If a sperm containing all-white genes fuses with a similar
egg and a sperm coding for purely black skin fuses with a similar egg,
two babies of dramatically different colors will be born.  Here the full story with photo.

When British Kylie Hodgson gave birth to twin daughters by Caesarean
section, she was just relieved that they had arrived safely.

It was only when the midwife handed them over for her to hold that she noticed the difference between them.

Remee was blonde and fair-skinned. Her sister, Kian, born a minute later, was dark skinned.

"It was a shock when I realized that my twins were two
different colors," said Kylie, 19. "But it doesn’t matter to us — they
are just our two gorgeous little girls."

The amazing conception happened after two eggs were fertilized at the same time in the womb.

Both Kylie and her partner, Remi Horder, 17, are of mixed race. Their mothers are both white and their fathers are black.

According to the Multiple Births Foundation, baby Kian must
have inherited the black genes from both sides of the family, while
Remee inherited the white ones.

Kylie, from Nottingham, discovered she was pregnant in the
summer of 2004 and a scan at the Queen’s Medical Center revealed that
twins were on the way.

　"It was a shock at first to discover I was expecting as we hadn’t been trying for a family," she said.

"We couldn’t believe it. Neither of us could take our eyes
off the scanner — you could just see two of everything, even the
outline of their little noses. We were both overwhelmed."

The twins were born in April last year because one of the girls was lying in an awkward position in the womb.

"I didn’t see them at first," added their mother. "They were both
whisked away to be checked over and then the midwife came back and
placed them both in my arms."

    "I noticed that both of them had beautiful blue eyes, but
while Remee was blonde, Kian’s hair was black and she had darker skin,"
said Kylie.

"It seemed strange, but I was feeling so ill that I didn’t really take it in at that stage," She added.

The next day she mentioned the color difference to her
mother, who told her that Remee’s skin would darken as she grew older.

But as the weeks passed, Remee became lighter while Kian
became darker. And while Remee’s eyes stayed blue, Kian’s turned brown.

"There are some similarities between them," said their
mother. "They both love apples and grapes. If they haven’t seen each
other for a few hours, they are so pleased to see each other and will
hold out their arms, wanting to hug each other."

The odds of a mixed race couple having twins of dramatically different colors are a million to one.

Skin color is believed to be determined by up to seven different genes working together.

If a woman is of mixed race, her eggs will usually contain a mixture of genes coding for both black and white skin.

Similarly, a man of mixed race will have a variety of
different genes in his sperm. When these eggs and sperm come together,
they will create a baby of mixed race.

But, very occasionally, the egg or sperm might contain
genes coding for one skin color. If both the egg and sperm contain all
white genes, the baby will be white. And if both contain just the
versions necessary for dark skin, the baby will be dark.

For a mixed-race couple, the odds of either of these
scenarios is around 100 to one. But both scenarios can occur at the
same time if the woman conceives non-identical twins, another 100 to
one chance.

This involves two eggs being fertilized by two sperm at the same time, which also has odds of around 100 to one.

The odds of this happening are 100 x 100 x 100 — a million to one.