As if Australia didn’t have enough unique creatures, park rangers in the country recently stumbled upon a three-eyed snake.
The Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife wrote in a Facebook post that the 40-centimetre snake was found outside the small town Humpty Doo, in the northern tip of central Australia. The agency said the snake was a “peculiar” specimen because x-rays revealed it had three eye sockets on one skull, rather than two skulls.
The wildlife group added the third eye likely developed in the embryonic stage.
“It is extremely unlikely that this is from environmental factors and is almost certainly a natural occurrence as malformed reptiles are relatively common,” they wrote in the post.
The snake, nicknamed “Monty Python” died a few weeks after it was found back in March, the agency told local media.
While snakes with three eyes are fairly rare, many reptiles, including iguanas and komodo dragons, have a type of third eye called the “pineal eye.” The pineal eye is typically covered with a thick scale and can only determine light and dark, but can help the lizards determine the seasons and helps to regulate body temperature.
