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The Morbidly Fascinating Page

On this month's Morbidlly Fascinating Page:

Chimeras--those that absorb their own twin in the womb

IN THE ARCHIVES:

Lizzie Borden
Rasputin
Voodoo in New Orleans
Screaming Mummies
Vampire Slaying Kit
Willows Weep

WHAT IS A CHIMERA?

A chimera is essentially a single organism that's made up of cells from two or more "individuals"—that is, it contains two sets of DNA, with the code to make two separate organisms.

One way that chimeras can happen naturally in humans is that a fetus can absorb its own twin. This can occur with fraternal twins, if one embryo dies very early in pregnancy, and some of its cells are "absorbed" by the other twin. The remaining fetus will have two sets of cells, its own original set, plus the one from its twin.

These individuals often don't know they are a chimera, because you cannot tell on the outside. Chimeras used to be thought of as rare, but once DNA testing became the norm, it is now found that it is not rare at all, especially in families prone to having twins.

In most humans, you cannot tell if they are a Chimera unless you do a DNA anlysis, because it is not obvious on the outside.

Sometimes you can tell from the outside that Chimerism is occurring, by different eye colors or by differnt fur markings that seem to be separated by an invisible line.

BELOW ARE PHOTOS OF OBVIOUS CHIMERAS

HUMAN

taylor

cat1

cat 2

bunny

rodent

horse

2

3

Chimera is pronounced

Ki-MERE-ah

ancient

In Greek mythology, a chimera was a fire-breathing creature with physical traits of a lion, goat, and dragon. In human beings, a chimera is a person who has two totally different sets of DNA inside their body.

ARE THERE ANY RECORDS OF REAL HUMAN CHIMERAS?

In 2002, news outlets reported the story of a woman named Karen Keegan, who needed a kidney transplant and underwent genetic testing along with her family, to see if a family member could donate one to her. But the tests suggested that genetically, Keegan could not be the mother of her sons. The mystery was solved when doctors discovered that Keegan was a chimera—she had a different set of DNA in her blood cells compared to the other tissues in her body.

Probably the best-known case was Lydia Fairchild.

Coincidently, also in 2002, Lydia Fairchild was a proud mother who faced the most unusual of challenges. She had to fight in court to prove the children born from her body were her own.

"I knew that I carried them, and I knew that I delivered them. There was no doubt in my mind," Fairchild said.

Fairchild's fight for her kids began when she was 26-years-old, unemployed and applying for public assistance in Washington state. Everyone in her family had to be tested to prove they were all related. The Department of Social Services called Fairchild and told her to come in immediately. 

The DNA test results challenged everything she knew about her family. Yes, her boyfriend was the father of the children, and, yes, they were all related, according to the DNA, except for Fairchild. She was told she wasn't the mother.

See how it turned out for Fairchild HERE

Learn about Taylor Muhl HERE

COULD A CHIMERA BE COMPOSED OF BOTH MALE AND FEMALE DNA?

A hermaphrodite chimera is a variant of a tetragametic chimera where a female embryo is merged with a male embryo, and the resultant chimera will have both male and female specific markers in their body. To a greater or lesser degree, they will also possess ambiguous genitalia. 

This can only occur with fraternal twins, which is a result of embryos developing from separate fertilized ova. Fraternal twins are genetically distinct and not necessarily of the same sex and they can look like siblings, but are not identical.