According to a study published by
The Journal of Human Genetics that coined the term and reported its very first
case in the US in 2007, semi-identical twinning was described as being
somewhere between identical and non-identical twins. Only two cases of
semi-identical twinning have been recorded thus far, the most recent from
Australia being reported in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2014. A
28-year-old primigravida at the time (2014) underwent a routine ultrasound scan
at six weeks showing a single placenta and positioning of the amniotic sacs
suggestive of a monozygous pair. However, a subsequent scan at fourteen weeks
showed the fetuses were different genders, making it impossible for them to be
identical twins.
Aside from identical (monozygotic),
non-identical (fraternal/dizygotic), the lesser understood conjoined and polar
body (half-identical), scientists have discovered a different kind of twinning:
semi-identical or sesquizygotic twins.