As the BBC reported earlier this week, the twins, named Cullen and Romulus, were discovered in South Africa by veterinarian Kurt De Cramer, who delivered them via Cesarean section.
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Vet Kurt de Cramer was performing a routine Caesarean section when he noticed something odd.
De Cramer found two living puppies in the same placenta – a first in his 26 years of veterinary practice.
University of Pretoria scientists made the shocking – yet incredibly adorable – discovery when their owner’s dog gave birth to two wolfhound puppies and took them to her local vet.
The little ones had two separate umbilical cords, and a reproductive specialist told BBC the puppies had “small differences in the white markings on their paws, chests and the tips of their tails”.
While this is the first time a pair of canine identical twins has been confirmed, identical twin puppies isn’t necessarily a rare occurrence, researchers say: “There have been rumors about twins in dogs before”, Carolynne Joone, one of the reproductive specialists working on the case, told BBC. See the cute identical twin puppies below.
De Cramer and his colleagues, who tested the pups’ DNA after birth to confirm their identical status, described their finding in a paper published last week in the journal Reproduction in Domestic Animals.
Although this is first recorded case of a monozygotic pair of puppies, as DNA tests are not typically performed on dogs even when puppies look strikingly similar, it is hard to know how rare it is.
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What is even more rare is the chances of identical puppies being born.
