from www.snopes.com
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.
Geneticists opined that the odds of such a coupling's producing
mixed-race fraternal twins were about a million to one:
Skin colour is believed to be determined by up to seven different
genes working together.
If a woman is of mixed race, her eggs will usually contain a
mixture of genes coding for both black and white skin.
Similarly, a man of mixed race will have a variety of different
genes in his sperm. When these eggs and sperm come together, they
will create a baby of mixed race.
But, very occasionally, the egg or sperm might contain genes coding
for one skin colour. If both the egg and sperm contain all white
genes, the baby will be white. And if both contain just the
versions necessary for black skin, the baby will be black.
For a mixed-race couple, the odds of either of these scenarios is
around 100 to one. But both scenarios can occur at the same time if
the woman conceives non-identical twins, another 100 to one
chance.
This involves two eggs being fertilised by two sperm at the same
time, which also has odds of around 100 to one.
If a sperm containing all-white genes fuses with a similar egg and
a sperm coding for purely black skin fuses with a similar egg, two
babies of dramatically different colours will be born.
The odds of this happening are 100 x 100 x 100 a million to
one.
