In 2009, a snake with a single, clawed foot was discovered by a woman in Southwest China.

Dean Qiongxiu found the snake hanging on her window. She was so freaked out by the creature that she beat it to death with her own shoe, but then wisely preserved it in a jar of alcohol.

Many theories have gone around concerning the snake, but some believe that the snake is the result of atavism, a phenomena in which a genetic trait that existed in the creature’s ancestors shows itself in the new species.

Some snakes have the remains of hips, and vestigial remnants of limbs, around their cloaca. Additionally, all snake ɢᴇɴᴏᴍᴇs contain the DNA needed to produce a limb, so the ᴍᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ could occur with a little tweak of some Hox genes–those that dictate the body’s structural plan.

Pollution has been shown to cause Hox gene ᴍᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴs in frogs and considering the level of pollution in China, it’s not a giant intellectual leap to imagine the same thing happening to a snake.

Currently, scientists at West Normal University in Nanchang, China, are performing an autopsy to determine whether or not this represents a novel ᴍᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ, or if this strange chimera is simply a fabrication.