One of the most common questions related to identical twins is the issue of mirror imaging.

What is it?

Mirror image is a type of identical twins. It can happen in any type of identical twins

Why some twins are mirror imaged and not other is still a mystery to scientist. No one knows why the egg splits and so no one knows why some twins mirror each other and others don’t. There is not a lot of solid scientific evidence and study on mirror imaging so a lot is anecdotal (stories)

Features:

The major characteristics of mirror imaged twins is opposite features things such as hair whirls, dominant hands and other features (you can have things like dominant ears, eyes, legs and feet) Mirror twins can have the same eye conditions in opposite eyes and frequently get teeth opposite from each other. Some mirror image twins cross their legs opposite each other.

In extreme cases twins can even have reversed organs.

Mirror imaging is a matter of degrees. Not every set of mirror twins are opposite handed and not every set has different hair whirls.

I’ve spoken to many adult twins who are probably mirror imaged but since at the time they went to school left handedness was discouraged and so the leftie was forced to be a righty so many adult mirror imaged twins don’t use their handedness as an example of their being mirror imaged.

Misconceptions:

A lot of people I’ve found think that mirror imaging is a separate type of twin. They’ll list “identical” ”fraternal” or “mirror image” on forms to fill out. This is incorrect since mirror imaging is a type of identical twins.

Fraternal twins can be opposite handed with the same frequency as different aged siblings. One of the indicators of fraternal twins that people use is the fact that the similarly looking twins use different hands. Many of these people have never heard of mirror imaged before and think that identical twins must be identical in every way (which is not true at all) and so a handedness difference is their reasoning for fraternal. Two notable sets of twins who use the opposite hand reasoning for believing they are fraternal are Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Paul and Morgan Hamm. (information known as of August 19, 2004.

More information:

You can read more about mirror image twins (and twins in general) at these pages:

http://www.twinstuff.com/mirrors.htm

http://www.thinkquest.org/library/site_sum.html?tname=4210&url=4210/mirror.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/wonderquest/2001-05-09-why-twins-form.htm

http://www.proactivegenetics.com/faqzygosity.dna#8

essay written by Kendra Millar