Wonders Of Nature; One In A Million Black And White Twins Born One Minute Apart

Loving: Black and white twin sisters Kian (left) and Remee (right), 

When a friend sent me the picture above yesterday, I couldn't help but be in awe at the wonders of God's creation. One is black and has big brown eyes. The other is a blue-eyed blonde with the palest of skin. Remarkably, Kian and Remee are twins, born a minute apart.



The pair owe their appearance to a one in a million combination of their parents’ genes.
Mother Kylee Hodgson and father Remi Horder both have white mothers and black fathers. The startling result is a two-tone set of delightful little girls. They first attracted international attention when they were featured in the Mail at less than a year old.

‘They are such a perfect example of how it should be,’ their mother told the Mail. ‘They are not bothered about their skin colour. It’s not the big issue everyone else seems to see it as. It isn’t important to them at all – it’s about what they’re like underneath.’  Kian and her 60-second older sister were delivered in April 2005 by caesarean section.

Sister act: The twins are in different classes at primary school, and have different interests

Kylee, now 25, recalls the moment she saw them for the first time: ‘I noticed that both of them had beautiful blue eyes,’ she said.

‘But while Remee’s hair was blonde, Kian’s was black and she had darker skin. To me, they were my kids and they were just normal. I thought they would start to look the same as time went on.’ Time, however, only accentuated their differences. Kian’s eyes changed colour and her skin got darker.

Remee’s complexion got lighter and her curly hair stayed blonde. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kylee found herself fielding questions about whose children they were, or who Kian’s fair-haired friend was, when she pushed them in their side-by-side buggy.

‘People would ask me why I dressed the children the same,’ Kylee said. ‘I’d just say: “because they’re twins,” and leave people to work it out. It kind of irritated me at first, but everyone in my area got to know they were twins and accepted it. It was only strangers or outsiders who didn’t know.’

MILLION TO ONE BABIES

The odds of a mixed race couple having twins of different colours are a million to one.
Skin colour is believed to be determined by up to seven different genes working together.
If a parent is of mixed race, their eggs or sperm will contain a mixture of genetic codes for both black and white skin.



However, if both the egg and sperm contain all white genes, the baby will be white.
And if both contain just the versions necessary for black skin, the baby will be black.