The Science of Sex – Lying Antelopes and Prehistoric Sex Toys

I found two articles this week that were too good to pass up. They’re completely unrelated, but who cares? They’ll definitely give you something to think about.

The first is an article on how male antelopes trick females into not straying far afield and thus increase their chances of mating with them. Apparently scientists have discovered that when male antelopes see ovulating females wandering away, the males will snort and act as though they sense a predator in the area. The females will then stick close to the male, rather than wander off to find someone new. In other words, male antelopes lie to keep their females close by. The bastards.

The second article talks about a stone tool that archaeologists believe was a combination sex toy and fire starter (uh-huh, I’ll bet). Apparently a siltstone phallus was discovered in Germany with markings on it that indicate it was used to strike against flint to start fires. However, the shape and polished surface also indicate it was used as a sex aid. I wish I could find more information on this (I just keep finding the same article over and over again), because I have about a million questions on this one, such as how does anyone know the phallus was used as a sex toy instead of a religious object or fetish object (not THAT kind of fetish, you perverts!)? And how are they certain that the notches in it are flint marks, and not some sort of decoration? I mean, it’s obviously a phallus. There’s no mistaking that. But how do they know anything about it beyond that?

So anyway, there’s some interesting tidbits for you to mull over. Remember, the purpose of the Science of Sex posts is to get you thinking about story ideas, so think of what you could do with these two articles. Frankly, I think there are some great sci-fi story possibilities here.