I have to check this shit out, see if there’s anything else offering evidence to support these statistics.

The vanquished or sacrificed twin theme from antiquity has a contemporary counterpart. Ultrasound technology has revealed that many twin pregnancies result in a single birth and that one of the twins is either absorbed into the body of the other twin or expelled unnoticed by the mother. Latest statistics suggest one in every six conceptions is a twin although only one out of every sixty births is a twin. This phenomenon is commonly known as the ‘vanishing twin’ syndrome. The sacrificed twin heralding birth is not only a mythic motif but also a biological reality:

“We are conceived as twins and, most of us, born single. We conceive of ourselves, from the start, as twins, then one disappears. Together, the First Twins struggle with forces primeval, opening a space in this world for us to tame horses, plough the land, survive the lightening; then one devours the other. The vanished twin leaves behind a body as dry and as thin as a fragment of papyrus.”