Daily Mail A pair of conjoined gray whales has been found off the shore of Mexico, in what could be the first documented case of Siamese twin grey whales. Scientists in Mexico’s Laguna Ojo de Liebre, or Scammon’s Lagoon, discovered the dead calves, believed to have been miscarried as a result of their disability. Conjoined twins have occurred in other species, notably fin, sei and minke whales, however, research has not found any published cases of conjoined gray whale twins.The carcass is only about seven feet long, versus the normal 12 to 16 feet for new-born gray whales. Alisa Schulman-Janiger, an American Cetacean Society researcher, pointed out that the twins were severely underdeveloped and wondered whether the birth or stillbirth might also have killed the mother. The twins’ carcass has been collected for study. Images were posted by the Guerrero Negro Verde Facebook page, with the translated statement: ‘Unfortunately, the specimen died. [Its] survival was very difficult.’Gray whales are arriving in the lagoons along the Baja California peninsula, after a nearly 6,000-mile journey from Arctic home waters. They give birth during the southbound journey, or in the lagoons, and nurse their calves for several weeks before embarking on their northbound journey back to the Bering and Chukchi seas. According to NOAA, the Pacific gray whale population numbers about 21,000. Most calves are born during the last week of December and the first two weeks of January.
This might explain some of the stories of sea monsters passed down throughout history, I mean if a set of seven foot long conjoined grey whale twins washed up on a beach in the 1600’s, what the hell would the locals think? They would probably tell the story for years of the two-headed sea beast, think that there are more two-headed sea beasts out there, and assume that they should be feared. I’m pretty sure they the last thing that would cross their minds would be that a mother whale miscarried a set of conjoined twins, which ended up on their front lawn. There are a lot of strange things in the ocean, and sometimes the explanation is something a lot more simple than a kraken or relict plesiosaur, sometimes science can explain these monsters.
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