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Updated: May 30, 2026

Enhanced Genetic Analysis of Single Human Bioparticles Recovered by Simplified Micromanipulation from Forensic ‘Touch DNA’ Evidence
Published on: March 9, 2015
Brief communication: Conjoined twins at angel mounds? an ancient DNA perspective
Charla Marshall1, Patricia A Tench, Della Collins Cook
1Department of Anthropology, Indiana University-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. ckmccorm@umail.iu.edu
Abstract:
Conjoined twins are born when a single fertilized egg partially splits into two fetuses. A hypothetical case of infant conjoined twins from Angel Mounds, a Middle Mississippian site (A.D. 1050-1400) on the Ohio River near Evansville, Indiana, was discovered in 1941. Morphological analysis does not rule out the field interpretation of this double burial as twins. Ancient mitochondrial DNA recovered from both infants demonstrates that they were not maternal relatives, and hence that they cannot have been conjoined twins.
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