Will these babies look the same?
If identical twins meet another set of identical twins and they have kids, will the babies all look the same?
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In a word, no. Genetics does not work that way because there are too many variables involved.
They will IF the kids are identical multiples, too.
(Regardless, even “identical” twins are not truly identical… there are always many differences, some more subtle than others.)
Negative. The families genes will kick in. the babies may pick up genes from the grandparents and beyond.
Their children will be siblings genetically, cousins by family definition. So they will look as similar as siblings always can look.
No.
Each child will inherit 50% of the genes from the mother and 50% from the father. Which genes these are will be different in each birth. Children from identical twins are thus not identical, any more than two different children from the same parents are identical.
Identical twins are identical in the first place because they are the result of one fertilized egg that has split.
@john65pennington
“The families genes will kick in. the babies may pick up genes from the grandparents and beyond.”
Not sure what you mean here. The babies cannot inherit genes that the parents do not already have. It’s just the combinations of those genes that will be different. This can allow recessive genes to be expressed- I am guessing that this is what you meant?
@crisw I think what @john65pennington was alluding to is the variation between genes in each sperm and egg. A man and his identical twin brother do not have all identical sperm, just as a woman and her identical twin sister do not have all identical eggs. If two sets of identical twins married, their children might look like the parents or they might look like other people in the family. Each set of parents carries genes in their sperm and eggs that may not be expressed in their own physical traits but could be expressed in the next generation.
But I expect you already knew all of this. :)
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@noelleptc Again, they are genetic siblings. Siblings like they came from the same biological parents.
Meaning the cousins all would be genetically like they came from the same biological parents. In terms of DNA every child of either set of the biological twin parents could genetically belong to either set of parents. If they had DNA tests science could not tell you which two were the parents, because both moms are genetically identical, and both dads are genetically identical.
I’m actually getting a lot having Googled “children of identical twins marrying identical twins.”
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