Monday, February 27, 2006

Very different phenotypes

When Kylie Hodgson gave birth to twin daughters by caesarean section, she was just relieved that they had arrived safely.

It was only when the midwife handed them over for her to hold that she noticed the difference between them.

Remee, who weighed 5lb 15oz, was blonde and fair skinned. Her sister Kian, born a minute later weighing 6lb, was black.
(Via Scienceblogs
This personal story could be explained by the incidence of superfecundation and of double paternity in the general population or allele assortment (?), I forget. If you want to dig deeper, here's a 1918 Fisher paper on variance expected from heterozygous parents.

Personally, I'd take a paternity test if I were dad. Mendelian genetics is a bit blurry in my mind right now. My first thought was the "white" baby looks like an albino. I'm sure my Genetics professor is disappointed at me for having doubts. Heh!

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