{"id":1136,"date":"2016-07-14T16:49:21","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T16:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/?p=1136"},"modified":"2021-11-29T19:04:46","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T19:04:46","slug":"12-facts-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/12-facts-twins\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Amazing Facts You May Not Have Known About Twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout history people have\u00a0been fascinated with twins. Everything from the\u00a0way they look to the unusual connection many twins have has been the subject of folklore as well as scientific study. Even though an extensive amount of research has been conducted on both fraternal and identical twins, there are still many unknown aspects about pairs of babies that develop together in the womb.\u00a0The following information discusses 12 amazing facts<\/a> about twins.<\/p>\n

1. Identical Twins Have Different Fingerprints<\/h2>\n
\"Identical

courtesy of: www.sfweekly.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Many people may believe that since identical twins share similar DNA that they also have nearly identical fingerprints. DNA, however, is not the sole factor regarding the individual design of each set of fingerprints. During conception, identical twins actually start out with the exact same fingerprints, but sometime between weeks 6 and 13 these specific traits begin to develop individually. When each of the babies begins to move, they start touching things around them, including the amniotic sac. This is what causes unique lines and ridges to be formed on each of the twin’s fingers. Other factors that may also contribute to differing fingerprints include\u00a0hormones and the position of each baby in the womb.\u00a0The result is a unique set of fingerprints.<\/p>\n

2. Twins Can Actually Be Conceived by Different Fathers<\/h2>\n
\"Twins

courtesy of: www.lipstickalley.com<\/p><\/div>\n

If a woman has sex with more than one man when she is ovulating what is called\u00a0Heteropaternal\u00a0superfecundation\u00a0may occur. The sperm from two different men can fertilize separate eggs, which result in twins. Sperm can remain alive and active in a woman’s reproductive tract for several days after sex has taken place. Even though it’s possible, this phenomenon rarely occurs in humans. It is, however, quite common in cats and dogs.<\/p>\n

3. Twins Can Also Be Different Races<\/h2>\n
\"Twins

courtesy of: lamula.pe<\/p><\/div>\n

If the parents of the twins are of mixed race, then their eggs or sperm contain genetic material for both races. If the parent is half white and half black the twins can sometimes be born with different skin colors. This is extremely rare, however, and is considered a one in a million combination of the parents’\u00a0genes. It should be interesting to note, however, that as the rise of mixed race couples continues to grow, as well as fertility treatments that raise\u00a0the odds of having twins,\u00a0we may see an increase in the number of twins that are of different races.<\/p>\n

4. Mirror Image Twins are Twins that are the Exact Reflections of One Another<\/h2>\n
\"Mirror

courtesy of: www.mandatory.com<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s estimated that approximately 25 percent of identical twins will develop in the womb while directly facing each other. These types of twins are called\u00a0monozygotic. This often occurs when the fertilized egg splits later than when it usually does for identical twins.\u00a0This means they will become exact reflections. If one has a birthmark on the right cheek, the other will have the same birthmark on their left cheek. If one is left-handed, the other will be right-handed.<\/p>\n

5. Can Identical Twins be Both Cousins and Siblings? – Yes!<\/h2>\n
\"Can

courtesy of: sprinklesandcupcake.wordpress.com<\/p><\/div>\n

If male identical twins marry and have children with females that are also identical twins, their kids will be both cousins and full siblings.\u00a0This may sound confusing, but the fact is that children born from their pairings will be legal cousins and genetic full siblings. Two children are considered genetic siblings if the new chromosomes that each child receives come from the same genetic pool.<\/p>\n

6. It’s Nearly Twice as Common for Twins to be Left-Handed than Single Individuals<\/h2>\n
\"

courtesy of: prikol.is<\/p><\/div>\n

Why most people become either right or left-handed is still pretty much up for debate among scientists.\u00a0There are some interesting statistics among twins, however, that shed some light on this subject. Left-handedness occurs in only about 10 percent of the overall population. Amazingly, being left-handed occurs at a much higher rate in twins. This may be due, at least in part, to the fact that about 25 percent of all twins\u00a0are mirror twins and that\u00a0mirror image twins are exact reflections of one another as discussed previously. This means that for every set of mirror image twins one of them will be left-handed.<\/p>\n

Read interesting facts about Left-Handed people<\/a> here.<\/p>\n

7. \u00a0It’s Possible for Twins to Be Born Months Apart<\/h2>\n
\"It's

courtesy of: www.patrasevents.gr<\/p><\/div>\n

A woman from Romania gave birth to a daughter in November, 2014. Incredibly, the baby’s twin wasn’t born until 7 weeks later in January of the next year.\u00a0Complications can occur, such as the mother’s water breaking prematurely to cause twins to be born not only on different days, but even a different year.\u00a0When this happens twins can be born weeks, and even months apart. The record for the length of time between the births of each twin is believed to be 87 days. That is nearly 3 months.<\/p>\n

8. Twins That Are Conjoined Can Sometimes Taste and Feel What the Other Twin Does<\/h2>\n
\"Twins

courtesy of: blog.livedoor.jp<\/p><\/div>\n

The New York Times published an article by Susan\u00a0Dominus\u00a0about two conjoined twins that were attached at the head. Twins Krista and Tatiana Hogan were connected through what is called a thalamic bridge. This was part of the brain<\/a> that acts as a ‘neural switchboard’ that is a filter for a\u00a0variety of sensory input. Researchers believe that this sort of connection in the brain enabled one of the twin girls to feel and taste what the other twin was experiencing. After spending quite a bit of time with the twins for her story,\u00a0Dominus\u00a0recorded some fascinating observations. Tatiana does not like ketchup, but Krista does. Tatiana tried to wipe ketchup off her tongue, even when she was not actually eating it herself.<\/p>\n

9. Special Languages are\u00a0Developed Among Approximately 40 Percent of Twins<\/h2>\n
\"Special

courtesy of: youtube.com<\/p><\/div>\n

This interesting phenomenon, called autonomous languages, sometimes develops between twins when there is the absence of an adult modeling language skills. This language between twins consists of onomatopoeic\u00a0expressions and inverted words. These unique languages\u00a0are developed when the two babies that are extremely close learn to speak their language alongside each other. This occurs naturally since they often communicate and play with each other on a regular basis. While autonomous languages occur more frequently with twins it can sometimes happen between two other babies who aren’t twins. The made up communication system will often vanish once these children have learned a language that is real.<\/p>\n

10. Several Celebrities Have Less Famous Twins<\/h2>\n
\"Several

courtesy of: www.sheknows.com<\/p><\/div>\n

While you may never have heard of Hunter Johansson, it’s very likely you’ve heard\u00a0of her famous twin, Scarlett. Other less-famous twins include Michael\u00a0Kutcher, brother to Ashton, and Patricia\u00a0Bundchen, the twin sister of model\u00a0Gisele. Several other well-known celebrities have twins as well.\u00a0Alanis\u00a0Morissette\u00a0has a twin brother, Wade while\u00a0Napoleon Dynamite star, Jon\u00a0Heder, has an identical twin, Daniel.\u00a0Keifer\u00a0Sutherland’s sister, Rachel, is also his twin.<\/p>\n

11. It’s Possible for Identical Twins NOT to Have the Same Genetics<\/h2>\n
\"It's

courtesy of: www.redflagnews.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Identical twins result from a fertilized egg that has one set of instructions regarding genetics. This is also called a genome. However, it is still possible for identical twins to have genetics that have major differences. Carl\u00a0Bruder, a geneticist at the University of\u00a0Alabamam\u00a0researched the genomes of 19 sets of identical twins. In these adult twins he discovered that with some of them one twin’s DNA had a different number of copies of each of the genes it had. Every individual usually carries two copies of each gene, which is one being\u00a0inherited from each parent.\u00a0Bruder\u00a0discovered that sections in the twins’ genome had deviated from having the usual two copies.<\/p>\n

12. A ‘Twin Gene’ Actually Does Exist<\/h2>\n
\"A

courtesy of: www.sheknows.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Sometimes twins just seem to run in the family. When multiple sets of multiples occur\u00a0there is probably science to blame behind all the hyper-ovulation. A woman may inherit a gene that causes her to release multiple eggs when she is ovulating. Since this involves a gene that can be inherited, parents can pass it on through the family tree, causing twins to become prevalent in certain families. While releasing multiple eggs can be genetic, which results in fraternal twins, there isn’t any genes currently known that are associated with identical twins. Identical twins are not caused by more than one egg being fertilized, but happens\u00a0when one fertilized\u00a0egg splits in half.<\/p>\n

If you’ve enjoyed reading this content follow 12facts.com\u00a0on facebook<\/a> for more…<\/p>\n

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Throughout history people have\u00a0been fascinated with twins. Everything from the\u00a0way they look to the unusual connection many twins have has been the subject of folklore as well as scientific study. Even though an extensive amount of research has been conducted on both fraternal and identical twins, there are still many unknown aspects about pairs of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[106,191,190,189],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40347,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions\/40347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}