Twins have fascinated people for thousands of years, from the Gemini twins of Greek myth to the scientists who study them to understand what makes us who we are. About 1 in every 65 births in the UK is a set of twins. Here are 15 fascinating facts about twins.
1There are two main types of twins.
Identical, or monozygotic, twins come from a single fertilised egg that splits in two, so they share almost all their DNA. Non-identical, or fraternal, twins come from two separate eggs fertilised at the same time and are no more alike genetically than ordinary brothers and sisters.
2Only non-identical twins run in families.
A tendency to release more than one egg at a time can be inherited through the mother’s side of the family. Identical twins, on the other hand, seem to happen by chance.
3Twins are becoming more common.
Twin births have risen in many countries since the 1980s, mainly because more women are having children later in life, when non-identical twins are more likely, and because of fertility treatments such as IVF.
4Some places have far more twins than others.
Twin rates are highest in Central Africa. The town of Igbo-Ora in Nigeria is known as the “twin capital of the world” because of its unusually large number of twin births.
5Identical twins have different fingerprints.
Fingerprints are shaped by tiny differences in the womb, such as the baby’s position and the flow of fluid around the fingers, so even identical twins have their own unique prints.
6Twins touch each other in the womb.
A study at the University of Padua in Italy, using ultrasound scans, found that twins begin reaching towards each other from about 14 weeks into pregnancy.
7Some twins are mirror images.
In around a quarter of identical twins, one twin is a mirror image of the other. One may be right-handed and the other left-handed, or their hair may whorl in opposite directions.
8Twins can be born years apart.
With IVF, embryos created at the same time can be frozen and implanted years later, so “twins” from the same batch of embryos have been born several years apart.
9Twins can have different fathers.
Very rarely, if a woman releases two eggs and they are fertilised by different men within a short time, non-identical twins can have different fathers. This is called heteropaternal superfecundation.
10Twins can have different skin colours.
Non-identical twins with parents of different ethnic backgrounds can be born with very different skin tones. British twins Marcia and Millie Biggs, born in Birmingham in 2005, became famous for this.
11Some twins invent their own language.
Young twins sometimes develop private words and ways of talking that only they understand. Scientists call this cryptophasia, from the Greek for “secret speech”, and it usually fades as the children grow up.
12Shakespeare was the father of twins.
William Shakespeare’s twins, Hamnet and Judith, were baptised in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1585. Hamnet died aged 11, and some scholars believe his death influenced the play Hamlet.
13NASA studied twins in space.
Astronaut Scott Kelly spent almost a year on the International Space Station while his identical twin brother, Mark, stayed on Earth. NASA’s Twins Study, published in 2019, found most of the changes in Scott’s body returned to normal after he came home.
14The oldest identical twins lived to 107.
In 2021, Guinness World Records recognised Umeno Sumiyama and Koume Kodama from Japan, born in 1913, as the oldest identical twins ever recorded, at 107 years and 300 days.
15The Gemini twins are in the sky.
The constellation Gemini represents Castor and Pollux, twin brothers in Greek myth. Its two brightest stars are named after them.
FAQs about twins
How common are twins in the UK?
About 1 in 65 births in the UK is a multiple birth, almost all of them twins.
Do twins skip a generation?
No. This is a popular myth. The tendency to have non-identical twins is inherited through mothers, but it does not skip a generation.
Can identical twins be a boy and a girl?
Almost never. Identical twins come from one egg, so they are nearly always the same sex. A boy and girl are non-identical twins.
Sources and further reading
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