Amphisbaena

Sir Thomas Browne once wrote “The Amphisbaena is a serpant having two heads, one in its proper place and the other in its tail; and it can bite with both, and run with agility, and its eyes glare like candles.” Pliny the Elder used to declare that this serpant’s skin was a remedy for chills, and if a pregnant woman stepped over the creature, she was sure to miscarry.
However, the Amphisbaena was possibly based on a harmless real lizard who lives in tropical areas. This small worm-like lizard is basically blind but has useless eyes on either side of it’s body, to make predators think that it is constantly vigilant. The similarities between the mythical creature and the lizard were similar enough for scientists to dub it “Amphisbaenia.”