猫头鹰人

You must be wondering, can anyone spin their head like that?

But in nature, an owl can rotate its head 270 degrees

A Normal human head can only rotate 90° to 120°

In the history of American circuses, however, there was a freak who could turn his head 180°. Let's look at his story

We've told stories of circus weirdos before, mostly with physical disabilities

Martin Laurello looks like a normal person, he's not a natural "owl"

Martin was born in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1885 with a slightly twisted spine

But it did not affect the normal life

In 1921

To seek a better life

Martin came to America with other performers with psychic powers

It took him three years to keep his head from rotating 120 degrees

Martin made his debut at Coney Island's Circus of Dreams

He managed to turn his head backwards

Everyone in the audience was dumbfounded

So he became famous

Everyone remembered the existence of the human owl

Then Martin got more and more acting opportunities

On the stage

He also showed a different kind of surprise

For example, he can wink at the audience after turning his head backwards completely

He could even drink beer

Martin tried smoking, too, but could never do it

He soon became a star performer in the circus

The banner read, "The only man with a revolving head."

Martin dislocated his spine trying to push the envelope

He had frequent pain in his neck and scapula

But it was a hangover he had to live with

Believe It or Not!

At the Chicago World's Fair in 1933

Martin appeared in Believe It or Not! In this vaudeville act

The show's creator is Robert Ripley

He likes to show off his strange collection of people from all over the world including weirdos

Robert billed Martin as "the only man in the world who can walk and look straight behind him."

Martin had a lot of visitors

Tickets were in short supply

It is said that many viewers fainted directly after watching the show

And then there was a lot of bad news about Martin

His wife Emily gave birth to two sons in 1931, but he abandoned them

On April 30, Emily called police and Martin was being hunted for allegedly abandoning his spouse and children

He was performing a head spin when he was arrested

Another stain on him was his Nazi sympathies

Martin died of a heart attack in 1955

Because of the lack of X-ray technology

Martin's anatomy will always be a mystery

Modern "Human Owl"

Since Martin wasn't born a human owl,

That means someone else can do it, too

In fact, Martin himself said that with enough training anyone could be like him

But he wasn't lying

In 2017, Muhammad Sameer, a 14-year-old from Karachi, Pakistan, also rotated his head 180° backwards

When he was about six or seven years old, he was very envious that people in movies could act like owls

He dreams of being in a Hollywood horror movie, so he starts practicing, even if his mom doesn't approve

His father had to quit his job because of a heart attack

Soon Mohammed dropped out of school and joined a dance company, earning $150 a month

The director of the dance company said he thought Muhammad had great potential when he first met him

Mohammed hopes to improve his skills and find better job opportunities

Real owls

After reading the above two cases, it can be confirmed that our head can rotate more than 180°, but don't try it

Why do owls have such flexible heads? Don't they have necks?

Their necks are very special, with humans having seven joints in their cervical vertebrae and owls having 14

Humans have two occipital condyles at the junction of the skull and cervical vertebrae, whereas owls have only one

So they turn more

The owl also has a cache blood bank to supply blood to the brain

But owls can't move their eyes very well, so they need to move their heads to expand their field of vision

Now we know that those human owls have no special function. A lot of deformed people perform for a living, which is cruel

Well, that's the end of this video

Do you have any special powers?

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