8 Curious Facts About Twins – Parenthood
They are the fruit of a zygote (an egg cell) which divides very early on to form two babies sharing the same DNA. There are a lot of myths and curious facts about twins. In the rest of this article, discover some curious facts about twins that you may not have known.
It is important to point out that identical twins and fraternal twins, as the name suggests, are not the same thing “Identical” twins share the same genetic inheritance because both are born from the same fertilized and divided egg. in two after conception. Whereas fraternal twins are born from two or more different eggs fertilized during the same hormonal cycle.
Curious facts about twins
Over the past decade, cases of twins and triplets have increased dramatically mainly due to medically assisted fertilization and other drug treatments to facilitate conception. In these processes, it is rare to have identical twins as it is not something that can be easily produced but there are often cases of multiple pregnancies. There are a lot of interesting facts and curious facts about twins, we present a few of them below:
1. Their fingerprints are different
When we see two completely identical children, we may think that they have the same fingerprints but they are not. When babies are formed, according to the North American Huffington Post, the two fetuses touch a different place in the amniotic sac, causing different lines to form on the fingers and therefore different fingerprints.
Also, one of the curious facts about twins is the fact that 22% of identical twins are left-handed compared to just 10% of the total population.
2. They are not as identical as they seem
According to statistics, the twins are literally a “mirror image of each other”. 25% of children develop how if they had a mirror in front of them, that is to say that if one is left-handed, the other will be right-handed. If, for example, one of the children has a birthmark on the right arm, the other will have the same birthmark but on the left arm. Of course, identical twins share brain patterns and thought processes.
3. Twins have no power of telepathy
A lot of people think that twins have this kind of telepathic superpower or that they have a different ability to communicate with their sibling but that is absolutely not the case. According to Discovery, this is just a myth that has spread over the years.
Twins have never been scientifically proven to be thought-related. As the twins grow up together, it is perfectly normal that they know each other perfectly, so this belief has spread vigorously.
4. The case of the “Jim twins”
These identical Minnesota twins were separated 4 weeks after birth. The two were adopted by a different family and they met at the age of 39. Their story was published in Nancy Segal’s book Entwined Lives (audios The linked lives ).
Although they grew up without any interaction, they are both the same weight and height. As for their tastes, both had the same favorite beach in Florida, were good at math, and shared a passion for carpentry and mechanical drafting.
5. Twins make contact in the womb
According to research conducted by the University of Padua in Italy, twins seek contact with each other when they are in the womb and touch their twin more than themselves. Among the cases studied, this occurs from the 14th week. According to statistics, united twins represent 1 in 200,000 pregnancies.
6. They have their own language
This happens when children grow up together, they say they have the ability to communicate through thought. In fact, this sibling language is a phenomenon that can also occur when children are not twins. This mainly happens in children who live together at a very young age.
There are a lot of curious facts about twins that you probably didn’t know. This phenomenon of clean language occurs when children learn to speak, so they help each other during this process. This phenomenon is reinforced because they are very close and even end up inventing their own words, which is often considered a clean and exclusive language.
7. They do not fully share all of their genetic makeup
Although they may appear to be totally identical, the reality is a bit more complex. They share a large part of their genetic heritage but not all of it as is often mistakenly thought. According to a survey carried out by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, certain sequences of their DNA can differ by the number of genes that compose it. To be considered completely identical, they would have to share 100% of the genes and not be born simultaneously according to Discovery.
8. It is not a hereditary fact
This is another of the many myths regarding identical twins. There is still no scientific proof that this is hereditary.
What is genetic is the ability or not to have fraternal twins. If in a family he has cases of twins, it is very likely that others will be born. This is due to superfertilization. This makes a woman able to release more than one egg in the same cycle.
Other curious facts about twins
- Women with twins live longer
- 25% of twins have the “mirror” appearance
- We start to differentiate them over the years
- There are cases of identical triplets
- Eating more dairy products increases the chances of having identical twins
There are many myths and curious facts about twins that do not correspond to the reality of identical twins. Although some of them could be verified, much information continues to be a mystery. What can be emphasized on this subject is that identical twins are linked by a very strong bond which helps them for learning.
