A mountain lion killed earlier this month after attacking a dog near Preston, Idaho has sparked a bit of a biological mystery. Local Fish and Game officials examined the corpse of the creature and found that it had a second set of fully-formed teeth and whiskers on top of its head.
Idaho Fish and Game
According to the Associated Press and KTLA News in Los Angeles, the mountain lion had been legally killed by an unidentified hunter near the Utah border after it attacked his dog a week ago. When conversation officials inspected the animal’s carcass, they discovered the anomaly.
Photos of the deformity were sent to Zach Lockyer, a regional wildlife biologist at the Idaho Fish and Fish and Game’s Southeast Regional Office in Pocatello. He explained to reporters that there were teeth protruding from hard tissue on the left side of the creature’s forehead.
Lockyer said that that the hunter who shot and killed the mountain lion said that he plans to take the carcass to a taxidermist, according to the Idaho State Journal, but he and his fellow biologists have asked him to bring it in for X-rays and further analysis of its “bizarre” cranium.
So what might have caused this deformity?
Biologists have three theories as to what might have caused the mountain lion to grow teeth and whiskers on top of its forehead. The first suggests that the growth may actually be the remains of a conjoined twin that died in the womb and was absorbed into the other fetus.
Alternatively, Lockyer’s team and veterinarians told the AP and other media outlets that it could be a teratoma, or rare type of tumor known to contain hair, teeth, and bones. Both conjoined twins and teratomas are rare in nature, but the latter has been documented in canines and horses.
A third, less-likely theory submitted to the Idaho State Journal by Lockyer is that the mountain lion might have suffered an injury to its jaw, and its teeth healed in an unusual way, causing the abnormality to appear. However, the newspaper noted that the photos of the animal’s body show no evidence of any such injuries, and reveal that the teeth in its mouth appear to be healthy.
If Fish and Game officials can convince the hunter to bring the body in for further study, experts may be able to determine exactly what caused this bizarre feature. If not, Lockyer said, “we may never know why those teeth are there.”
—–
Feature Image: Thinkstock
Comments