Chimera: Do You Know That A Baby Can Have Two Biological Fathers?

Do You Know That A Baby Can Have Two Biological Fathers? You might think it’s impossible but this is possible through chimera.

A chimera is an organism, which can be a human, resulting when two fertilised eggs combine and develop into a single individual instead of non-identical twins. The fertilized zygotes merge and develop into a baby with a mosaic of tissues with different DNA makeup.

Chimerism is extremely rare. Only about 100 cases have ever been recorded.

For one baby to have two fathers what would have to happen first is bipaternal twins, which is rare. It is when two eggs get fertilized by two different men’s sperm and become fraternal twins. For a chimera to happen, then one of those twins would die early in the womb and the other twin would absorb it and then fuse together into one person (a chimera).

Below is an example of fraternal twins with different fathers and a lady who is a chimera.

fraternal twins with different fathers

a lady who is a chimera

So we really don’t know how common chimerism is. But it’s probably not extremely rare.

Some studies have suggested that 8% of fraternal twins are blood chimeras — they have small amounts of their twin’s blood circulating in their own bloodstream.

Since it’s possible for the eggs to be fertilized by different men, you can get a person with chimera-ism who has two fathers. More likely, however, it would be like combining non-identical twins by the same father.

READ ALSO: First Separation Of Conjoined Twins Recorded At National Hospital Abuja (Photo)

Furthermore, if someone is a chimera, the organs which produce eggs or sperm may differ from the tissue in other parts of the body. There is a case of a woman (Lydia Fairchild) who was said to be her own twin. She appeared to be unrelated to her children because their blood types were incompatible. Another man appeared not to be the father of his children but was genetically related as if he were their uncle. He had no brother – but was a chimera formed from elements of two fraternal twins.

Many people never realize they are chimeras. They can be very healthy and appear completely normal: therefore, they have no reason to ever suspect their make up is unusual.

For some people, the differences can be seen on the surface with a patchwork of different skin tones and perhaps eye colour (note there are other far more common reasons for such appearance, so don’t assume that anyone with blotchy skin or different eye shades is a chimera).

Sometimes the merging twins are of different sexes, and this is one cause of hermaphrodism, where someone has both male and female genitalia.

All this is very rare. Not impossible, but highly improbable. However, you might be a chimera and never realize. Thought provoking?

The thing is that there’s no real test for it. Your toe could have DNA from your dead twin, and how would anyone ever discover this?

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