Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen?

[Catherine Vincent]

AMAZING TWINS

Aren't the cute, they do look alike just different colors. A mixed-race British mom gave birth to twins recently - one of each. No, not a boy and a girl. Two girls - one black, the other white. The odds of such a birth are about a million to one, experts said. "It was a shock when I realized that my twins were two different colors," Kylie Hodgson, 19, told London's Daily Mail. "But it doesn't matter to us - they are just our two gorgeous little girls." Hodgson and her partner, Remi Horder, 17, were both born to mixed-race parents.

Little Kian and Remee share a love of apples and the Teletubbies, their proud mom says. Fertility experts speculate that a sperm containing all-white genes fused with an egg with all-white genes, and a sperm with all-black genes fused with an all-black gene egg to produce the fraternal twins.

[CottonBear]

1. Genetics are amazing! What a beautiful family they are.

The sisters actually look a lot alike: they have the same eyes, nose and mouth and general face shape. They are so cute!

[Arkansas Granny]

89. That was my first thought. Except for their complexions they

really look a lot alike. They are beautiful babies! What an amazing story.

[Just Me]

98. I showed this to my 15-yr-old son and he said,...

,...they look exactly alike except for the coloring. He smiled so big and said, "cool".

This particular event is just so,...sweet and soothing,...as a human experience because it shows our common bond as human beings. We are the same and should embrace our common existence.

[MsKandice01]

2. That is one gorgeous family..

Parents and kids.

[Fridays Child]

3. Link?

:)

[Catherine Vincent]

13. I don't have a link.

But I was suspicious like you are. I checked Snopes to see if they had anything on it but didn't see anything. I received it in an email with three pictures attached.

[FreedomAngel82]

91. I showed my dad and he said he saw it on the news this morning

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

16. From Snopes

http://www.snopes.com/photos/people/mixedtwins.asp

[Catherine Vincent]

21. Oh thanks!

When I searched, I typed in "amazing twins" and nothing came up.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. Googling is an art. I typed the mother's name between double quotes. -nt

[VelmaD]

4. This is gonna

fuck some really racist people up

They are both just as cute as they can be :)

[entanglement]

22. LOL the freepers will go absolutely bat-shit about this

;)

[ThomCat]

38. Freepers will ignore it,

like everything else that doesn't match their bigoted little world-views.

[Skidmore]

5. Just points to the fact that

we all bleed red, and all start out cute and innocent. What gorgeous little girls.

[FreedomAngel82]

92. But you also know

they're doomed for watching the Teletubbies! :sarcasm:

:eyes:

[hedgehog]

6. This is like the plot of a Victorian novel

Thank heavens we have a happy ending these days!

[wake.up.america]

11. Great looking kids. Mommy and Daddy, hug 'em 24 hours a day...

I tell my kids I love them about 57,456 times a day.

Stupid comments about genes, though

[Ezlivin]

7. The womb is integrated!

Looks like the "Intelligent Designer" is way ahead of our social policies.

[Cleita]

8. OMG! How sweet.

They are beautiful.

[Individualist]

9. The parents are right

They're "two gorgeous little girls". :)

[teach1st]

10. Link

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=377839&in_page_id=1770

[Catherine Vincent]

17. Thanks!

[KurtNYC]

12. I love how stupid newspapers are about anything scientific

The genes determining skin color are only four to six genes. Most of the perceived differences between people with different skin colors are just that -- perceived. This article, which would seem to embrace diversity, is actually perpetuating ignorance IMHO.

all-white genes, and a sperm with all-black genes (?!)

edit: 4 to 6 genes determine melanin output

[On the Road]

19. Right. And Isn't One of Them Dominant?

That would mean you only needed a mixed pair for the dominant type.

I actually thought skin color would be spread out over more genes, though, due to the variability of skin color. With the exception of the twins, it normally doesn't look like an either/or.

[FreedomAngel82]

95. In one part of the Snopes article it told

how the little girl who's white her skin kept getting whiter over the years.
From Snopes: < Since then, Remee's skin tone has become lighter, while Kian's has become darker and her eyes have turned brown. >

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

20. What about all those intermediate skin colors?

Where do THEY come from? Ever been to Brazil?

[Solon]

25. Actually it would be a combination...

If anything is learned in Genetics its that there is no ONE gene for such an obvious trait. In fact, looking at the Snopes article, as many as 7 genes, in combination, account for most skin tones, and people who are products of mixed race relationships will have more of a mixture between those 7 genes in their eggs and sperm. Hence, in extremely rare cases, its possible for parents to have children that are percieved to be of a different race than them.

[Solly Mack]

36. Not all that rare really. I'm one such child

as are all my siblings.

White people used to ask my mother if she was our "nanny", and some asswipes even said "mammy", when we were out in public.

We take after our father in skin hue. And, he takes after his father as his own mother was a darker skin hue than my mom.

My paternal grandmother was melungeon and my mom was tsa la gi.

[shanti]

65. i know about melungeons

but what is tsa la gi? is that an indian tribe?

[Solly Mack]

66. Yes. Cherokee

[shanti]

75. ok.....

now i get it;)

[Solly Mack]

76. I'm sorry...but "get" what?

Just asking. No intent other than asking.

[Xithras]

43. There are many ways for this to happen.

Here's an easy way to look at it. Since the effects of the seven skin color genes are cumulative, the more "black" genes you have, the darker the person is. A purely back person would be:

BBBBBBB

A purely white person would be:

WWWWWWW

Most of us are:

WBBWWWW, BBBWBBB, BBWWBBW, or some random combination thereof.

Now, our skin color genes are a random combination of our parents genes. If BBBBBBB and BBBBBBB have a baby, the only option is BBBBBBB...which is why blacks don't typically have white babies, and vice versa. If WBBBBBB and BBBBBBB have a baby, the genes will be one of the two.

When races mix, things get interesting. If WWWWWWW and BBBBBBB have a child, the skin color is 100% random. But that's not the ONLY possibly random combination. Lets say this is mom: WWBBWWB and this is dad: BBWWBBW. Because the two combined still contain the complete set of possibilities, it's still possible for them to have a baby that is either purely white or purely black. The odds of that happening are amazingly small (one in a million), but it does happen. The odds of this PPARTICULAR set of twins having different skin tones really wasn't all that small, because the genes don't even need to be purely one or the other to cause the difference in tone. BBWWWWW would look white, while BBWWWBB would look black. Even though all but two genes are identical, the difference between those two is enough to create an apparent difference between their races.

[Zookeeper]

84. Nice clear explanation, Xithras. Thanks! n/t

[On the Road]

100. Thanks, Xithras -- Very Enlightening

:hi:

[Xithras]

32. 7 genes have now been identified as being involved in skin color.

Skin color is the classic example of a polygenic trait, and there is no "dominant" skin color gene.

A true "white" person is actually fairly rare. We have at least seven (and possibly more) genes that act to darken our skin. If you have seven "white" genes, you're going to be one pale mofo. If you have five white and two dark, you're going to look more like a pale hispanic. Five darks? The typical African American. There ARE a few Scandinavian groups that appear to be pure white, and there are a handful of African tribes which appear to be purely dark, but being "pure" one or the other is actually quite rare and most of us are a mix of the two.

FWIW, I once met a black couple who had an almost white baby. Both apparently had multiple white ancestors in their grandparents generation, so even though they were both dark skinned, they carried the genetic options for light skin. By a fluke, those options lined up just right when their daughter was born, and she ended up white. Genetics are a crapshoot, and when we're talking about the skin color genes combining randomly, it's always possible for this to happen.

Anthropology 101

[KurtNYC]

45. The Snopes article says "up to 7"

My source says "4 to 6" for skin color so it sounds like they haven't nailed this down yet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color

But the point I tried to make was that we as modern humans are way too hung up on skin color. I object to calling one's skin color one's "race." We are all part of the human race and the family pictured aboce should remind us how foolish it is to focus on visible differences.

[Xithras]

60. There sort of "is" a race, but it's not what most people think of.

There ARE four major varieties of human beings, but the difference is in our skeletal structure and not our skin color (technically there are more than four, but the others are tiny and nearly extinct). The four "racial" groups defined by physical anthropology are Mongoloid, Caucasoid, Negroid, and Australoid. It's important to point out that the names do NOT necessarily correspond with colors. It's easy to assume that Caucasoid = caucasian, but the term is ALSO used for many Ethiopians, Indians, Arabs, central Asians, and members of a few north African tribes. Ethnologically, this is probably because all of those population groups originated from one "parent" population in our distant past.

There IS such a thing as race, but skin color is completely irrelevant to it. There are black Caucasoids, and there are white Caucasoids. There are white Mongoloids, and there are brown Mongoloids. There are very light brown Negroids, and there are Negroids who are extremely black. The ONLY racial classification that is somewhat consistent is the Australoids, and that seems to be because they're descended from an extremely tiny parent population that had little genetic variation.

Of course, we should also keep in mind that these "races" are the genetic equivalent to dog breeds. Nobody would argue with the belief that German Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers are different breeds, but we also understand that they're all dogs. They are simply variations on a single species, and despite the differences to their structure and size, they all have the same genes, the same parts, and the same suite of biological traits. We are no different.

[Clark2008]

86. Correct. They mostly correspond to bone structure and have

nothing, what-so-ever, to do with skin color.

I hadn't heard about the fourth - Autraloid - though. Thanks! I'll have to go look that one up.

[Xithras]

97. Australoids are Australian aborigines.

They're also the black people found on the Indonesian and Indian islands. Most people assume they're Negroid like the majority of other blacks, but Australoids are actually a completely seperate branch of the Homo Sapiens family tree. There's evidence indicating that they may have been the first modern humans to leave Africa and settle the "Old World". When the Caucasoids (which may actually be a branch of the Australoid family tree that sprang up in northern Eurasia) and the Mongoloids (which may be an Australoid branch that sprang up somewhere in Asia...probably central China) began expanding, they wiped or bred the Australoids out of existence. The population in Africa was also wiped out by the Caucasoids, Negroids, Capoids, and other now-extinct branches. The Australoids only survived on islands, in Australia, and deep in the southeast Asian forests, where nature protected them from destruction.

By the way, that other group, the Capoids, also doesn't get mentioned much. I already pointed out that some black Africans are actually Caucasoid, but there's also another group there...the Capoids. The Capoids are found in southern Africa and are primarily composed of San Bushmen though a few other nearby tribes are Capoid as well. The Capoids are another great example of how skin color doesn't denote race...even though they're "black", they've long been recognized as a branch of the homo sapiens family seperate from either the Negroids or the black Caucasoids. It's odd to think about, but a black Negroid from the Ivory Coast is no more closely related to a San Capoid than a slavic Caucasoid is.

By the way, if you really want to look at "color" vs. "race", think about this. There are five major branches of human "race" on the Earth. Three of them, Australoid, Negroid, and Capoid, are primarily black. The fourth, Mongoloid, is pretty much brown. The last, Caucasoid is also primarily brown (there's a billion Caucasoids in India, and hundreds of millions more across central asia and the middle east). "White" people are actually a minority within the Caucasoid "race", making up somewhere between a third an 3/5'ths of the races population. There is no white race, just a branch of a brown race that happens to be a bit paler.

[zeemike]

47. Thanks a lot

I learned a lot from that mini course you gave that I did not understand at all.

[shanti]

68. that's kind of what happened

to me (moderately pale) and my ex (REALLY dark). our son came out on the lighter end of the spectrum with blue-green eyes. i know my background and there's little chance of my having any african heritage. however, in order for our son to have the green eyes and light skin, my ex HAD to have white in his background. in any event, our son identifies as a black man and that's fine with me.

isn't genetics interesting?:)

[Sparkly]

14. Awwww!!!

Amazing and beautiful!!

[Just Me]

15. WOW!!! Something about that makes me feel,....comforted.

We ARE members of one race,...the human one.

Those girls are gorgeous.

So cool.

[Sugar Smack]

49. That's exactly the way I felt when I saw that picture.

Comforted.

[Skelington]

18. They don't look "recently born". Damn cute though

[Yupster]

85. No - the article says they were born last April

which looks about right.

He's 17 and she's 19 which means that when the kids were conceived he was probably 15 and she 17. The funniest line in the article is when the guy says he was surprised to find out she was pregnant because they weren't intending to make a family.

No s*^t.

Not many 15 year old boys are having sex with 17 year old girls because it's time to settle down and have a family.

[sui generis]

24. they're not showing the calico one

[Solon]

26. Actually, look up natural Chimerias on Google...

You'll find a few that are, I guess it could be called, Calico, being of more than one skin tone from birth.

[sui generis]

35. used to call them "piebald" I think

[shanti]

70. i've seen a picture before

of a jamaican with that trait, but i just thought it was a skin condition like vitiligo.

[Solon]

72. No Chimerics are much more different than a simple skin condition...

A Chimeric is someone who has twice the DNA of a normal organism. The most obvious difference is when Skin cells on one side of the body are of a different set of DNA than the opposite side, this makes the individual, usually when you see their shirt off, look bisected with two different skin tones, though usually they are not that dramatic, though they can be depending on how deeply brown the skin tone is on one side. Other types of differences would be something as simple as just one organ, or a set of organs that have different DNA than the rest of the body. There was one case of a woman who applied for welfare for her and her kids, and when the Maternity and Paternity tests were concluded, using her and her husbands blood, the lab concluded that he was the father, and she was RELATED to but not the mother, genetically. She was devastated, obviously, but more to the point, the Government started investigating her for fraud. She risked losing custody of her children due to the test, and she defended herself in court, but even she didn't know what was going on. Eventually some Geneticists got word of the case, and took samples of all her major organs and found something surprising, her ovaries were of a different genetic structure than the rest of her body. Eventually the case was resolved when the judge ordered a filming and then blood sample of her third child being born, with a court ordered witness present. That finally concluded that yes she is the biological mother, and still has full parental rights, but also that she was cleared of fraud charges. I saw this on Discovery Health Channel BTW.

[shanti]

88. how very interesting!

thank you for the information :hi:

[RethugAssKicker]

27. Absolutely gorgeous... however

I bet you the lighter one will darken up a bit as she gets older!. Not that it matters... but that is usually the case.

[Catherine Vincent]

41. I thought so too.

Maybe not but it happens.

[sojourner]

44. even with those blue eyes and blond hair?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

59. According to the Daily Mail article, the opposite happened.

The lighter one got lighter and the darker one got darker. Also, the latter was born with blue eyes, which eventually turned brown.

[petronius]

28. It will be very interesting 20 years form now

to look back and see how those girls life-experiences have differed (or not)...

[bigscott]

31. i bet one is Ms United Kingdom

and a scholarship student at Oxford, and the other one is a crack addicted convict :sarcasm:

[petronius]

39. Indeed, but which will be which?

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of all the studies where people of different races but similar qualifications are sent to apply for the same job, or into the same business establishment or whatever, and get differing responses. These girls are the perfect subjects for that sort of research...

[ContraBass Black]

102. I think they're going to develop

Some very severe camera shyness.

[helderheid]

29. Amazing and beautiful!

[Burma Jones]

30. Do you think the freeps would want to test the IQs of these two...

you know, just to be shitheads.


Oh, damn cute kiddies too....

[AngryAmish]

33. They are going to have some fun screwing with people

I knew a girl who was very blond, nordic type. Her brother was African-American (he was adopted). They always got a kick out of screwing with peoples expectations.

[sinkingfeeling]

34. I wonder if they'll be able to get through life without a million

sociologists and shrinks and others wanting to 'study' them. To see if they have different intelligence levels or if one is more prone to crime or other nonsense. I think they're adorable..liked the last picture in the Snopes article the best.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

37. They are two little darlings

The parents have twice as much to be proud of with those two cuties.

[Catherine Vincent]

62. Your pic turned into a big green yuck picture!

What happened?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

78. Ick! Try this one

That's what happens when you're in a hurry and hotlink...

[lonestarnot]

40. OMG Beeeeeauuuuutiful!

[mirandapriestly]

42. What beautiful children

You can see why with those parents, God that guy is good looking...whew!

[bunkerbuster1]

50. mama's not exactly hard on the eyes either.

gorgeous family.

[Lorien]

46. Adorable!

they both look like they belong on a very floral Victorian valentine. :-)

[DearAbby]

48. Totally Amazing...and yep, they are darling!

My mouth dropped open, the odds of this is truly amazing! Just :wow:

[Catherine Vincent]

53. If a person doesn't smile when they see this photo,

then something is wrong with them. It warms the heart.

[question everything]

51. Parents are 19 and 17? (nt)

[teriyaki jones]

55. Yeah, that fact stood out for me also

Could have been as young as 17 and 15 when babies were conceived!

[RobertSeattle]

52. No

My twins are cuter.

[ClayZ]

54. Wonderful!

What a beautiful family!

[Spazito]

56. Wow, what a beautiful picture!

Amazing story, uplifting as well.

[0007]

57. Great photo!

[Odin2005]

58. THEY'RE ADORABLE!

[HeeBGBz]

61. What sweet little doll babies

They are so pretty.

[Bandit]

63. It is quite possible to have twins from different fathers

Even as much as weeks apart and still be twins. Not saying that is the case in this instance but dark skin is dominant over light skin so the odds of both being from the same father are slim.

[Xithras]

74. There's no such thing as a "dominant" skin color.

See my post 43 for a good example, but skin color is the result of the random re-shuffling of the seven skin color genes from BOTH parents. Since the odds are that the kid will get a few genes from each parent, it's typical that mixed race children end up "in-between" their parents color-wise. The odds are smaller, but it's also possible that a child can end up with the color genes completely from one parent or the other.

BWBWBWB is a light brown person.
WBWBWBW is also a light brown person.

Shuffle them randomly and you may get

WWWWWWW (pale white), BBBBBBB (dark black), or more likely BBBWWWB (light brown)

It's been well known for a very long time that the children and grandchildren of mixed race couples can exhibit very different coloration than their parents, and it's really not all that uncommon. That it happened to twins, and that they ended up two different colors, is unusual (which is why we're talking about it), but it's really nothing special.

[Stinky The Clown]

64. When our species finally evolves ........

Most of us will look like the parents ....... mixed and indeterminate races

And we shall be the better for it .......assuming our species survives.

[in_cog_ni_to]

67. Awwww...they're beautiful!

They are so doggone CUTE!

That is an amazing story!

[Dr Fate]

69. What a wonderful looking family. n/t

n/t

[Rainscents]

71. Awwwwwwwe, they are so cute!

OMG, very beautiful too!

[malaise]

73. Gorgeous n/t

[dorkulon]

77. Right now about a thousand social scientists

Are calling this couple looking to do a long-term study on these kids.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

79. In the southwest

I often see this type of variation within Hispanic families. Some exhibit more indigenous features and skin color while their sibling may look completely European.

[yorkiemommie1]

99. yes, in my husband's family

they range from very light to very dark.

[roguevalley]

80. awwwwwwwww. Gorgeous. gorgeous family

[otohara]

81. 17 Year Old Dad

they're cute - I'm cooing

[Swamp Rat]

82. Just like my family in Brasil

:)

[ThatsMyBarack]

83. *Get this!*

These two little girls already have a better wardrobe than Pickles does. Right? Riiight???? O8)

[MissB]

93. LOL!

Yes.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

87. There's a wonderful

sense of completion about the pair.

[FreedomAngel82]

90. Oh wow

They're so neat and so cute! Do you have a link for the story? I'd love to share it!

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

94. TELETUBBIES!!!!! AAAARGH! RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!

They are evil... You've heard about them?

[MissB]

96. I've said it before

Beautiful babies. :loveya:

When the photo circulated last week, I used it to talk to my 7 yo about genetics.

[Catherine Vincent]

101. One last kick because they are just so darn cute!!

:kick:

[Catfight]

103. What a cool family! Mix it all up, I love that! nt

[DawgHouse]

104. Yes, they are adorable! nt