A baby with mermaid-like features was born in India on Wednesday but tragically died just four hours later, reports said.
The mermaid syndrome or Sirenomelia is thought to affect one in every 60,000 to 100,000 births and this was India's second.
Muskura Bibi, 23, gave birth to the baby whose sex was unclear due to its fused legs and underdeveloped pelvis at the government-run Chittaranjan Deva Sadan Hospital in Kolkata, Daily Mail reported.
As she couldn't afford any scans during her pregnancy, she learnt about the condition of the baby only after giving birth.
Dr Sudip Saha, a child specialist at the hospital said: "The parents are a labouring couple and had not sought proper medication during pregnancy due to lack of money."
Lack of proper nutrition and improper blood circulation from a mother to the baby can create this kind of abnormality.
The doctor further revealed: "I had never seen such a baby before. It is the first case of Sirenomelia in the state and second in the country."
Previously, in 2016, a woman from Uttar Pradesh, gave birth to the first known 'mermaid baby' of the country, which survived only for 10 minutes.
Dr Sudip added: "The baby had a normal formation in upper part of the body but below the waist, its legs were fused together. The lower part was not developed completely."
She was known as the oldest known surviving sufferer of the condition, at the age of 27, until she passed away in February 2016. Another known survivor of the disorder is a Peruvian girl, Milagros Cerron nicknamed as the Little Mermaid.
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