A PAIR of twins have left people baffled after revealing that they came from the same womb, despite being different races.
Libby is ethnically Asian, and has dark brown hair, and brown eyes. whereas Zabrina is white and blonde, with blue eyes.
However, despite looking nothing alike, they are twins.
The duo explained that this is due to a rare phenomenon called heteropaternal superfecundation.
Taking to TikTok, they revealed that during university, the twins’ mum was dating Libby’s dad, and then had an had an affair with Zabrina’s dad.
Sperm from both Libby’s dad and Zabrina’s dad then fertilised eggs at the same time, meaning that the girls’ mum became pregnant with twins that had different fathers.
Heteropaternal superfecundation is extremely rare in humans, but happens quite often with cats and dogs.
Both of the girls’ fathers ended up having full custody of their daughters as their mother was “not fit to be our parent”, and the dads decided to raise them as cousins.
“They didn’t think we could process the information, and they didn’t want to tell us at a young age”, Libby said.
Then when they were 11, the girls were told that they were actually twins.
“Imagine you had a cousin and then you found out you were twins!” Libby said.
The duo said that they had never suspected anything, despite having the same birthday, as they look so different.
Libby and Zabrina each live with their separate fathers but see each other often.
“They want us to have a relationship”, Libby said.
The video, posted under the username @zabibby, has likely left many people open-mouthed, as it has racked up over 7.9 million views on the video-sharing platform.
TikTok users raced to the video to share their amazement at the phenomenon.
Heteropaternal superfecundation is a rare biological phenomenon where two or more eggs from the same ovulation cycle are fertilized by sperm from different males. This results in the birth of fraternal twins with different fathers.
The term is derived from ‘hetero,’ meaning different, ‘paternal,’ referring to the fathers, and ‘superfecundation,’ which describes the fertilization of two or more ova during the same menstrual cycle. This can occur when a woman has sexual intercourse with two different men within a short period, close enough to the time of ovulation for sperm from both men to fertilize separate eggs.
After ovulation, an egg remains viable for fertilization for about 12-48 hours, while sperm can live inside the female reproductive tract for up to five days. If a woman ovulates multiple eggs and has intercourse with different partners during this window, there is a possibility that different sperm will fertilize different eggs.
One person said: “That’s insane I’ve always wondered if this could happen.”
A second person said: “I went to school with interracial twins!
“I thought it was so cool.”
A third person said: “As a mum of twins myself I did not know this was a thing!”
A fourth person added: “You actually have the same nose.
“I can see how you are twins.”
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