Two-headed Piglet Found Buried in PA Backyard [PHOTO]

A little digging in a Pennsylvania backyard unearthed a big surprise: a glass jar containing the preserved body of a two-headed piglet.

The piglet's face appears to have split in half, with its two snouts being the most striking feature. It has two eyes and two ears like a normal piglet would.

Sharon Reagle made the discovery when she was in her mother's backyard planting shrubs in Saegertown, Pa.

"My parents lived there for 56 years and never raised pigs," Reagle told the Meadville Tribune, adding that she didn't know how a dead, two-headed pig wound up buried there. She said the find was "pretty neat" and that her neighbors were impressed too.

More excited was biologist Lisa Whitenack at Allegheny College, who reportedly received the specimen when Reagle donated it to the college.  

"This is like Christmas for a biologist. The students will love it," the assistant professor of biology said.

Whitenack plans to eventually dissect the piglet.

"Even if it's completely liquefied inside, we can strip off the skin and everything and display the skeleton."

Determining the age of the piglet through carbon dating would be too costly, but Whitenack said finding out the date of the jar would give an idea of how old the two-headed animal was when it died.

"The pig can't be older than the jar," Whitenack said. "And from the look of it, this wasn't preserved in a lab."

Being born with two heads is a condition called axial bifurcation, or polycephaly. It has been reported in a variety of animals. Recently a two-headed shark made headlines.

In April a two-headed pig was saved from a slaughterhouse in China. 

Check out a photo of the two-headed piglet here.