Moms and dads of twins think their kids are awesome and special, and the general world is fascinated by the subject. As the mom of a set of fantastic little fraternal boys, I thought, in honor of their upcoming birthdays, I’d post some fun twin facts for us all to enjoy!Identical twins have the same DNA, but not the same fingerprints

About a quarter of identical twins are “mirror image” twins, meaning that if one has a mole on his left arm, his twin will have the same kind of mark on his right arm!

If you’re older than 30, have a history of twins in your family, and have had several previous pregnancies, your chances of having twins goes up!

A full-term twin pregnancy is shorter than a singleton pregnancy: 36 weeks, 3 days is term.

Twins average about 5.5 pounds at birth.

Moms pregnant with twins are recommended to gain anywhere between 35-45 pounds Moms who gain around 24 lbs by the 24th week reduce their likelihood of premature or low-birth-weight twin babies.

Male twins won’t father their own sets of twins unless their wives/partners also have the tendency to release 2 or more eggs at a time during ovulation.

Fraternal girl twins are twice as likely to give birth to twins than singleton girls.

1 out of every 250 pregnancies results in a set of identical twins, on average, in the US, while in some African nations, like Nigeria, the rate is higher: as much as 1 in every 20 pregnancies in the Yoruba tribe!

China has the lowest reported rate of twinning in the world.

Around 22% of all twins are left-handed, as opposed to singletons, which display left-handedness only 10% of the time.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson are not identical! They’re fraternal!

Did you know it’s possible for a woman to become pregnant with fraternal twins by two different men? The scientific name for this (creepy) phenomenon is heteropaternal superfecundation. Say that 3 times fast!
The study of twins is called gemellology. Remember that one for Scrabble!

Elvis Presley was a twin: sadly, his brother, Jesse Garon, died shortly after birth.
Have you heard about twins having their own “language”? The term used for this is ideoglossia. However, it’s not a “real” language, it’s more a shared set of mispronounced words and common sounds that close twins easily recognize from each other.
The genetic trait for fraternal twins does NOT skip a generation.
If twins marry another set of twins, it’s called quaternary marriage.
Identical twins who marry other identical twins that would, genetically, be genetic siblings, not cousins!