This kitten was born with two faces

It's like a tiny, furry magic trick. See how this little one rocks it!

By Smartasaurus· 1 min read Wild

Mechanism call

Take a position: what's actually doing the work here?

One of these is closer than the rest. Commit before you find out.

The short version

It's like a tiny, furry magic trick. See how this little one rocks it!
But a cat called Frank and Louie lived to be fifteen.
Our faces, in other words, are held together by a chemical gradient so delicate that a small chemical hiccup can produce a creature that looks like…

In 2012, a kitten was born in Oregon with two faces, four eyes, two noses, and one brain.

The condition is called diprosopus — Greek for "two-faced". It's not the same as conjoined twins. The body is single. The skull is single. But somewhere early in development, a signalling protein called Sonic Hedgehog — yes, that's its real name — is released in the wrong amount, and the face duplicates while the rest of the embryo continues normally.

It happens across mammals: cats, calves, pigs, sheep, the occasional human infant. The animal usually lives only hours. The two mouths often share a single throat that can't coordinate swallowing, and the brain stem misfires when both faces try to breathe at the same time.

Certify this discovery

Two questions. Prove you actually read it.

Get both right and this discovery is certified: +50 XP toward your next rank. No account needed.

Sources (2) — tap to view