How many eggs are released by a human ovary in a month? How many eggs do you think would have been released if the mother gave birth to identical twins? Would your answer change if the twins born were fraternal?
Explanation In mammals, ovulation is the phase in the menstrual cycle when an egg is released by the ovarian follicles. The egg is the female gamete and is also known as ova or oocyte that when fused with the male gamete, sperm forms a zygote. One egg fuses with one male gamete. This is known as fertilization. Thus, generally human female releases one egg per month from either of the ovary. In the case of identical twins, only one egg released from either of the ovary is fused with one sperm but the separation of early blastomeres takes place in the first zygotic cleavage. Identical offsprings share the same genetic characters. They are also known as monozygotic twins. In the case of fraternal twins, two eggs, one from each ovary, are fertilized by two separate sperms. Thus, both the offsprings born have different genes and are known as non-identical or fraternal twins. They are also known as multizygotic twins. Final Answer A human ovary releases one egg in a month. Only one egg was released if the mother gave birth to identical twins. The blastomeres were separated in the first cleavage of zygote to form separate offsprings. If the mother gave birth to fraternal twins indicates that two eggs, one from each ovary were released and fused with two separate sperm that forms two separate offsprings.
