Crocs united.

The Samut Prakarn crocodile farm near Bangkok, Thailand, sent out some baby announcement last June: Twin crocodiles hatched, 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in length, 70 grams (2.5 ounces) in weight, with two heads, eight legs, two tails ... and one lower body. "We were very surprised," says the managing director of the farm. "We've been open for 52 years, and bred hundreds of thousands of crocodiles in captivity. We've never seen conjoined [physically connected] crocodile babies."

The crocodiles are a native freshwater endangered (near extinction) species called Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis). "We tried to keep them alive," the director says. Sadly, the twins survived for only one week. "We don't know what happened. They died before we could figure out how to help them."

In the first week after hatching, the infant reptile is weak. It feeds by absorbing nutrients from the egg's yolk sac through its belly. Thai farm-raised baby crocs are chopstick-fed bite-size pieces of prawn or fish. However, the twins didn't make it to the "strength-building stage-two diet." They're now preserved in a jar for exhibition and further study.