Do twins REALLY skip a generation, or is that just an old wives' tale?

Question

Are there any geneticists out there who want to take a crack at answering this?

Answer 1

old wives tale. Only Identical Twins run in families (on the mother's side). Fraternal twins are a random occurrence (I have twins, so the doctor's went thru the whole probability discussion with me) ;)

Answer 2

Old wives tale.
My dad was a fraternal twin, my husbands grandma is an identical twin. No other twins are in the family either yet. We're all done having kids so now we'll have to wait until our kids starts families.

Answer 3

Identical twins that are genetic do skip a generation often enough for it to be considered the norm. Fraternal twins can happen to anyone. All twins are determined by the mothers genes. My mother was a twin and my daughter is now pregnant with twins. The genticist that we talked said maternal side for twins. Fraternal twins are made when the cell devides completely in two seperate parts. Fraternals can be both sexes or same sexes. Identical twins are always the same sex.


Messege for "e": Just because your family has no twins does not mean they didnt have the gene just that it didnt happen to them. That doesnt mean they dont have it just that their circumstances led to it not being used. So it could be in your family and not show up even for several generations. Your nine year old identicals are proof you have the gene and you got it from your mom who got it from hers.

Answer 4

That is an old wives tale...... I have nine year old identical twins.....
No one in my family, not even my husband's family ever had twins............ not even several generations back...... I have done a lot of reading and such on the occurance of twins.... truthfully, scientists are just as baffled as us common folk......they know what happens to create twins, but not why it happens, or to whom it will happen to.

Answer 5

No. Twins run in families period. If there are twins in your family, there is a possiblity that you will have twins, whether they "skipped" a generation or not. Fraternal twins run in families, identical twins happen by chance. Good Luck!

Answer 6

Twins really do skip a generation on the paternal side. My father had twins on his side of the family (grandfather or great uncle or something like that), then he had twin boys. My partner's mother's brother and sister are also twins yet none of the children are twins. So you never know...we could end up with twins at some point.

Answer 7

it's an old wives tale, or else i would have a twin and im an only child. so it can't be true all the time

Answer 8

Identical twins is a freak of nature fraternal is genetic passed from the fathers side of the mother I believe. I have identical twins and I seem to remember reading that in a book.......

Answer 9

It is an old wives tale.
With simple genetic traits you have a dominant gene and a recessive gene

For example, with eye color, brown eyes are dominant while blue eyes are recessive.

Each person has two genes that code for eye color

So if you have two brown genes (BB), or one brown gene and blue gene (Bb), you will have brown eyes. You need two blue genes(bb) to have blue eyes.

Thus, if a person has blue eyes (bb) and marries a person with brown eyes (BB), all their children will have brown eyes (Bb)

These children, if they marry somebody with blue eyes (bb) or somebody with one brown and one recessive gene (Bb) will have children with both brown and blue eyes.

That is how traits "skip a generation"

The genetic coding for twins is much more complex than for eye color. Therefore, you can know if there is a family leaning towards having twins, but you cannot predict who will have them.

Answer 10

IT IS TRUE it is mine and my cousins generation to have them.. and guess what my cousin is havin two little boys in july.. the ppl tellin you is isnt true someting went wrong in their family cause it has always in my family and my friends who has twins in her family and the sam with another friend i have so yes it is true!!