Ancient DNA reveals monozygotic newborn twins from the Upper Palaeolithic

[conuly]

Being a scientific paper, the writing is dry as hell but I want to take a moment to think about the grieving parents who, having buried one twin, still ended up having to bury the other. I hope they were able to get some comfort out of the idea that at least the brothers would be together. It's a sad image anyway.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

This article really gripped my heart. You're so right about the poignant humanity of the detail that one baby lived for ~50 days. 50 days of hope, then dashed.

[dragonlady7]

and then there's a first cousin tucked into the edge of the grave! I couldn't penetrate the scientific language enough to work out when the third infant was added to the site, though, if it was close to the same time or much later.

so poignant, and so amazing to be able to put together that much information.

[conuly]

I doubt they could pinpoint the date the third infant was added - they can tell the ages of the twins by looking at their development, and since they can tell they're twins it's pretty clear that they must have died within a short period of each other, but the cousin could have died years earlier or later.

[agoodwinsmith]

Thank you.