The creepy sisters from "The Shining" have got nothing on the village of Kodinhi in southwestern India. The remote community is home to 2,000 families, and over 300 sets of twins. The spooky phenomenon reportedly began 60 to 70 years ago, and last year alone, 300 successful births in the village resulted in 15 more sets of doubles. Officially, there are 250 groups of identical siblings in Kodinhi, but local doctor Krishnan Sribiju says there are also up to 100 unrecorded duos.
Even more eerily, India apparently has the lowest rate of twinning in the world: four instances per 1,000 births nationwide, in contrast to 45 per 1,000 in Kodinhi. Dr. Sribiju has ruled out pollution or genetics as the cause of what he calls a "natural" anomaly.
The twins themselves express a hope you might visit their village and "come and play with us. Forever ... and ever ... and ever."
Black And White Couple Have Black And White Twins...TwiceEnormous coincidence. (I-Am-Bored)
Ying-Yang Twins on Cribs TranslatedWha? (College Humor)
Celebrities with TwinsThat you never knew about. (The Chive)
We can only hope these twins will grow up to be as great-looking as some of the celeb sibling pairs.
Hot Celebrity Siblings
Flamenco dancer Monica Cruz (left) is every bit as spicy as her famous sister Penelope.
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Sienna's fashion designer sis Savannah Miller is an older version of the sexy starlet.
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Good genes + bad-girl tatoos - association with "The Hills" = Casey Patridge being even hotter than her sister Audrina.
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Amy McCarthy (right) has posed for Playboy like her famous sister, and is engaged to NHL hockey player Dan Hinote.
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Another celeb sibling who posed for Playboy, Dedee Pfeiffer. Little sis of Michelle looks like she doesn't much care for clothes in real life, either.
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La'Myia Good, along with sister Meagan, proves the whole family is actually Great.
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Hard to believe that neither Elisha Cuthbert's nor hot little sis Lee-Ann is related to Jack Bauer.
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Hot sister Lynda Lopez may be in the background to Jennifer, but she still demands attention.
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After seeing Claudia Schiffer with younger sister Ann Carolin, we have somehow managed to make room in our hearts for two Amazonian blondes at once.
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Dana Ferguson may not be as famous as sister Stacy, but she probably also doesn't pee her pants onstage..
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Read 10 things you should never say to twins here.
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Thursday 14 May
By himhst3
Identical twinning is a genetic and "natural" anomaly. I think that the doctor was misquoted. Adorable looking kids.
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Thursday 14 May
By cpatten219
Someone better check the water source in that village! It MUST be in the water?
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Thursday 14 May
By Lyn
I think that they are basically all related so twins run in the family. In small villages alot of the people just keep marrying into the same families over and over and I bet that is what you have here. Nothing spooky about it. Just alot of second counsins marrying second cousins.
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Thursday 14 May
By Lola McCord
Identical twinning doesn't "run in families," despite what so many anecdotally claim. If one thinks about the mechanics of identical twinning, this makes sense. Moreover, there is only weak family link with fraternal twinning and, for reasons that should be obvious, the link is maternal only. What we're hearing about in this article is nothing more than the beauty and mystery of natural phenomena.
Thursday 14 May
By Cam
Not many people know that identical twins can be caused by enzymes, if the eggs wants to split there is an enzyme that stops it, some women don't have it. Also some men have more of an enzyme in the sperm that can cause it to split, if the conditions are right couples (she is lacking the enzyme, he has more)will have more than one set of twins. Obviously these families are somewhat related in a small town, therefore the unusual amount of twins. I did a little research when my son had a set of identical twins and lost them. He wondered what his odds of having them again were.
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Thursday 14 May
By dmcinnis
Twins can and do run in families. Fraternal twins are the ones that run in families. That is when a woman ovulates more than one egg. Identical twins are random and just happen. They come from an egg that splits into two idetical halves. If the first person that commented rereads the article it says that the doctor said the twinning was not related to pollution or genetics. Not that genetics had anything to do with it as in the case of identical twins.
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Saturday 16 May
By silver
Wow Now lets hope Hollywood actresses dont find out. They will all start to migrate there. It will start a new trend. Nolonger carrying dog but lets see who can have the most identical sets of twins
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Thursday 14 May
By Yon
Richland-Pasco in Washington state also has a high incidence of twins. Probably due to the existence of "the area" nearby which contains some 47 nuke reactors. No one glows in the dark though. Should send Sierra and Greenpiss there to be lynched by residents who receive cheap electrical energy.
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Thursday 14 May
By Barbara
I have identical twins. My sister got pregnant six months after me with identical twins. My father had identical twin cousins. No other twins we know of. I do remember reading in one of many books that there was a high case of identical twins in one small country where they ate a lot of yams. I always wondered if that has anything to do. It would be interesting to see what their diet consists of. When my sister asked me about getting pregnant with identical twins I told her what I read and she ate yams. Funny....it worked. (well who knows really)
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Thursday 14 May
By Barbara
I commented above above about having identical twins and my sister having them. I don't take offense to much, but this was the second article I read on AOL in the last few days that was on their news about identical twins being "creepy". How about "incredible". There is nothing creepy about them. In fact they are beautiful children. I don't dress them alike, don't parade them around, they have different hair cuts because it's what they want and have never put them in the same class so they can have their own friends. Even if I didn't do all these things and made them the "same", they would still be two different people entirely. They just look alike. I just find the comment mean.
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Thursday 14 May
By Larry
Al Gore and Global warming is to blame !
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Thursday 14 May
By Kat
It makes sense in a couple of ways. Remote location. Either there's something enviornmental causing eggs to split more often or they're just incredibly inbred (in a biological sense, not being judgmental here) which is going to make a mutation more likely to express itself. It's not really that different from the higher instance of albinism in Zuni Indians. For that matter, they go out of their way to select albino partners whenever possible and something similar could be going on here as well. Certain forms of biological edge just give certain individuals more reproductive fitness than those around them. We all select for traits in those we chose to reproduce with and, if you want fertile (which itself translates into HEALTHY) a woman with a family-history of twins makes good sense.
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Thursday 14 May
By jbjg24m
blame anybody u want to !!
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Thursday 14 May
By Lynn
India, huh? I thought for sure this was going to be Hollywood CA! Is there any pregnant celebrity who is not having twins these days? I think that is gross & sick. How many babies are they killing so they can be cute and have twins?
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Friday 15 May
By Fran
This allows them to trade one for a cow.
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