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These days it seems like every time you turn around there’s another set of twins cruising the park in a double stroller, but other than offering up a double dose of cute, what do twins tell us about human nature? Jeanna Bryner at LiveScience has collected some fascinating research on twins that you might not have known.

1. Mothers of twins live longer

In a study published in May 2011 based on records from Utah in the 1800s, it appears that mothers of twins lived longer, though the researchers aren’t sure if the same is true today in the age of in vitro fertilization:

But that’s not because the double duty increases a mother’s life span. Rather, she is physically stronger to begin with, the researchers found. As such, giving birth to twins may be an evolutionary adaptation in which healthy moms take the opportunity to pass on double their genes in one shot.

2. Dogs have an uncanny ability to sniff out the right twin

Research from a team in the Czech Republic published in June showed that while humans can be duped by identical twins, dogs don’t have the same problem.

…[I]n their study, they used 10 highly trained police dogs, which went through 12 tests, all of which involved the German shepherds sniffing a swab taken from the bellies of sets of identical and fraternal twins and then finding a matching scent from seven possibilities. The dogs aced the tests, picking out the correct match every time. The researchers, who described their study online June 15, 2011, in the journal PLoS ONE, aren’t sure what the dogs are using to ID the twins, but perhaps infections and other outside factors that can change an individual’s odor play a role.

3. Height and age impact the likelihood of having twins

Thanks to having “…more of an insulin-like growth factor” women of above-average height are more likely to deliver multiples according to a study conducted at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

And even though they might not have quite as much youthful vigor to scamper in two directions at once, women over the age of thirty-five are more likely to release two eggs at one time increasing the chance of having twins.

Full story at LiveScience.

Double the pleasure.

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