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From conventional wisdom, we know that in humans twinning results from one of two possible events: The mother's ovaries release two oocytes (eggs) and two sperm from the father fertilize each the eggs = dizygotic or fraternal twins. The ovaries release one oocyte and it is fertilized by one sperm; however, the zygote (the fertilized egg) splits into two separate embryos = monozygotic or identical twins . Since fraternal twins come from completely unique gametes (sperm and egg), fraternal twins can be of opposite sex or the same sex. For example, if a sperm carrying a Y chromosome fertilized one oocyte and another sperm carrying an X chromosome fertilized the other (remember: the oocytes from the mother all carry one X chromosome) the result would be one boy (XY) and one girl (XX) fetus. If sex chromosomes from each sperm were both X chromosomes, both fetuses would be female. Similarly, if both spermatozoa carried Y chromosomes, the resulting fetuses would both be
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