor dead human-faced lamb for DNA tests, quick!! If real, this is highly valuable! The genetics behind this mutation, in combination with stem cells, could someday be used to help people grow new face parts to repair damage from accidents, and more! Science is still decades away from understanding how genetics form various features of human faces. By the way, did you know that DNA samples from crime scenes may someday be used to determine the facial features of the criminal?!
If things pan out... genetic information from a crime scene may provide information about the perpetrator's face that could be used to prop up other evidence in court or provide useful hints during investigations. Because there are so many different human populations around the world and a huge amount of variation in facial features, he cautioned, it may take decades to describe and understand all normal human facial variation. Still, Shriver is confident that researchers can collect enough information to be useful for forensics in the US in the next few years. - genomeweb
If this is lamb with a human face is the real deal and a rare mutation can turn a sheep face into a human face, how many evolution deniers will have trouble sleeping tonight? Answer: none. That's the beauty of denial, you can deny any evidence you like, even when it is staring you in the face.
4 comments:
that looks fake to me, like someone worked some photoshop magic.
All it would really take to make a lamb face resemble a human face is flatten it. And there's a good chance that's what happened: the bone for the long snout just didn't grow on the stillborn.
Faces are faces, and we go soft eyed at kittens for a reason: we relate to them already. If this was a genuine 'human' face, it would more closely resemble a human infant, not a thick lipped, Jay Leno sized chin, oval headed human adult, which is what that lamb face's dimensions resemble.
Really it is possible because i have seen an incident much similar to this. This was where a person impregnated a calf, making the offspring look similar to a human/calf.
Good post....
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