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In Manhasset, New York, identical triplets, boys, were born last Wednesday at North Shore University Hospital — an event so rare that an obstetrician estimated it might happen just once in 200 million births - one in 60,000 births. He acknowledged it might never had happened ever before in the history of the world, and, therefore, is impossible to know.

The triplets' mother, Allison Penn, was impregnated with just one embryo through in vitro fertilization, said Dr. Victor Klein, a specialist in multiple births and high risk pregnancies who delivered the boys.

"The embryo split in half and then one half of that split again," he said. "This is the first one we're aware of in the literature in the country in which they only put back one embryo and a woman gave birth to triplets," he continued. "We're excited about the implications of a split-split pregnancy."

"Most people put back two or three embryos and you just never know. Like nature itself, it's a crap shoot. This one....whoa! That's a lot of biology right there."

Klein said identical triplets are born at a rate between one in 60,000 and one in 200 million, depending on the research - or "intelligent guessing," as it is referred to in the scientific community, accounting for the wide spread in the estimate.

Tom Penn, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, estimates that the family will go through 10,000 diapers a year. Mr. Penn's, who was standing around watching, made the calculation while waiting for his wife's delivery.

To help tell them apart, the boys have a dot of maroon nail polish on their fingers. Logan Thomas, who weighed 4 pounds, 12 ounces, has a mark on his thumb; Eli Kirkwood, a 4-pounder, has polish on his forefinger, and Collin McGuire, at 4 pounds, 11 ounces, has a mark on his middle finger. Except for Logan, who may have a problem with a non-functioning kidney, all the children are healthy, doctors said.

"Non-functioning kidneys pose no real health threat," said one intern. "Logan, Eli, and Collin should be just fine."

The father punched the intern in the face.

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