Chimera Twinning

I caught the last few minutes of this show,I am my own Twin, last night on TLC. I was trying to figure out what the show was about(like I said I only saw the last few minutes). I went online to see what was on during that time slot and find out about the show. As it turns out, the woman I saw in the last minutes of the show is a chimera. Chimeras occur when two fraternal (non-identical) twins merge together very early in pregnancy. Occasionally, this merger can produce a viable baby that might look the same outwardly as a "normal" baby.

Some of the known people who are chimeras found out after being genetically tested and finding out they have two sets of genetic material. Some chimeras are intersexed, the joining of a male and female fraternal twin.

Another type of chimera is a "blood chimera." This less dramatic occurance happens when the blood supply of two fraternal twins is shared in the uterus. The resulting twins may have two different blood types.

The word chimera comes from the greek mythological creature that had the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent.

The TLC show will be on again OCt. 6, 2005.