:: Pedantic Platitudes ::

:: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 ::

Random, Interesting, and Weird Facts on Biology, Sex, and Sociology:

There exists a "supercolony" of Argentine ants that stretches from the coast of Portugal all the way to Italy.
The sea squirt is like a tadpole with a brain looking for a home. When it finally finds a home, it anchors itself there and then eats its own brain because it requires too much energy to sustain the brain.
The female spotted hyena has a protrusion that looks like a phallus; when its first offspring is born, it comes through and breaks open the phallic structure.
The male angler, which is many times smaller than the female, fuses itself permanently to the female to provide sperm; it becomes a parasitic "living testicle."
The penis of a male bedbug can drill anywhere into the body of the female bedbug, and the sperm cells eventually reach the ovum.
The male earwig's penis breaks off and is left in the female earwig following copulation; it serves as a sperm plug.
A female peacock produces more eggs when it mates with a male peacock with a longer tail.
Right whales mate with the female on her back while two males extend their 12-foot long penises to copulate with her at the same time.
A male dolphin has a prehensile penis, meaning that it can wrap around objects.
Young male killer whales copulate with menopausal females.
The longest sperm in the animal kingdom: 6 cm coiled up in fruit fly.
Barely weaned male chimps practice copulation with females, including their mothers.
Male Gelada baboons mount each other and engage in mutual masturbation when they are in all-male groups.
In the highlands of New Guinea, "young men inseminate the boys nightly, so that they might grow." Semen is viewed as a life force in the culture. The young men eventually marry, but if they outlive their wives, they return to have sex with young boys.
Of the 24 spices used worldwide for food preparation, only two do not have antibacterial properties.
Human twins raised apart will still end up having very similar IQs.
Mothers and daughters tend to have the same menarche (first menstrual period for women) age.
Ten to fifteen percent of proclaimed biological fathers are not!
Individuals with only one sibling have a 51% probability of receiving a kidney from their sibling if needed; individuals with many siblings have a 0% probability.

Indeed, Evolution of Human Nature (AKA "Sex") was a wonderful class last semester.

:: SL 1:50 PM [+] ::
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