Posted on 04/24/2002 2:45:08 AM PDT by 2Trievers
HOPKINTON - Looks can be deceiving. It's as simple as that. To the untrained observer, two toads enjoying a romantic moment together could easily be mistaken for an exotic, two-headed mutant.<!ENDSUMM!>
They were so committed to the task at hand that nothing could separate them.
Not even the chlorine of an Alprilla Farm Road swimming pool. Nor the shrieks and cries of 4-year-old Casey Dicken, who discovered the seemingly mutated organism Sunday in her grandparents swimming pool. And certainly not the probing inquiries of a curious bunch that had never witnessed such a spectacle.
But in the end, it was nature, not science-fiction, that explained the apparent phenomenon.
It was just a couple of horny toads.
"That's a nice pair of American Toads mating," said Peter Mirick, a Westborough-based field biologist for Mass Wildlife. "All frogs and toads are amplexus, which means the male locks onto the back of the female during mating."
After looking at a picture of the toads, Mirick said it is not a two-headed toad.
"It's just very obvious. That's what they always look like (when mating)," he said. "The male has his front legs wrapped around the female and he's grasping her front legs. He's holding on for dear life.
"The toads lock on pretty tight. The male's not going to let go until the eggs are laid. A person could pull him off, but another toad couldn't. Even with people handling them and moving them around, he wouldn't let go."
So the mutation debated in this case is settled, but two-headed creatures can exist.
It's a somewhat common phenomenon in turtles and snakes, Mirick said. The birth defect is less common in frogs and toads because they're eliminated as tadpoles and never reach adulthood.
"It's usually caused because an egg starts to split and then fails to," Mirick said. "Something goes wrong in the creation of twins and never should have started in the first place."
Amphibians are more susceptible than vertebrates to abnormalities due to mutagenic chemicals because they have such porous skin, Mirick said.
"If their habitat gets polluted, they tend to absorb the pollutants quite readily," he said.
A study released Tuesday found male frogs exposed to even low doses of the the herbicide atrazine can develop both male and female sex organs.
The University of California at Berkeley study said atrazine is the most commonly used weed killer in North America and can be found in rainwater, snow runoff and groundwater.
The lead scientist in the study, Tyrone B. Hayes, said he didn't know if exposure to low levels of atrazine represents a threat to humans.
(Associated Press material was used in this report.)
Yes, Monica Lewinski and Bill clinton mating would appear to be a two-headed mutant monster........all socialists are mutants anyway.
(A two-headed tadpole created in a University of Washington lab.)
Tommy Dashole???
: )
That pic does look like Bill and Monica ... Warts and all ...
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