That Gatsby Look (or Stone Age Sex)

Scientists are puzzling over a new discovery regarding Stone Age sex: It seems that for every 17 women who reproduced at the time, just one man did the same.

The findings are based on an analysis of the DNA of 450 people from geographically diverse locations. Researchers compared Y-chromosome DNA, which is inherited only from our male forbears, with mitochondrial DNA, which comes from women.

Such analysis can show experts our numbers of male and female ancestors, and the mystery here is why these ancient numbers are so out of whack.

"It wasn't like there was a mass death of males," says Melissa Wilson Sayres of Arizona State University. "They were there, so what were they doing?" Her team has suggested that perhaps a few males accumulated a great deal of wealth, pushing out others when it came to reproduction.

As Danielle Paquette puts it at the Washington Post, "Survival of the fittest might have actually been survival of the richest." This would have occurred after the dawn of agriculture, suggesting that the top male reproducers were essentially the best farmers.

A mother is in the kitchen making dinner for her family when her daughter walks in. “Mother, where do babies come from?” The mother thinks for a few seconds and says, “Well dear, Mommy and Daddy fall in love and get married. One night they go into their bedroom, they kiss and hug, and have sex.” The daughter looks puzzled so the mother continues, “That means the daddy puts his penis in the mommy’s vagina. That’s how you get a baby, honey.” The child seems to comprehend. “Oh, I see, but the other night when I came into your room you had daddy’s penis in your mouth. What do you get when you do that?” “Jewellery, my dear. Jewellery.”

hugs and kisses

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