very difficult questions about life

Right, so if they have the same father and mother, then the babies in the litter would be twins, triplets, quadruplets etc depending on the litter size. Cheers.

There have been ocassions (or so I think I have read) of 'twins' having different fathers because the human mother slept with different men around the same time. Many other mammals are quite promiscuous, so I thought that it would also be possible for a litter to have babies from different fathers. Or I could be wrong.

I know in some species (definitely birds, don't know about other taxa), females can store sperm (and maybe fertilised eggs?), including from multiple males, and then choose which fertilises the eggs later. But I'm not sure if they are able to use more than one males sperm or not for fertilisation, although presumably they could if they were storing fertilised eggs.

@Thylo, if two littermates had different fathers, then they would be half-twins.
 
I've heard of this. It's extremely rare and it could occasionally occur in other mammals but regardless on whether they share the same father, if they're two of them and they're born at the same time then they are still twins.

~Thylo:cool:

You have raises an interesting point, because now I am wondering about the definition of "twin". If an infertile woman is carrying two babies, each coming from the eggs of two different women and two different men, are those children twins? Do twins need to have the same mom and dad to be twins? And what if you have the same mom and dad, but you are born a few days after your brother, are you still twins?
 
I know in some species (definitely birds, don't know about other taxa), females can store sperm (and maybe fertilised eggs?), including from multiple males, and then choose which fertilises the eggs later. But I'm not sure if they are able to use more than one males sperm or not for fertilisation, although presumably they could if they were storing fertilised eggs.

@Thylo, if two littermates had different fathers, then they would be half-twins.

I believe this happened with a Nurse Shark once where a female became pregnant after three years without contact with any males. The story should be on Wikipedia.

EDIT: The story no longer appears to be on Wikipedia.

And what if you have the same mom and dad, but you are born a few days after your brother, are you still twins?

I believe this is called being "Irish Twins". I know someone who is an Irish Twin.
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_twins]Irish twins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]


~Thylo:cool:
 
I believe this happened with a Nurse Shark once where a female became pregnant after three years without contact with any males. The story should be on Wikipedia.

EDIT: The story no longer appears to be on Wikipedia.



I believe this is called being "Irish Twins". I know someone who is an Irish Twin.
Irish twins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


~Thylo:cool:

According to Wikipedia: "It is a derogatory term that refers to larger Irish families and the rejection of birth control under the Catholic religion."

ROFL :D:D It appears that everyone on this site needs to take David's cultural sensitivity seminar. ROFL.

[EDIT: That term refers, literally, to a mom falling pregnant soon after giving birth. It does not refer to two babies sharing a womb and them being born days apart - which is what I was referring to.]
 
According to Wikipedia: "It is a derogatory term that refers to larger Irish families and the rejection of birth control under the Catholic religion."

ROFL :D:D It appears that everyone on this site needs to take David's cultural sensitivity seminar. ROFL.

The funny thing is that I learned that term from my 7th grade Science teacher.:D

~Thylo:cool:
 
According to Wikipedia: "It is a derogatory term that refers to larger Irish families and the rejection of birth control under the Catholic religion."

ROFL :D:D It appears that everyone on this site needs to take David's cultural sensitivity seminar. ROFL.

[EDIT: That term refers, literally, to a mom falling pregnant soon after giving birth. It does not refer to two babies sharing a womb and them being born days apart - which is what I was referring to.]

what does ROFL mean? is it important to the post or just an odd social term I haven't heard of?
 
that's because he's not very steady on his legs

That, and the fact that I used to chat on ICQ back in the day (mid to late 90s) when 'ROFL' first became popular. I wonder if people still start a chat by asking "a/s/l?". (i.e. Age/Sex/Location)

@epickoala, depending on your age (too old or too young), you may not be familiar with the term 'ROFL'.
 
ROFLMAOASTC - Rolling on floor laughing my ass off and scares the cat.

I started with mIRC. Still have it on a drive somewhere, with all the scripts I wrote.

*Hix slaps Nanoboy with a wet trout*

:p

Hix
 
ROFLMAOASTC - Rolling on floor laughing my ass off and scares the cat.

I started with mIRC. Still have it on a drive somewhere, with all the scripts I wrote.

*Hix slaps Nanoboy with a wet trout*

:p

Hix

I don't think that I ever used mIRC actually. :confused:
 
Then you missed out. Que sera sera.

:p

Hix
 
I'm sure if a man or woman was drunk enough, they would gladly volunteer to make a humanzee.
 
You're assuming, of course, that the chimp would be agreeable to this.

:p

Hix
 
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