‘Weird baby’ snake hatches in Mississippi

Python has two eyes in one socket

A Mississippi python breeder got a bit of a shocker when an egg hatched recently

“It was not what I was expecting at all,” Tyree Jimerson, of Biloxi said. “(It) was just a weird baby that popped up.”

Jimerson, who breeds reticulated pythons, said he and his wife were helping a batch of eggs hatch on March 3 when they found one that didn’t look quite right. Jimerson told Newsweek that the snake inside had the umbilical cord around its neck. When Jimerson pulled it out of the shell, he saw that the snake had two eyes in the same socket.

​Tyree Jimerson

The snake was alive, but weak, and did not have a functional snout, Jimerson said. Fearing that the snake would not survive, he euthanized it.

The python could have had cyclopia, a birth defect that in this case caused two eyes to form in one socket, Newsweek reported.

Jimerson preserved the snake and might sell it.