Are the Olsen twins identical or fraternal?
Dude, go to the source. Page 15 of Mary-Kate & Ashley: Our Story–Updated edition : The Official Biography, “by” Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen says “Even though the girls look so much alike, they are not identical twins. Mary-Kate and Ashley are fraternal twins. Fraternal twins sometimes look like each other, but they are not exactly the same.
How do you actually tell whether twins are identical or just fraternal? Actually, it’s not so easy. With genetic testing, it’s become easier in the past few years. But when my twin and I were born, in 1978, the doctors just said that my parents would have to wait and see if we ended up looking different. It wasn’t clear for a few months if we were identical or not — our parents could tell us apart, but our grandparents could not. Ultimately, it became obvious.
Actually, Google finds numerous articles from places like the Washington Post, the New York Daily News and E! Online that say they’re fraternal.
I remember hearing about a rare case of “half” identical twins. Rather than having one zygote split into two identical zygotes, this was a situation where one unfertilized egg split into two identical eggs, which were subsequently fertilized by two separate sperm cells. In other words, the kids’ mother’s genetic material was identical, but their fathers’ contributions differed. The kids looked a lot alike, but were not technically identical. Does anyone else have confirmation on this?
widdershins, they’re fraternal – no more surprising than a similar difference between siblings. I’m surprised they’re not identical twins, though. Haven’t some of their movies been the kind of “trading places” things that depend on identity switching options traditionally available only to genetically identical sisters? Weird. How do you actually tell whether twins are identical or just fraternal? There’s no little trick! Identical twins have identical DNA and come from the same fertilized egg, that then splits into two early in the pregnancy. So the two share one amniotic sac, and were actually the same being for at least a few weeks there. Fraternal twins are when two different eggs get fertilized at the same time, and both survive.
