Please help me before I go mad searching the internet!... science

[runningman]

PLEASE could anyone just confirm to me... are maternal twins identical? and are paternal twins non-identical? From scouring the internet, we've come to the conclusion that fraternal is probably the same as paternal, i.e. non-identical, is that right? There is so much conflicting information! One site said that paternal and maternal twins are identical, contradicting what we'd earier read! Getting confused... help! Thanks. The h/w for my DD is just to say how maternal and paternal twins are formed... thanks.

I've never heard of maternal or paternal twins, are you sure that's how the question was worded and she hasn't copied it wrong or anything?

Fraternal twins (fraternal means like brothers - like in a fraternity) are non-identical twins, formed when two eggs are released and fertilised.

Identical twins are formed when a single fertilised egg splits.

Oh, I've just googled it and this article seems to clarify - paternal = fraternal = two sperm (and two eggs).

Maternal = identical

Strange way of describing them I suppose "identical" isn't good either as they don't stay that identical as they grow up

Thanks very much AMumInScotland - yes, was how it was worded... that is a very clear definition, so thanks for that, but are the terms fraternal/paternal the same? Thanks again.

Thanks very much AMumInScotland - link is very helpful!!! Thanks so much for helping us!!

In my 12 years of teaching Science, I have NEVER heard twins described as paternal and maternal. How very odd.

Genetically, fraternal/non-identical twins are no more similar to each other than any other siblings EXCEPT that they share birth dates. It is only fraternal twins that can be of different sexes, natural hair colour, etc.

News to me too!
And I think I'm right in saying that identical twins are a fluke, but fraternals are hereditary??

But I'm willing to be corrected on that.

Thanks Meow/Clam.

I have twin girls - believed to be identical throughout pregnancy - at birth hosp thought that there may have been a merge of the placenta - so I have twins who we dont know if identical/fraternal (age 11!) - they look identical to everyone but not me! and have differences so guess fraternal hmmmm but everyone else would say identical....hmmm - but guess what? it really does not matter to them at all. So bar passing some sort of complicated gcse question on how an egg can possibly split double time and why this happens - really not sure what you are trying to resolve!

mono-zygotic twins are identical (one egg one sperm)

Di -zygotic twins and non identical

Clam

Other way round

Identical twins - where an egg divides into two babies - same sex, look utterly alike - runs in families
you can get lots of identical twins in extended familiies

Fraternal twins - where two separate eggs manage to run to full gestation at the same time - are a fluke.
see the different dad twins - just the "luck" of the implantation timings during fertility cycles.

Do such flukes run in families ?
My mother had 2 sets of non identical twins .
I have 3 twin brothers !

Identical twins can look different, I knew two who had a foot difference in height. One twin was nutrient (and possibly oxygen) deprived in the womb. Fraternal twins can look very alike. The only way to know for sure is a DNA test.

Where did the wording paternal and maternal twins ome from? An exam paper? A teacher? (Are they British?) Just curious.

Identical twins can look different, I knew two who had a foot difference in height. One twin was nutrient (and possibly oxygen) deprived in the womb. Fraternal twins can look very alike. The only way to know for sure is a DNA test.

Where did the wording paternal and maternal twins ome from? An exam paper? A teacher? (Are they British?) Just curious.

Our eldest DD was a twin. I remember being told at an antenatal check that if when born, they were of the same sex, then the placenta goes for tests to check whether they are fraternal or identical.
Even though they were IVF, so fraternal was the most likely.
As it happened, her twin was a boy.