By Stephen Dodd, via Mashable

Facebook has released a list of the 40 most shared stories of 2011 (well, the first 11 months, at least). We’ve collected the top 20 into the gallery above — check it out.

The topics range from sweet (twin baby boys conversing in gibberish) to serious (satellite photos examining the damages of the Japan earthquake).

There were some clear trends. Twelve of the stories relate to parenting or families, while three of the picks are viral videos. Another three are about Steve Jobs.

More suprisingly, all 40 of the stories come from just six online outlets: Yahoo has 13 stories, CNN has 11, theNew York Times has 7, The Huffington Post has 7, The Wall Street Journal has one and the Washington Posthas one.

Mashable‘s Pete Cashmore wrote the number seven story: You’ll Freak When You See the New Facebook, as one of his regular columns for CNN.

Most of the stories provide unique opinions, such as pieces on “Tiger Moms” and why women remain unmarried. Straight news coverage, however, didn’t fare so well. CNN‘s Steve Jobs, Apple Founder, Dies barely made the list at number 37).

You can see the complete list here.