Canadutch
I was reading one of my turtle forums yesterday and someone showed a photo of a two headed turtle. This isn’t as rare as you’d think, and from what I gather from the forums these turtles actually live and thrive if they end up in the right hands.
Anyhow, then someone mentioned how many living things can survive with two heads, and talked about the twins in this video:
Pretty amazing really. What is more amazing is that almost everyone I’ve mentioned it to knew about them long before I did… How did so many people I know know about these girls and not tell me? They know I love weird stuff like this!
I watched this video so many times. I think it’s their coordination that gets me. Each of them controlling one arm and one leg, and yet their body looks like just one person. I guess they’ve had 16 years to get it right but still!
They have two spines that merge at their waist, two hearts that share one circulatory system, four lungs, two stomachs and one reproductive system. Basically from the waist down they have one of everything.
I wonder things, I can’t help it!
Like, when they have to go poo… how do they know? Are both their brains alerted or does one know and has to tell the other? Who gets stuck with wiping?
What happens if one of them falls in love and gets married? He’d be having sex with both of them. What if they both got married? Would they all live together in one big happy household?
It’s the poo thing that sticks with me though. Maybe it’s because I’m seriously poo-phobic, I don’t know. I hate going ‘number two’ in public toilets or whenever anyone is in my house (other than hubby), and after almost 7 years of marriage I’d still punch him if he walked in while I was doing it.
I can’t imagine having another person there, even if we do share an ass.
First time I’ve seen this, and I never knew about them either. That is not only weird, but totally bizarre. The questions running through your mind were running through mine too, especially the “number two” one. I Know since coming to live in Holland I’ve been a LOT more open minded.. and things like this make me realize just how much. My mind starts wandering and I NEED answers cause I’m intrigued! :P
Mandy
I saw the entire documentary on TLC (The Learning Channel), and it was really interesting. I wondered about stuff too – obviously they would have to attend the same university, but what if only 1 was accepted? High school would be easy enough to take the same stuff, but if they had different classes in uni, they would both have to attend all of them. I have no sound on this PC, so if that was covered in the video, please fill me in! It was fun watching how excited they were when they took their driving test.
They seem pretty well-adjusted for their situation. I’m sure they’re quite used to the staring and people rubbernecking when they’re around, but they seem to have the logistics sorted out. Maybe they have a website and have an FAQ section you can check out :P
How come I could never meet local expats when I was in R’dam? Would have made life much more acceptable!
I stumbled across your website via expatica.com (old habits die hard!)
Must remember to bookmark this when I get home.
Wow, I didn’t know about this either, don’t feel left out. You know I love this weird stuff too.
Going poo would be really awkward, but I’m betting that they’re pretty used to it by now. But that is a good question though.
I’ve heard of conjoined twins that are married, and they seem to be ok. But in this situation, it’s gotta be special, right? You’re right, it seems to be a conundrum. Wow, this is really weird.